Sugrue's "vow of poverty" has shielded him from making payments, and his order was not held accountable. However, reports the Birmingham Post-Herald (Aug. 2, 1995), the Marist Fathers of Washington Province spends lavishly on Sugrue. It has paid more than $100,000 for attorneys to defend him and the Order, more than $70,000 for psychiatric treatment for Sugrue's pedophilia, as well as subsidizing Sugrue's annual vacations to Ireland!
Phillips' plight has become a community cause in Alabama, where she now lives, because she has special need of the money promised her: she is confined to a wheelchair undergoing physical therapy following a stroke she suffered during 1994 surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. The family has opened a medical fund for their daughter. No donations so far from the Catholic Church.
L.M. Boyd, whose syndicated "Trivia" column runs in many daily newspapers, recently reported that Phips taught himself to read and write. As ship's captain, he retrieved 52,000 pounds of gold and silver from a sunken ship. The Crown gave him 5%, reports Boyd, knighted him, appointed him Sheriff of New England, then governor of Massachusetts.
But Phips died in a British prison, awaiting trial for management mistakes. His act as Governor, however, saved at least 52 people with pending cases of witchcraft, and heralded a new era of enlightenment.
Teddy Roosevelt outlined his reasons for deciding to leave the motto off the 1907 Saint-Gaudens $20 gold double eagle piece in a 3-page letter dated Nov. 11, 1907, to the Rev. Roland C. Dryer, according to Coin World:
"My own feelings in the matter is [sic] due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins, or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence which comes dangerously close to sacrilege."Congress responded in 1908 by mandating the inclusion of the religious motto. All coins struck after July 1, 1908, except for the Indian Head 5-cent piece, have the motto, according to Coin World. The motto did not appear on paper money until 1957, following a 1955 law passed by Congress to alter currency.
The Foundation's lawsuit challenging the adoption of the phrase as the U.S. motto and its inclusion on all currency is in the federal appeals court in Denver.
The Economist (July 15, 1995) reminds us of the embarrassing fact that following Smith's arrest, it was revealed that she was molested as a teenager by her stepfather Beverly Russell, a local celebrity in the Republican Party and the Christian Coalition. Russell, who admitted the abuse, once molested her after coming home from putting up Pat Robertson-for-president posters. What does that say about the Religious Right's ability to inspire "traditional family values"?
The motel owner had discovered that a passage about "the wrath of God" had been outlined in black ink. Investigators suspect the passage may reveal McVeigh's religious motivation for blowing up the federal building in retaliation for the government's handling of the Waco-Branch Davidian conflict in 1993.