Word: vestal
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Romans were known for their Vestal Virgins, six female virgins who represented the royal house and tended the state cult of Vesta, the goddess of hearth. Violation of their virginity meant being buried alive. With the advent of Christianity, the Virgin Mary became one of the central characters of the religion. Then in the Middle Ages, medieval gynecologists were interested in determining female virginity, while male virginity was consistently overlooked. Even in the colonial period, Queen Elizabeth was heralded as the virtuous and Virgin Queen and the state of Virginia was named in celebration of this fact. Thus, our view...
Some seek outside help, but often to no avail. "I spent my whole childhood trying to get help, and none ever came," says Roy Rowe, 19, who last year was sentenced to four to 12 years for killing his stepfather. Neighbors in Vestal, New York, sometimes called the police when the screams grew too loud from the beatings -- with a paddle, a belt and a two-by-four -- that Roy's stepfather gave him, his younger sister and brother, and his mother. Teachers reported their suspicions of abuse; relatives tried to intervene. But each time, police officers and social workers...
Since 1979, fundamentalists have inexorably gained power in the biggest and richest U.S. Protestant denomination, the 15 million-member Southern Baptist Convention. Last year the rightward tilt was affirmed when fundamentalist Morris Chapman of Texas was elected president over Georgia's Daniel Vestal, leader of the moderates. Fundamentalists (who prefer to be called conservatives) have since piled pressure on Baptist seminaries to teach the literal historical accuracy of the Bible. They have also sacked recalcitrant officials like Lloyd Elder, head of the Sunday School Board, the huge denominational publishing house based in Nashville...
This week in Atlanta, Vestal will preside as thousands of dissident Baptists plot resistance to the fundamentalist trend. Chapman, for one, thinks the three-day conclave will launch something akin to a schism. At the same time, the fundamentalist leader is confident that few of the 38,000 S.B.C. congregations will join any eventual breakaway...
What the moderates need most for their resistance effort is money. Vestal's movement has set up a scheme to undercut the $137 million annual headquarters budget and siphon funds into moderate causes. But so far only 140 congregations have responded to the effort; their projected donations of $4 million this year hardly threaten the Baptist money machine. Whatever the long-term threat in Atlanta this week, fundamentalist president Chapman insists, "I feel very optimistic...