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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 1999)
outhern Baptists expel churches or allowing homosexual weddings 10 • Wednesday. Never.j SPORTS INB &M signs t—— ational pro<' Nick Anderson an<j| ott, teammates atf b University H ton Rouge. La., ve signed tional letters- intent to play sketball at <as A&M, m's basketball ach Melvin itkins said ?sday. Anderson, a 6- it 7 inch forward, ar;ptist Convention that it has taken I oot 1 inch guard, co^:h action. The convention changed ;ond straight oy; constitution last year to exclude ruiting class by Waingregations that “affirm, approve staff, who last yea--ndorse homosexual behavior.” ss that ranked amo r “It's a heartbreaking thing to be nationally. t in a situation where you have to Anderson, ranked as^e a decision like this,” the Rev. prospect in the c: !ra ld Harris, president of the Geor- ■ Sporting News, is: 1 Baptist Convention, said. “We hest rated national A decided to draw the line.” M history. Texas is the only other Southern rpe Sporting He l P tist state convention to expel a lerson a ' world cli?™ 1 ! ov “ *e issue of homosexu- > is relentless «ith* V the fev-Richard Land pres.- .skuif .‘ n t of the Southern Baptist Con- ^ ntion’s ethics and religious liberty insive rebounds. K issioni said . T he national con- jeott is ranked amorjinlo,! expelled two North Caroli- lugh school P r ospec!i lc } 1lll - c |- ies j n the early ’90s forsim- en point guards in hr reasons. Regional Basketball N ATION Page 11 » Tuesday. November 17. 1999 ^kCON, Ga. (AP) — Georgia’s |uthern Baptists voted overwhelm- 1™ yesterday to expel two church- [tliat let homosexuals serve as lead- i and allowed a gay wedding. ( The ouster of Oakhurst Baptist of catur and Virginia Highland Bap- 't of Atlanta marked the first time in 5177-year history of the Georgia Elsewhere yesterday, a split be tween conservative and liberal fac tions within California’s Southern Baptists was clear as delegates gath ered in Sacramento to decide whether to drop “Southern” from their name. 'We just decided to draw the fine." — The Rev. Gerald Harris Georgia Baptist Convention In Georgia, about 20 percent to 30 percent of Oakhurst Baptist’s con gregation is gay or lesbian, the Rev. Mary Sue Brookshire said. In addi tion, Oakhurst’s assistant pastor, the Rev. Chris Copeland, is openly gay. Oakhurst and Virginia Highland Baptist also have gay deacons. Also, Virginia Highland allowed an outside pastor to use its church for a gay wedding, although its own clergy did not participate. The Rev. Tim Shirley of Virginia Highland said his church believes “its ministry and mission is to serve all who come.” “We just disagree about the na ture of sexuality,” Shirley said. “We do not believe that sexuality is a choice. It’s an orientation. That’s how you were born.” The Georgia Baptist Convention said it could no longer tolerate churches that ordained homosexual people as deacons or performed same-sex marriage ceremonies. “We know that they do not value the Holy Scriptures as a great majority of Southern Baptists do,” Harris said. The vote to oust Oakhurst was 2,086 to 262, and the vote on Virginia Highland was 2,111 to 228. In Califor nia, opponents of the proposed name change said it shows a softening of a conservative movement within the church. Supporters said it was sim ply a way to attract more members. Terry Barone, a spokesperson for the California Southern Baptist Con vention, said it was intended to pre vent confusion because the word “Southern” was used “to distin guish ourselves from the American Baptists at one time.” 3LLEYBALL .awyers argue monetary value of Nixon’s items ior y/ASHINGTON CAP) — Thousands of dollars for esident Nixon’s handwritten self- ntinued from Pa^tHtwmes. Several hundred thousand 1 middle blocker ,r | is “ l am not a quBter” resigna- I'urrentlv | ei an speech. Millions more for his se mi blocks per r e f ta P e recordings. Add it all up, wyers representing the former pres- “■filt’s estate told a court yesterday, / nd it is worth $35.5 million plus mil- ons more in compounded interest. |lot so, the government said. The iixon estate lawyers’ estimated val- >ectiv ’earn also ior er highs held by outside Summer NIXON ckiand, who veraging 3.93 1 per game, sophomore er Jenna es of Nixon items are based on a “mythical, magical, lake-believe world of their dreams,” Neil Koslowe, a ustice Department lawyer, told U.S. District Judge John .Sett Penn. ' festerday was the finale of a lengthy trial to determine low much — if anything — the government should pay covic, who is avera^ixon’s heirs for the more than 40 million pages of doc- m per game. aments, 3,700 hours of tape recordings, photos and oth- ven with the hor^r items it confiscated when Nixon resigned, ning streak and Bij Former White House Counsel John Dean and Alexan- es on the line, Border Butterfield, die Nixon aide who spilled the beans Aggies are handling .about Nixon’s secret tape-recording system, testified at 1 extremely well. he trial, as did scores of historians and archivists. Tiie team wants it bad!\^Jfhe estate says it wants $35.5 million, plus millions in it a big win over Kj Corbelii said, T th ? tliey get the jitters out lining, they’ll fim hm and execute well. M their level of expel know how to bar of pressure and g it very well.’’ lSKETBALL tinned from Page 9 play to that point: de isity. ’d by their doctor of >r Aaron Jack, the ed their way to wit is, 68-64, with six ining in the contest ck dived for a loose play, inadvertently wo All-Stars in the re knocking the sophomore lerman, who layed kggies. le late effort w gh, however, and held off the Aggie inder of the contest, atherman, who ?s with 18 points ; m for the loss was si ^e played half a terman said. “We a total game.” :e All-Stars’ Jeron ill scorers with 21 ’ Brown contriM s and 10 rebounds 's’ cause, an effort o unnoticed by A&) etball coach ins. we can get those >ers every night, /,” Watkins said of rmance. itkins said unliketlie| xhibition opponent, Ail-Stars provided 'w of what kind o s can expect to g (lie regular season, hey are much mot* we will face in the n than the [Califoi ,” he said.’’Hopeh ike that and turn ve.” )wn said the e) showed the Agj olenty of room toil 'e still have a lot mprovement,” i ’s why we havethi games, so we ‘ guys are at.” ? Aggies, who finis i 1-1, will open the i Nov. 27 against na A&T at Reed Are interest. If the judge placed a $30 million value on the ma terials, for example, the total compensation, including in terest, compounded annually, would be roughly $210 mil lion, according to Nixon estate lawyer R. Stan Mortenson. Justice Department lawyers remain opposed to any compensation. But they say if something must be paid, a fair value would be no more than $2.2 million. “The court should put an end to this attempt by the Nixon estate to obtain a windfall from the taxpayers,” the government said in its post-trial brief. To underscore the material’s historical value, Mortenson replayed a video of Nixon making his res ignation speech. The teary-eyed president’s words to the nation on Aug. 8, 1974, broke the silence in the courtroom: “I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is complete is abhorrent to every in stinct in my body. ... Therefore I shall resign the presi dency effective at noon tomorrow.” Drafts and the actual copy of the speech in Nixon’s hand as he announced his resignation would have sold for $200,000 to $300,000, according to appraisers hired by the estate. Even tapes containing Nixon’s embar rassing ethnic slurs would have been valuable, he said. Koslowe, the government’s lawyer, argued Nixon in tended his materials to be preserved as a historical archive for researchers.