EDITORIAL New law preserves religious freedom Although someone will undoubtedly try to abuse it. a now law signed by President Clinton on Tuesday to restore one aspect of religious freedom is a step in the right direction. The bill, which would legalize the use of controlled substances in religious ceremonies unless there is a “compelling governmental interest" in forbidding that use. will do much to shore up one of America's most treasured personal liberties, freedom of religion, at a time when it is increasingly in conflict with the general laws of the land. In 1990. the U.S. Supreme Court ruled mat the state of Oregon could legally prohibit the use of peyote, a mild hallucinogenic drug, in the ceremonies of the *' itive American Church, despite the fact that the practice had been going on for centuries. The court reasoned that the law did not infringe upon the churi h members’ First Amendment rights to exon iso their religion because the laws prohibiting peyote (and other drugs) were directed at all citizens, not specific al ly at those people who use peyote for religious reasons. Prior to this case, the general rule had been that the sta' • must demonstrate a "compelling governmental interest" in forbidding the use of controlled substances in order to bypass the protections of the First Amend ment. Exactly what constitutes "compelling governmental interest" inis not been completely defined, but the same guideline had been in place for 27 years prior to 1990, and nothing too terrible happened One of the main arguments raised against tho bill sug gests that legalizing the use of drugs for religious cere monies opens the door for some screwball to found The Holy Spiritual Church of Heroin, or something else along those lines. There is indeed a precedent for that possibility. In the late 1970s. a prison inmate named Harry Theriault founded the Church of the New Song and declared him self the bishop of Tellus. He claimed his First Amend ment rights were being violated when the warden refused to provide him and his followers with items that he said were essential to his religious ceremonies — included among these worn Chateaubriand and Harvey's Bristol Cream. The judge in that caso called the Church of the New Song a sham, and throw the bishop out of court. Hope fully, judges will follow his example if and when some one tries to abuse the freedom granted by this new law. At the very least, we can hope that the law contains provisions that allow the use of controlled substances only in those cases where they are a part of a faith, rather than that faith's sole reason for existence. Even if the law doesn’t include such a clause, however, the courts may still impose those restrictions. Religious freedom is one of the fundamental tenets of American liberty. This law may bo abused; it will cer tainly be tested. But that doesn't moan it shouldn't be on thn books. 0,,,,Emerald PC IK)i 31lUOtNi 0«tGO* ‘*’*03 the ,'Vagrv p.i't l '’-O'.*l .s published deity M ndjy through Friday chinny the schoo yeai and Tuesday and Thursday during the lumnyi by the Oregon Daly Emeratd Publishing Co . Inc al the Diversity ol Oregon f ugenc Oregon The l mar aid operates independently of the Llnivei*.iy with oftv.es at Suite 300 ol the Fib Memorial Union a'vt a a member of the Associated Press T he FmerjU,» private property The unlawful removal or use ol paper* ■* prosecutable by taw Managtna Editor Editorial Editor Or sprites Editor freelance Editor Edllor-ln-Chiet Jane Berg Calfey Anderson Sports Editor Davd Thom Editorial Editor Jett Pastay Photo Editor Jett Winter* Supplement* Editor Night Editor: Scott Simonson Steve Mm* Jett Pvkhardl Anthony Forney Kafy Solo Aeaoclat* Editor* Scot Demon*. Shjdpm Govemment/Aclrutie*. Rebecca Metnll. Commurufy fi vers Jana*on. tkghar i dUcaeorvAiSninrstrafion Mew* Stall: Dave Cnaroonneau. Ricardo Dawco. Meg DeOoiph Amy Devenport. Mala Field* Martin Faber Sarah Henderson, A<* Mesaaldahi. Edward Ktoplenatam. Yin Lang fnong Menu* Mel and. tnsta Noel. Elisabeth Reenaltema. La Satacoa. Scon Svnonaon Stephana Staaon Susan ne SleMan*. Julie Swan sen Michel* T twmpaon Aguiar Kevin Tipp, Amy Van Tuyl. Darnel Weal Qeneral Manager: Judy R«c* Advent ting Director Mar* Wetter Production Manager: Mchai* Roaa Advartlaing: Sub* Dutta. Recto Mertmark. Teresa Isabelle. Jett Marion. Jaramy Mason. Mchael Mkerte, Van V O'Bryan It. Ftachaal Tru«. Kalaey Waken. Ang* W.ndhevn Dawdled: Becky Merchant. Manager Victor Mop* Srm Ire Teck Distribution Brwdon Anderson John Long. Graham Simpson Buatnew: Kalhy Carbone. Supennaor Judy Conno*y Production: Dae McCobb, Production Ccwnkna/or Shewn* Abel*. Greg Desmond. Tara Gault nay, Brad Joss Jennifer Roland. Ran ThangwiH. Dayton Yee Newsroom..MS-5511 Display Advertising-M5-5712 Businsw OtTlcs__M5-5512 Classified Advertising-M6-4M3 (vou'pc FftOfA A LARGE CoQPO«AT/ofJ supporting nte flfcf trade Q£ai ^ Good' *.**«*fav«< P4tff tt+*o (J> arguments for and against the agreement, you could hear another, much more subtle, sub text. It was Congress trying to assert itself. It was politicians shouting. "Look at us! Here we are1 You shouldn't have counted us out! See. we've still got the power to legislate international trade!" They're wrong, of course. The process of globalization, be it economic, technological or com municative. is no longer yvithin the realm of politicians. They lost control of it many years ago. and since that time no legisla tive body has been able to keep up with the process. Sure. NAFTA was a great vic tory for international trade. But NAFTA would have happened even if Congress had voted against it. It may not have hap pened on paper, but it would have happened in real life: NAF' TA would have lived in the pro duction plants, in the corporate boardrooms and. high above our heads in the telecommunica tions satellites. Now that the Cold War is over, military force is no longer the major power fat tor govern ing international relations. His tory has taken us from the para digm ol military warfare into the paradigm of economic competi tion And in this paradigm, bor ders become less and less important. Hill Clinton was right when lie dec I a red that with NAFTA "opening trade in our own hemisphere, we have the eco nomic:, the political and the moral standing to make the c ase that this can tw done throughout the world." The glory days of the nation state uni over In the next centu ry. the important political entity will be the geopolitical region. At this point, it seems that three regions will dominate economi cal. political and cultural affairs: North America, Europe and Southeast Asia And if the process of globalization contin ues, maybe the next stage will !>e a global economic entity suc h as the one envisioned by Clinton. Hut this process is not planned and carried out by politicians. Rather, politicians often stand dumbfounded and watch the process from the sidelines. Some times they resist, unwilling to accept their impotence. If politicians aren't the drive behind the economic globaliza tion. what is? The answer is sim chnology. • rst, the tec hnology of tr i 1,station has made it possible . , us to eat fresh pineapples from Hawaii, drink orange juice from Florida, and eat pastries from New York. If you take a close look at your car. chances are you'll find parts from at least three dif ferent continents. Your comput er is most likely produced some where in Southeast Asia, even if it was designed and developed in the United States or in Europe. And all of this was made possi ble because of fast, effective trans portation technology. Second, technological anil industrial specialization has bro ken up the world into regions with different degrees of com petitiveness depending on the product. The area of specializa tion could be determined by the region's natural resources: that's why they grow oranges in Flori da and potatos in Idaho. Or it could be determined by political and economic factors: that's why computers can be put together a lot cheaper with Taiwanese latw. Third, communications tech nology has virtually created the proverbial "global village." Kus sians watch common ials for Pep si-Cola on an MTV telecast car ried by satellite, so they go out to the store and look f. r Pepsi-Cola Japanese kids watch "Beverh Hills 90210" on television, so they go out and look for the lat est Californian fashions. And soon, people all over the world mav bu> their ( hristmns gifts via a computer network linking up producer on one continent with customers on another. The fm ' is, international trade holders an: meaking down ith or without NAFTA. We're .ready very close to the creation of economic regions. In Europe, the European Community may soon expand eastward to become a market even larger than the North American trading block. And if Southeast Asian countries consolidate into a trading blin k it would be the most populous and possibly also the most pow erful - economic region known to (idle. 1 here an-' o ways of meeting this challenge. You can either choose to let it run wild, making way for international economic and political anarchy. Or you can accept that the economy is becoming global and try to impose some international legis lation to establish some sort of order. On Wednesday, the House set tled for the second solution. It was, in fact, their only choice. Marius Meland is a columnist for the Emerald.