04/04/05

LC050404

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

This Southern California church is at the center of an
international dispute. What's causing the division?

Jill Austin>> In the scripture, it says in Hebrews that He is
the same yesterday, today and forever. I began to ask why all
of a sudden are things changing? What was good two thousand
years ago is not the same today.

Val>> And then, raising the roof to raise morale. How this
unlikely impresario gets the stars to entertain the troops.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Religious history is replete with cases of splits and
division. The most famous, of course, was King Henry VIII
breaking away from the Catholic Church. We are now witnessing a
split within the Episcopal Church over the issue of
homosexuality. As NewsHour correspondent, Jeffrey Kaye,
explains, the rift is happening right here in Southern
California where several congregations are realigning with
church leadership a continent away.

[Film Clip]

Jeffrey Kaye>> St. James Church in affluent, predominantly
Republican Newport Beach, California is a place one wouldn't
normally associate with rebellion and radical change. But St.
James is a house of worship in revolt. In August, it severed
its ties with the 2.3 million member strong Episcopal Church of
the United States. That's the American branch of the Worldwide
Anglican Communion. For fifty-eight years, the parish was part
of the Diocese of Los Angeles. Now, say its lay leaders, their
bishop is eleven time zones away. Where's your home now?

>> Uganda.

Jim Dale>> Uganda is our home. Our bishop is Bishop Kisekka.
Our Archbishop is Bishop Henry Orombi. We are part of the
Diocese of Luweero and that's home.

Jeffrey Kaye>> Parish leaders say the Anglican Church in
Africa, which they joined, is more willing to uphold what they
see as traditional Christian values. They complained that the
United States Episcopal Church wants to mirror American culture.

Jill Austin>> In the scripture, it says in Hebrews that He is
the same yesterday, today and forever. I began to ask why all
of a sudden are things changing? What was good two thousand
years ago is not the same today.

Jim Dale>> If Christianity is going to move to the culture and
flow with the culture, it's not Christianity. It's not
Christianity.

Jeffrey Kaye>> St. James is one of three parishes in Southern
California to formally leave the Episcopal Church. Nationwide,
between twenty and a hundred other parishes, depending on who's
counting, have split from the church. That's out of more than
seven thousand parishes. The long-simmering revolt gathered
steam in August 2003 after church leaders voted to consecrate
the ordination of a gay bishop, V.G. Robinson of New Hampshire,
and to approve the blessing of same-sex marriages.

[Film Clip]

Jeffrey Kaye>> The Reverend Praveen Bunyan, Rector of St.
James, says tolerance of homosexuality represents a symptom of a
larger problem, what he sees as the Episcopal Church's
increasing failure to adhere to biblical orthodoxy.

Reverend Praveen Bunyan>> I pray for Robinson. I pray for all
the people. It is nothing personal. I do not hate anybody or I
do not dislike anybody. I pray for all people, but as a church,
are we upholding the authority of scripture? Are we upholding
the laws of Jesus Christ? From these two basic tenets, the
Episcopal Church has been going astray, going away, while the
rest of the Anglican community has remained faithful to this
historic teaching.

Jeffrey Kaye>> To outside observers, there are few obvious
indications of change at St. James. The liturgy and the
vestments remain the same, but signs now read "Anglican" instead
of "Episcopal" and dues that once went to the head of the Los
Angeles Episcopal Diocese now go to Bishop Evans Kisekka whose
cathedral is in a town forty miles from the capital of Uganda.
St. James leaders say that, in the global south, Anglicans
practice a purer form of Christianity than the American
Episcopal Church.

Jim Dale>> There's nothing left here now, so let's look
overseas. Let's look at the growth and vitality and excitement
of Christianity in Africa or the southern hemisphere where
Christianity is growing and exploding because we took the bible
to those countries and they believe it and they have put that to
heart and they've seen the power of the bible and the power of
the Gospel transforming lives in those countries and we want to
be a part of that.

Jeffrey Kaye>> J. Jon Bruno, Bishop of the Los Angeles Diocese
of the Episcopal Church, is on the other side of this issue.

Bishop J. Jon Bruno>> I think that fundamentalism is the reason
for this ism.

Jeffrey Kaye>> Bruno says the interpretation of scripture must
be flexible and evolutionary.

Bishop J. Jon Bruno>> We're making assumptions that our way is
the right way. We even did that in this country with slavery
when we tried to prove the importance of how the white majority
had privilege because it was intended by God, but I do believe
that the worldwide consensus of fundamentalism that's having a
rise is a major problem. If Jesus gave us memory, intellect and
reason, shouldn't we use all those things and not just go by a
book or roadmap that is so rigidly interpreted by some people
that it leaves a gulf between us?

Jeffrey Kaye>> Last month, a group of conservative
Episcopalians held a vigil outside a Salt Lake City hotel where
one hundred forty church leaders attended a semi-annual Bishops'
meeting. The dissenters stood in the cold to show support for
the conservative bishops inside.

>> "We pray for unity in your holy church."

Jeffrey Kaye>> Inside the closed-door meeting, conservative
bishops pushed for a formal statement, one which would have
apologized for appointing a gay bishop and would have declared a
moratorium on blessing same-sex unions. But after the meeting,
church leaders announced those demands would be discussed at a
later time. The bishops issued a carefully worded apology. "We
as the House of Bishops express our sincere regrets for the
pain, the hurt and the damage caused to our Anglican bonds of
affection by certain actions of our church", they wrote. Church
leaders called the statement an act of repentance. What are you
repenting for?

Bishop Charles Jenkins>> Well, we are repenting for the hurt
that we have caused one another.

Jeffrey Kaye>> Are you repenting for the consecration of Bishop
Robinson? Are you repenting for blessing of same-sex unions?

Bishop Charles Jenkins>> No.

Jeffrey Kaye>> No.

Bishop Frank Griswold>> That was not what we said. I think the
regret we can offer wholeheartedly and as a unified body is
regret for the consequences our actions have had in other
contacts, but that does not mean that we necessarily regret the
action itself. Certainly I, having participated in the
ordination of the bishop in New Hampshire, do not regret having
done so, though I recognize the complexities that that action
has had in other places and regret the pain that it's caused
other people.

Jeffrey Kaye>> Bishops who lead the conservative Anglican
network said the meeting left them both hopeful and
disappointed.

Bishop Robert Duncan>> Many of our people in the non-network
diocese are just holding on by their fingernails and the more
that this House of Bishops could have said, the better they'd be
able to hang on. The fact that we have said we're sorry, that
will be some encouragement to us and to the rest of the world,
but it's actually not -- it's not enough to hold our people, to
stop this hemorrhage.

Jeffrey Kaye>> For his part, Los Angeles's Episcopal Bishop
Bruno remains unrepentant.

Bishop J. Jon Bruno>> Repent means turn around, walk in a
different direction and say that the acceptance of people who
are gay, the acceptance of women, the acceptance of people who
are divorced, the acceptance of people because of different
ethnicities, is wrong. I refuse to do that. I think that God
has room for all of us in this world and in this church.

Jeffrey Kaye>> The dispute between Bruno and the three churches
that have broken away from his diocese goes beyond the
theological.

Bishop J. Jon Bruno>> "They are not justified in claiming the
property and the assets that have been in their trust by the
Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Los Angeles."

Jeffrey Kaye>> He is suing them for taking property which he
says belongs to the diocese. The churches argue that they own
the buildings and their contents. The legal arguments will be
made in a California court, but a theological split is growing
internationally. Recently, leaders of the Worldwide Anglican
Church asked the Episcopal Church in the United States and the
Church of Canada to temporarily withdraw their representatives
from the governing body because of their liberal attitudes
towards homosexuals. This is Jeffrey Kaye for Life and Times.

Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and
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Val>> Oregon has had an assisted suicide law for seven years
and, several times, California tried to pass a similar law but
failed. Well, now two Assemblymen say it's time to reconsider
euthanasia and they have co-sponsored a bill called the
California's Compassionate Choices Act. Hena Cuevas talked with
Lloyd Levine, a Democrat from Van Nuys who's co-sponsoring the
bill.

Hena Cuevas>> Assemblyman Lloyd Levine from Van Nuys, where did
the idea come from to put forward this bill for assisted
suicide?

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine>> Well, it actually came from a
personal experience that I had about three or four years ago. I
knew about the concept as it was in Oregon. It wasn't as if I
invented the concept, but when my grandmother passed away back
in late 2001, having had conversations with her over the course
of the last year or two or three of her life prior to her being
diagnosed with cancer and then subsequent to her cancer
diagnosis and watching what she went through, I kind of thought,
you know, this is something that I've come to personally
experience and believe in.

I wish my grandmother had been able to do what she probably
would have wanted to do instead of having to go into hospice
care. We gave her the best care we could, but that's not the
way she would have wanted to live the end of her life.

Hena Cuevas>> But you knew this would be a controversial
proposal after having seen everything that happened with Oregon
and what they've been trying to do.

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine>> Oh, of course. But just because
it's controversial doesn't mean, you know, I'm not willing to
tackle it. It doesn't mean it's not a debate worth having.
There's plenty of controversial issues that move society
forward. The discussions that take place with it are very
important.

Hena Cuevas>> With the stepping down of John Ashcroft who has
been one of the greatest opponents from the Bush administration,
was it timed, the introduction of the bill, with him stepping
down? Do you think that's going to help at all?

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine>> I don't know that it will help or
hurt. You know, it wasn't timed to do that. I completely
disagree with John Ashcroft. I think this decision should be
made between the doctor and the patient and it's not up to John
Ashcroft or anybody else to insert their moral values because
that's really what this was.

There were no arguments other than John Ashcroft, you know,
morally didn't feel that this was right and that's fine. John
Ashcroft is entitled to his moral beliefs, but he doesn't need
to put that in between the relationship between me and my
doctor, you and your doctor or anybody else. It should be
entirely left to the patient and the doctor in that regard. So
there was no timing whatsoever. We did it when we felt it was
best to introduce it after lots of research and some public
hearings.

Hena Cuevas>> What are some of the limitations in the bill to
make sure that, once assisted suicide is approved, if it is, it
would be as ethical as possible? What are some of the
restrictions within the bill?

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine>> Oh, there are a number of them.
That's a really good question. That's a question I hear a lot.
I want to do this in a very, very safe way, in a way that has a
lot of safeguards. We're modeling it after the Oregon law. The
Oregon law has a number of safeguards built in. Those are,
first and foremost, you have to be diagnosed by a doctor
licensed to practice medicine in Oregon with a disease that will
likely kill you within six months.

If then you choose to ask for this option, you then have to have
a second doctor diagnose the same diagnosis. You then have to
prove to both doctors that you are of sound mind and, if they
have any questions, they have to refer you to a psychiatrist.
Now that's one rule where we may differ. We're discussing it.
We may require a psychiatric evaluation without a referral. We
just may make it part of the law.

Then you have to make the request in writing and verbally three
times and it has to be separated by fifteen days, and you have
to have a witness to at least one of those who is not a family
member, not a staff member at the hospital, who has no financial
interest in the decision whatsoever.

Last, and very, very important that we will do here, this is
something you do to yourself. You have to self-administer the
drug. This is not something that somebody does to you. The
doctor doesn't do it to you, your family doesn't do it to you.
This is something you do to yourself and I believe that's very
important as well.

Hena Cuevas>> How successful have other bills been along the
lines of assisted suicide in the past?

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine>> It's been tried a couple of times in
different forms. It was tried as an initiative in 1992 and one
of the key differences there was that it would have allowed
somebody else to do this to you. The difference between then
and now is that we have seven years of Oregon's experiences to
draw from, seven years of practical experience to say, you know,
you raised the concern and, if it hasn't happened somewhere, we
don't know what the outcome is. But now when you raise those
concerns, we can look and see what happened in Oregon.

Hena Cuevas>> How important is it going to be, the Supreme
Court decision regarding Oregon?

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine>> Oh, it's going to be very important
because, if the Supreme Court says we can't do this, then it's
all moot. I mean, if the Supreme Court says what Oregon is
doing is wrong, then we can't do it, so I think it's crucial.
On the other hand, I think when you've seen the court decisions
that have come down on this issue in the past, what the court
has kind of led us to believe is that this is an issue for the
states and that they're going to let the states decide for
themselves. We hope that the Supreme Court is consistent in
their rulings on this and doesn't go back on themselves.

Hena Cuevas>> What would you tell those who are against any
form of assisted suicide?

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine>> I guess what I would say to them is
what I've said before. You know, I appreciate your views. I
respect your views. I respect your religious convictions. I
respect your relationship with your God. But your views
shouldn't supercede my views and my relationship with my God or
anybody else's relationship with their God or their doctor. So
we're not saying that this is something that everybody has to
do.

What we're saying is this is an option that some people may
want, that those five or ten percent of patients who at the end
of their lives where even the best pain medication can't help
them, who lose control, are incontinent, whatever it is, and
decide for themselves that this is the option they want. You
may not morally like it, but you know what? It's my decision
and I want to make it and if it's wrong in the eyes of God, I
will have to explain it when I meet my maker, proverbially
speaking. That's what I would say to them. If you don't like
it, don't prevent me from doing it. I'm not saying you have to
do it.

Hena Cuevas>> Assemblyman Levine, thank you very much.

Assembly Lloyd Levine>> Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
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Val>> It would only take you a moment to realize that Robert
Rosenthal is not short on passion or personality and he has put
both of those into bringing topnotch musical talent to military
bases across the country. His free concerts raise the spirits
of GIs and their families like this one at Lackland Air Force
Base in Texas.

[Film Clip]

Val>> Rosenthal's office in Burbank is filled with souvenirs
and thank-yous for his Spirit of America Tour. Robert
Rosenthal, you're a nice Jewish boy from New York. What are you
doing putting on country music concerts at military bases?

Robert Rosenthal>> Well, I had the perfect nice Jewish boy from
New York background. I worked for three summers as a cowboy on
a ranch in Arizona. You know, a typical bar mitzvah present.
My dad knew somebody who owned a dude ranch and he got me a job
there and I loved it and I've always loved country music. It's
music that I can understand. It's my generation's music and I
adore it.

Val>> But it was still a rather long route because you went to
business school.

Robert Rosenthal>> Right.

Val>> You were in the Army.

Robert Rosenthal>> Right.

Val>> A little bit of film experience.

Robert Rosenthal>> Right, yes.

Val>> Law school.

Robert Rosenthal>> That's correct.

Val>> So, still no concerts?

Robert Rosenthal>> No, never did a concert until I started
this. When 9/11 came up, my wife and I wanted to do something
for America and we knew the USO brought shows overseas. My
wife, who lived through the Blitz, remembered the military
people who used to come into the neighborhood for companionship
--

Val>> -- in London.

Robert Rosenthal>> In London. And I said let's do something
for the military. I went on the internet -- thank God for the
internet -- and I found out that no one was bringing
entertainment on an organized basis to America's stateside
military bases.

Robert Rosenthal>> "Every one of these shows, the entertainer
just like Clint Black tonight has volunteered to come to a
military base and show their support for the military. They are
not paid to come here and let you know how much we in the
entertainment industry appreciate what you are doing for the
greatest country in the world."

Robert Rosenthal>> We got a chance to do Clint Black. We had
fifteen thousand screaming men and women in uniform for Clint
Black and that was the last show of the year. Twenty-one shows
we did last year.

[Film Clip]

Robert Rosenthal>> We've had Charlie Daniels, Clint Black, Jo
Dee Messina, Dennis Miller, Lee Greenwood, The Oakridge Boys.
We've had Patty Lovelace. We've had Billy Ray Cyrus.

Val>> Although talent is notorious for being fussy at times and
wanting this and wanting that. Have you dealt with that much?

Robert Rosenthal>> Never had a problem, never had a problem.
The kind of people who want to entertain at a military base
fully understand they're not going to get red jelly beans in a
tray in their dressing room. They're even lucky they have a
dressing room. We'll get them a shower. You know, we'll get
them a shower, a shave and a place to sit. But they're not
going to get the kind of things they expect to get at the
Universal Amphitheatre or at Radio City Musical Hall when they
go to a military base. Military bases are a little on the
primitive side.

[Film Clip]

Val>> Not just anyone could pull off a major concert like this
one, but Rosenthal was on the board of the Western Music
Association and had all the right contacts. He held a luncheon
in Nashville and brought together dozens of agents, publicists,
managers and top brass from each of the military branches.

Robert Rosenthal>> And then I made the pitch. I said, if you
have a gap in your schedule that your entertainer can't fill and
you're like in Oklahoma city and his next date is Dallas and
you've got two days, hey, why don't you stop at Fort Sill and do
a show? We'll pay your expenses, but the entertainer must
volunteer. And at the end of the lunch, I was amazed that
agents and managers were walking up to me and saying "Jo Dee
Messina will do one of your shows." "We'll get Charlie Daniels
to do a show." "Lee Greenwood will do a show." We did eighteen
shows that year.

Clint Black>> "I called my agent and I said, you know, I really
want to get out there and play a military base and say thank
you. He was already in here. All we had to do was show up and
be the musicians that we are."

>> "Clint, how about one more song?"

Clint Black>> "I think we know a few more songs."

[Film Clip]

Robert Rosenthal>> We give them a professional sound and light
system and the base provides the staging and they have a ball.
The ones that really have a good time are the ones that say,
hey, I'll get there three hours earlier and I want to do a meet
and greet. I want to go out and meet the enlisted men, shake
some hands, do some photo ops. They are so thrilled when they
leave that I have never had an entertainer not say I definitely
will do a show for you next year.

Val>> But on top of that, you're dealing with the military.
Talk about bureaucracy. How do you make things happen with
them?

Robert Rosenthal>> I use a very large razor blade. When we
made the initial approach to the Department of Defense, I made
it very clear that life was too short to bother with their
bureaucracy. I said I'm not really interested in their egos or
my ego. Here's my offer. We'll do free shows on your base. I
want one person from each service to be my contact.

Val>> Rosenthal launched The Spirit of America Tour in 2002.
That year they put on five concerts.

Robert Rosenthal>> In 2004, last year, we did twenty-one shows.
My favorite story is Yuma, Arizona. We always say that the
shows are for not only the military personnel, but for the
families which includes mom and dad, the kids, civilians on the
base. We did a show at Yuma, Arizona, the Marine Corps Air
Station in Yuma. It was on the parade grounds and a lot of the
Marines stationed at that base were in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We noticed that, after the show started, the stage was
surrounded by six, seven, eight, ten year old kids. They were
looking up. They were sitting on the apron of the stage. One
little girl climbed up on the stage and started standing right
next to Chad Brock and finally held onto his hand. Chad Brock
reached down and picked her up and that, to me, is the epitome
of what we do. It's not only to boost the morale of the
enlisted people and the officers who are there, but to let the
families know that they are appreciated for the sacrifice they
are making.

[Film Clip]

Val>> So what's ahead? Do you expect to be doing this for many
years to come?

Robert Rosenthal>> Oh, I'm having a ball. We've already booked
the first two shows for 2005. Carrot Top, that fabulous
comedian, he's going to play the Naval Air Station in Nevada,
which is the Top Gun school now since they moved out of Miramar,
and the Naval Base in Ventura County in Oxnard which is where
the Seabees train. He's going to do two shows in March. We've
already got commitments. I'm going to definitely do this for
five more years. I'm having a ball.

>> "Robert, putting together this Spirit of America Tour,
Clint, you and your band coming here and entertaining us on
Veterans Day, it doesn't get any better than that, and we salute
you for that."

[Film Clip]

Val>> And, by the way, Robert Rosenthal does these concerts
without any contract and a staff of one, himself. And that's
our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times,
thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times --

The push is on for universal preschool, but why?

>> When we look at universal preschool and the costs involved
for this state, I think that there are better ways to go about
working with the young children.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.