03/02/05

LC050302

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, a landmark in peril. Preservationists are
trying to save this Frank Lloyd Wright home, but is it already
too late?

It's all 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.

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 at 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 with the
teachings.

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.

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 Charles Jenkins>> 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.

Bishop Frank Griswold>> 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.

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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. 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 administrator,
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 using 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>> Record rains have left hundreds of homes throughout the
southland with serious damage and one of them is the famous
Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Feliz. Geologists say that part of a
retaining wall has been weakened by the rains. Reporter Saul
Gonzalez visited the home a couple of years ago and even then
there were serious problems.

Saul Gonzalez>> In the hills of Los Angeles's Los Feliz
district high above the din of the city, there's a home like few
others in the world. From the outside, the residence looks
imposing and mysterious like something that's emerged out of an
archeological dig. Come within and the visitor discovers grand
and other-worldly spaces that make you feel like you've been
transported to another time and place. There are rooms that
balance drama and tranquility, strength and grace. Constructed
in 1924 for a wealthy Los Angeles couple, this is the Ennis-
Brown House, an architectural landmark created by that titan of
twentieth century design, architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Eric Wright>> He was always interested in how he could shape
spaces so that the people inside always had this sense of drama,
sense of mystery.

Saul Gonzalez>> This man can speak with authority about Frank
Lloyd Wright. He is Eric Wright, a noted architect himself, and
Frank Lloyd Wright's grandson.

Eric Wright>> Space within the building was the really
important thing. He had seen a quote from the great Chinese
philosopher Lao Tse which said, "The reality of the teacup is
not the teacup itself, but it's the space within the teacup."
My grandfather saw that and said that's what I've been trying to
do all my life with architecture. The reality of the building
is not the building itself, but it's the space within the
building.

Saul Gonzalez>> If you want to understand why Frank Lloyd
Wright and the buildings he created such as this one are so
revered, you have to know something about the man's philosophy
of design. For Wright, architecture was about far more than
creating spaces to live and work in. It was about the search
for truth, beauty and the perfect union of form and function.
In his quest, Wright drew his inspiration from nature, thinking
about building design in almost biological terms.

Eric Wright>> What he worked with and what he was practicing
was organic architecture. By that, he meant that it was like a
seed of an oak tree. You plant this little seed and, out of
that seed, it's the center, and out of that grows your huge oak
tree, but all the essence is in that seed.

Saul Gonzalez>> The essence of the Ennis-Brown House can be
found in its building material, concrete blocks, each stamped
with an abstract geometric pattern giving the residence its
exotic and ethereal feel. Cast on-site during construction, the
home is made out of over 24,000 of these blocks locked together
like an immense Lego puzzle. Wright created four textile block
homes in the Los Angeles area during the 1920's, with this ten
thousand square foot house the largest of the projects.
Although it's eighty years old, the Ennis-Brown House seems very
much at home in the twenty-first century, says Franklin De
Groot, the Director of the nonprofit organization that owns and
oversees the house.

Franklin De Groot>> Well, if you think about the fact that this
was built in 1924 and you look at the architectural styles of
this house versus what was being built elsewhere, it was very
cutting edge. It was the idea that the house would be something
that would be unique for the area and, in fact, it's proved to
be unique even to today.

Saul Gonzalez>> However, this home, for all its undeniable
beauty, is in jeopardy. Stand on the street below the residence
and you see gaping holes in the building, making the house look,
for all the world, like a fortress that's been struck by cannon
fire. Gaze closer at the textile blocks on the home's exterior
and you find hundreds of them are pitted, cracked and slowly
crumbling away.

Franklin De Groot>> Clearly as time has gone on, the damage has
continued to get more and more pronounced.

Saul Gonzalez>> Earthquakes, particularly the 1994 Northridge
temblor, have caused much of the damage here. However, this
home's chief nemesis has been water, water that over the decades
has seeped into the textile blocks and ruined them from within.
Franklin De Groot showed us some of the damage.

Franklin De Groot>> As you can see, this block is a very good
example of a damaged block. This is the kind of damage that
occurs when water gets inside the concrete, attacks the steel,
causes the steel to rust. The rust, in fact, causes the steel
to expand and the expansion then blows out the side of the
block, cracks it, and eventually weakens the entire structural
system.

Saul Gonzalez>> And what's happened to this one block is
happening all around the house?

Franklin De Groot>> In many, many places in the site.

Saul Gonzalez>> This home is in such jeopardy and considered so
important that last year it was placed on the list of the
globe's hundred most endangered cultural sites by the World
Monument Fund. Eric Wright is pleased that the home's sorry
condition is finally getting attention, saying it deserves to be
protected like a great painting or sculpture.

Eric Wright. I think people have to look at the work of
architects, especially the work of my grandfather, Frank Lloyd
Wright, as some of the greatest expressions of architectural and
creative artistic work in the world.

Saul Gonzalez>> However, Frank Lloyd Wright also bears some
responsibility for this home's current condition. Like many of
his other projects, his design and material choices make his
buildings fragile and difficult to maintain.

Franklin De Groot>> When it rains, this house does leak. It's
just one of the facts that you learn to live with in terms of
dealing with a Frank Lloyd Wright structure.

Saul Gonzalez>> Frank Lloyd Wright homes need constant tender
loving care.

Franklin De Groot>> Yes.

Saul Gonzalez>> Some work has been done to save the Ennis-Brown
House. The Getty Foundation has contributed a hundred thousand
dollars to both stabilize the building -- that's what these
girders are for -- and to conduct site surveys and engineering
studies. However, much has to be done at a cost of ten million
dollars if this architectural landmark is to be restored. The
building's retaining walls and roof need to be repaired and
thousands of damaged textile blocks replaced. Friends of the
Ennis-Brown House are trying to raise the repair money and Eric
Wright is part of the architectural team drawing up plans to
restore the home.

Eric Wright>> I feel a responsibility. I look at it as a
responsibility and people have actually asked --

Saul Gonzalez>> -- to your family? To your profession? To
both?

Eric Wright>> To both, and to the public. I mean, they need to
see these examples of great architecture. We can't lose them.

Saul Gonzalez>> Franklin De Groot contends that preserving a
building like this is especially important in Los Angeles, a
city that has allowed too much of its architectural history to
vanish.

Franklin De Groot>> We've failed to preserve any of the
trappings of our past. Fortunately, there are still some icons
left in Los Angeles, but many, many of them have been lost.
It's up to us to be sure, here in the twenty-first century, that
we don't lose the trappings of where we've come from, what's so
important about Los Angeles, why it's such a wonderful city.

Saul Gonzalez>> It's important to our civic civilization?

Franklin De Groot>> Yes.

Saul Gonzalez>> Frank Lloyd Wright once said he wished to
create buildings that graced the landscape, not disgrace it.
Friends of the Ennis-Brown House hope the home's damage will be
repaired and it will grace Los Angeles's landscape for countless
years to come.

Val>> Engineers say that the rain and mud have done more than
half a million dollars damage to the Ennis-Brown House in Los
Feliz and, for the time being, it's uninhabitable. 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 --

Everyone has them and we pass them around without a second
thought, but there's good reason to think twice about germs.

>> I don't want everybody to become Howard Hughes, but on the
other hand, if you touch things and, yes, before you touch
yourself and do things to yourself, washing your hands is very
important.

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