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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 22, 1978)
___editorial Auditorium bonds offers arts boon Relief may be on the way for cul turally starved aficionados of the performing arts who are tired of hav ing to travel to Portland to see that special show. Eugene voters will consider a bal lot measure Tuesday that seeks ap proval of an $18.5-million bond issue for a civic auditorium. Such a facility contains rich poten tial — both for spectators and par ticipants — heretofore lacking either on campus or in the Eugene area. The Emerald endorses the funding proposal and urges eligible students and staff to vote their support of an auditorium complex. The heart of the new project would lie in a combined concert hall and legitimate theater seating about 2,500 and a multi-purpose commun ity theater with room for approxi mately 500. Along with ancillary facilities — dressing rooms, exhibi tion space, underground parking — the complex would be opened just north of the downtown mall following a three-year construction phase. Completion of actual building plans, subject to public comment, awaits passage of a funding measure. An arts center of this description would close an annoying gap in per formance facilities for Eugene, which now include massive, basi cally sports-oriented structures such as Mac Court and Autzen Stadium on one side and the 400-seat University Theater and 500-seat Beall Hall on the other. A medium-capacity auditorium complex could serve as a home for local theatrical, musical and dance groups as well as house visiting per formers who previously have by passed Eugene because it lacks a suitable site. Moreover, the down town location would be convenient for University folk and add to a phys ical cohesiveness in the city often lacking in contemporary urban de velopment. At present, civic-center directors plan to sell the bonds as construc tion funds are needed rather than in a single sale when the project be gins. By this approach, they hope to avoid the high interest payments necessary for $18.5 million. An addi tion to city residents’ property-tax rate of 5 cents per $1,000 true cash value is anticipated in the first year of construction, rising to a high of 69 cents per $1,000 by the third year. These tax receipts would be used only to service the bond-interest debt. Once in use, the civic au ditorium becomes eligible for an es timated $400,000 a year — in addi tion to rental receipts — to pay off the bonds and cover an operating deficit expected the first few years, according to Dean Baumgartner, civic center director. These re venues derive from such sources as a ticket tax, motel/hotel tax and pri vate contributions through the re cently created Eugene Community Foundation. Rents would be kept low to en courage use by local groups and the auditorium complex would never be expected to do much more than break even financially. But, as Baumgartner points out, in a public facility of this type — which would do for the performing arts what parks do for recreation — performance and not profits is the motive. Unregistered fans of a civic au ditorium may qualify to vote until 8 p.m. the day of the election by sign ing up at the Lane County voter re gistration office, 175 W. 8th Ave. L Letters Letters-Letters Christianity right? In a recent letter, Douglas Groothuis sought to explain why pantheism, mysticism, and Ta oism in particular are wrong, and why Christianity is right. There are several points in his letter with which I should like to take issue. People who admit that there is validity to more than one religion Groothuis labels latitudinarians, as if latitudinarianism were a dis ease or a venial or mortal sin. For tunately, not all Christians share this narrow-minded view, al though it does seem to be the case that, in our society at least, Christianity attracts its share of narrow minded people. On the other side, however, one may note such statements as that made by John A. Hutchison, a Christian scholar, in the preface to his Paths of Faith (McGraw-Hill, 2d ed. 1975, p. xiii), a study of the world’s major religions: "The word path or any of its numerous trans lations is a recurring metaphor in the literature of the world’s relig ions. China has its tao. and the Japanese have the analogous term michi. Buddhists speak of their faith as the path of the Buddha, and Muslims charac terize Islam as the straight path. In both Old Testament and New Tes tament, this same metaphor is used extensively ... The religions of mankind are so many paths of life.” Groothuis states that pan theism is wrong and that mysticism is not the lowest common de nominator between all religions.'’ Christianity is, in his definition, neither pantheistic nor mystical; yet one of the most clearly pan theistic statements that I have ever read in any religious literature is the statement of the Apostle Paul in I Cor, 1528 that, at the end of the divine scheme of things. God will be "all in all." Paul's ardent Christianity did not hinder his thinking that God, in his divine wisdom and power, would be able finally to effect the reconciliation of the entire cos mos. It is this same Paul, further more, who has not infrequently been described as mystical. A very famous study of his theology was entitled, The Mysti cism of Paul the Apostle (Albert Schweitzer, Engl, trans. 1931.); and one cannot overlook Paul s •. frequent description.of the.Christ: ian life as life "in Christ" or "in the Spirit," e g., Gal. 326-28. In fact, the whole history of Christianity has included a considerable com ponent of mysticism, and even Christians who think that mysti cism is something oriental and strange and therefore sinful should look again at what they themselves think goes on when they pray. I and religions gathered from the world to plan for peace. One weekend, 15,000 people marched through the streets of New York and gathered at the UN Plaza. There were 502 Japanese peo ple who brought 20,000,000 sig natures pleading for peace and an arms reduction. Gromyko, Rus sian leader, and the French spoke of the need for solutions. Gromyko Defense budget bill coming to the floor. At noon I had a chance to speak with Rep. John Rhoades (Rep.-Ariz.) and I said, “How come nobody in Washington knows about the U N. Disarma ment Conference?” He replied, to the effect, “It isn’t going to amount to anything. It is just the third world countries trying 'i think :d rmher stat up here and plant we Tbmxs, awway: ' It was particularly painful to read Groothuis’s statement that Christ 'claimed unique liberating power,” since Groothuis took a class I offered last term on ancient Mediterranean religions, in which the other religions with which early Christianity competed and which often claimed “unique liberating power" were studied. People who hold strong religious convictions, alas, will often hold them in spite of all evidence Finally, I have to correct Groothuis on one of his opening statements, that visiting lecturer Michael Saso was from Harvard. That was the ultimate insult; Saso was from Yale. J.T. Sanders, Professor Religious Studies No one knew I just returned from the U N. Disarmament Conference, which started May 23 and will continue . .for five weeks, People of aH races said "Russia will never make a neutron bomb unless the United States makes one first.” The day ended with a "die-in.” When the siren blew, "Nuclear Victims” slowly sank to the ground and lay for 20 minutes while the Buddhist beat their drums. The tragedy is that people in Washington, D.C did not know that the conference was taking place. I arrived in D C. about five days before the opening day of May 23. On May 23, I still had not found anyone in D C. who knew that there even was a conference. That day I went to the Congres sional offices to see if they knew what was going on Mark Hatfield had sent notices to the religious communities of Oregon about two months ago. In the first four offices I visited, there was no one who knew about the Disarmament Conference. They knew that NATO was com mg to town and that there was a to make the United States look bad...” and many others things along the same line of thinking...which was later re flected in the Washington Post, and by the speech made by Vice-President Mondale to the Un ited Nations. During my stay in New York, on the second day of the Conference, I found that the newspaper con tained 11 pages of sports but no thing on Disarmament. I could find absolutely nothing about the U.N. Disarmament Con ference. WHY? Parade carried a story on May 21, that the U S. should increase the Defense Budget by another 12 billion to keep up with the Rus sians in Civil Defense. It seems that they are worried. I wonder why? Betty Luginbill Campus minister Wesley Center Unsigned falsities In response to the letter (June 5) of Mr. Anonymous, who is a fraid to identify himself for fear of Israeli reprisal, let me make the following comments: a) Arabs are not refused admis sion to Israeli colleges; the oppo site is in fact true. They are often admitted in preference to other students who have higher grades and better preparation since the colleges want to encourage Arab students to get a higher education (I served for three years on the admissions committee at the Uni versity of Tel-Aviv, the largest in Israel). b) The Israeli Arab is in the dif ficult position of being required to be loyal to the laws of a state in which he is in the minority and which is in confrontation with all its neighboring Arab states — his own brothers. During the 30 years of Israel’s existence, most Israeli Arabs have been loyal citizens. Occasionally, however, a few have participated in some of the terrorist and sabotage activities, which we experience almost weekly. It is therefore under standable why some Israelis are reluctant to give jobs or rent apartments to Arabs, even to the innocent. In general, however, job opportunity for the Israeli Arab is the same as for any other citizen. The fact is that the average stan dard of living and education of the Arab citizen in Israel, a country with few economic resources, is higher than in any other Arab state. Can Mr. Anonymous deny that? c) True, the Zionist ideology was and is to support a Jewish State in Israel, but not at the ex pense of Palestinians or anyone else. It is the faulty and misleading policy of the Arab leadership for the past 30 years which has made the Palestinian suffer. Only peace negotiations and mutual conces sions will solve these problems. d) In many respects I oppose the policy of the present Israeli government. I do not hesitate to say so and to sign my name. Anonymity and false facts in Mr. Anonymous' letter make it look 'ike more of the sheer anti-Israeli propaganda so currently preval ent in the Emerald. Ezra Yagil Visiting Associate Professor, Institute of Molecular Biology
