The tie that binds

A group of religious leaders two weeks ago met with Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening and told him that the government--not the church--is primarily responsible for helping the poor. Religious leaders, they said, are overburdened with their soup kitchens and other programs and can assume no additional responsibilities.

According to the Maryland secretary of state's office, there are 53,253 families, or 185,083 individuals, receiving welfare payments in that state. There are more than 5,000 places of worship in Maryland. So, if every place of worship became responsible for just 10 families, or 37 individuals, the welfare rolls in Maryland could be wiped clean. Bigger churches could handle more, smaller ones less. Put this way, the end of welfare as we know it is within our grasp.

But if churches see the poor as a burden and the state as primarily responsible for helping, they are rejecting one of their fundamental mandates and opportunities. Ministering to the poor provides reciprocal blessings. Too many churches today appear more interested in preserving their programs and institutions than in taking on the role of servant, emulating the Leader they profess to know and follow.

Maryland officials should send a computer printout to all 5,000 places of worship in the state, informing them of those in their communities on welfare. The state grants certain tax breaks to religious bodies, expecting them to perform work that the state cannot or should not do. If church leaders think government ought to be the primary provider for the poor, perhaps the state ought to be asking the churches to help foot the bill.

One of the excuses given by the Maryland clergy for not doing more is that many of the poor have no ties to a church. Whose fault is that? It is an indictment of churches and an incentive to do more than sing Blest Be the Tie That Binds.

The federal and state governments are providing an opportunity to places of worship to reclaim their mandate and to bankrupt the poverty industry, which has grown large and bureaucratic primarily because churches and their enormous membership have withdrawn from the privilege of serving God by redeeming the poor.

© 1996, Los Angeles Times Syndicate

Falling down

On Friday the 13th, Commerce secretary-designate William Daley fainted and hit the floor as President Clinton was introducing him to the press at the White House (Mr. Daley was OK; he hadn't had lunch). Two days later, out for a Sunday jog, Mr. Clinton slipped on the rain-slick sidewalk near the Jefferson Memorial and fell. A Secret Service agent grabbed the presidential arm in an effort to break the fall, but ended up falling himself. The president walked it off and resumed the jog, but the week of Dec. 15 didn't improve much. That day's London Sunday Telegraph carried the charge of former presidential aide David Watkins that both the president and first lady had carried on adulterous affairs while at the White House. The Sunday Washington Post carried a front-page story about White House sleepovers that were strictly business. The Post story said, "So many big-money donors have slept at the White House in recent years that one Clinton fundraiser likens the executive mansion to a Motel 6."

The week brought more detail on the relationship between the president and Charles Yah Lin Trie, the Taiwanese-American restaurateur-turned-investment broker who donated $600,000 from questionable sources to the Clintons' legal defense fund. Presidential aides confirmed that since 1993, Mr. Trie has attended seven presidential events (one as recently as two weeks ago) at the White House; they couldn't explain why the Little Rock-based businessman had been cleared into the White House 37 times but showed up in the entry logs only 23 times. Earlier, legal defense fund trustees confirmed they returned the entire $600,000 shortly after Mr. Trie dropped off two manila envelopes containing $460,000 for the fund--sometime last spring. The trustees had questions about the origin of the funds and sent it back. But two weeks after the envelopes were dropped off, Mr. Clinton appointed Mr. Trie to the President's Commission on U.S.-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy.

The Iranian arms trade--in particular, knowledge of and tacit approval of shipments of weapons to Bosnia--may hang up Mr. Clinton's appointment of National Security Adviser Anthony Lake to the top job at the CIA. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who is slated to become chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on ABC's This Week that he was troubled by Mr. Lake's "duplicitous" policy on Bosnia; Mr. Lake failed two years ago to mention to a congressional committee the Iranian arms shipments. Mr. Clinton Dec. 16 admitted fault in misleading Congress about the arms shipments as the administration publicly helped enforce an arms embargo against the Bosnian Muslims; the president said, however, that shouldn't keep Mr. Lake from assuming the leadership of the spy agency.

The spy who loved me

Earl Edwin Pitts's wife turned against him, and on Dec. 18 the 13-year veteran of the FBI was charged with spying for Russia. Mr. Pitts, 43, became only the second FBI agent charged with espionage. His arrest, announced by the top officials of the Justice Department (including Attorney General Janet Reno, who last week learned she would be able to keep her job), was for allegedly selling the FBI's "Soviet Administrative List," a compilation of Soviet officials in the United States with known or suspected spy posts, for which he allegedly was paid $224,000. According to the FBI, Mr. Pitts's espionage began in July 1987. The arrest was helped by the cooperation of Mr. Pitts's wife, who was an FBI clerk. After suspecting her husband was a spy, Mrs. Pitts told superiors and agreed to participate in the sting operation the FBI says was the key to catching him.

Don't forget your Coats

Term-limits proponent and outspoken Christian conservative Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) Dec. 16 announced he would not seek reelection in 1998. The 53-year-old senator said he did not want to be a career politician: "I want to leave when I am young enough to contribute somewhere else--young enough to resume a career outside government." Mr. Coats has served in the Senate since 1989, when the then-congressman was appointed to fill the seat held by Dan Quayle.

Arctic Express

Days before winter officially arrived on Dec. 21, a big blast of bitterly cold air swept through the plains states and headed south. Sixty mile-per-hour winds created blizzard-like conditions in Colorado,Wyoming, Nebraska, Minnesota, and the Dakotas. Temperatures in parts of the upper plains fell to almost 30 below zero. Even as far south as Florida, the mercury dropped into the teens. Subzero temperatures were recorded in Texas and Louisiana.

Do not adjust your set

Television executives--responding to congressional and parental concerns about sex, violence, and foul language on the tube--unveiled a plan Dec. 19 to offer on-screen ratings. Response from industry critics was underwhelming. "A fig leaf," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). The Federal Communications Commission will study the new ratings guidelines. If regulators don't like what they see, the FCC may appoint an independent advisory board to develop an alternate system.

"High" school teens

Illegal drug use among teens continues to rise, according to a government study released Dec. 19. Leading the way: a resurgence in the use of marijuana. Although the level of marijuana use is still below record levels of the late '70s--when 50 percent of high school seniors said they had used the drug--the gap is narrowing. Today, 36 percent of high school seniors say they have smoked marijuana, up from 22 percent just five years ago. Also trending upward: use of heroin, cocaine, and amphetamine stimulants.

Cognitive dissonance

In a medical first, doctors reported a successful bone marrow transplant on a child still in the womb. The transplant, which occurred almost two years ago, was made public in the Dec. 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Doctors said the successful transplant cured an immune deficiency disorder that would have been more difficult to treat after birth.

Meanwhile, the nation's largest doctors group decided not to take an immediate stand on "partial-birth abortion," the controversial procedure in which a child is "aborted" after being partially delivered, rather than in the womb. Delegates at the American Medical Association's midterm meeting voted to appoint a study group to examine the issue and present a report at the group's annual meeting in June. Earlier this year, Congress passed a bill to ban partial-birth abortions, but the legislation was killed by President Clinton's veto. The AMA's general policy supports current abortion-on-demand law, even though doctor-induced abortion is prohibited specifically by the Hippocratic Oath.

Sudden impact

An out-of-control 70,000-ton freighter slammed into a busy riverfront shopping mall in New Orleans Dec. 15, injuring more than 100 people. Destroyed in the accident: stores, restaurants, and a parking deck. Frightened holiday shoppers had about three minutes to flee once they saw the ship bearing down. Most of the injured were trampled while trying to scramble to safety. The freighter, which had lost power because of an oil pump breakdown, narrowly missed two cruise ships docked along the wharf.

Breach of faith?

More than a year after she disappeared without a trace, the plot thickened in the mystery of just what happened to America's most famous atheist, Madalyn Murray O'Hair. The San Antonio Express-News reported that about the time Ms. O'Hair disappeared last year, along with one of her sons and an adopted daughter, more than $600,000 also disappeared from two atheist groups she then controlled. The revelation, contained in tax records filed by the United Secularists of America and American Atheists, Inc., directly contradicts their earlier claims that no money was missing. Other evidence uncovered by the newspaper suggested the missing trio may have gone to New Zealand. In 1963, Ms. O'Hair won a lawsuit that led to the outlawing of school-sponsored prayer in public schools.

In brief

America's two biggest aerospace companies flew into each other's arms Dec. 15. Long-time competitors Boeing and McDonnell Douglas announced a $13.3 billion merger that will create a company with about 70 percent of the world's commercial aircraft market.

A troubled, self-described missionary released in late November after being held by North Korea on spy charges was found shot to death in a Washington state hotel, an apparent suicide. North Korean authorities had arrested Evan Carl Hunziker in August, accusing him of being a spy for South Korea. He claimed he was missionary and had entered North Korea to preach the gospel. Mr. Hunziker had a history of trouble with alcohol and drugs and was facing possible jail time in the U.S. for previous arrests. He was 26.

Held hostage

Members of a Marxist guerrilla group, some apparently posing as waiters, stormed a Dec. 16 reception given by the Japanese ambassador to Peru, taking as many as 700 hostages at the ambassador's residence in Lima. Over the next several days, a number of hostages were released for medical and other reasons, but heading into the weekend, an estimated 375 people, including six Americans, still were being held. Hostage takers demanded release of jailed comrades held in Peruvian prisons. The New York Times reported Peru had failed to act on warnings--received in seized documents and from other sources--that rebels were planning such a raid.

Death and destruction

The Red Cross evacuated all its remaining foreign employees from Chechnya Dec. 17, after six of the organization's aid workers were shot and killed in their sleep by unknown assailants. It was the worst single attack ever on the Red Cross. The breakaway Chechen republic has just ended two years of war with Russia, from which it is seeking independence. Now, according to The New York Times, "lawlessness and violence" rule. The Red Cross hospital in Chechnya had treated 1,900 people since it opened in September.

The big lie

Despite protests from human rights activists and many congressional Republicans, the man who ordered Chinese troops to attack unarmed student demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 was welcomed to the U.S. Dec. 9, given military honors, and allowed to meet with President Clinton and outgoing Defense Secretary William Perry. The two-day Washington visit by Gen. Chi Haotian, China's defense minister, was aimed at mending strained U.S.-China relations.

At a reception in his honor, Gen. Chi defended the Tiananmen attack and claimed no one had been killed in the incident, contradicting eyewitness and videotaped accounts. Western intelligence officials have said the death toll was well into the hundreds, if not thousands. Even an official Chinese government evaluation of the incident put the death toll at more than 200. A spokesman for Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, characterized Gen. Chi's remarks as "appalling," comparing them to Josef Stalin's denial that millions were being killed under Soviet rule. There was no comment from the White House.

New U.N. order

Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan was chosen Dec. 17 as the new secretary-general of the United Nations, replacing Egyptian Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Mr. Annan has been the head of U.N. peacekeeping operations.