My White Linen* White Paper by Kenneth E. Stevenson (evcov1@frontiernet.net). Friday, August 15, 10:15 a.m. �10:45 a.m. (Rev 19:8*)

 As a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy with a BS degree in Engineering as well as a Master�s degree in Eng�lish from the University of Pittsburgh, I was uniquely qualified for my roles as the spokesman and editor for STURP. Furthermore as the 1977 Proceedings of the US Conference of Research on the Shroud of Turin demonstrated, those qualifications served me well in a document that is still recognized as the starting point for much subsequent Shroud research. What is not well known however, is that I was also selected to co-author along with the late Messrs. Robert Dinegar and John Heller what was to have been the definitive book of our research following the three year study of testing results that we obtained in Turin. Instead, in what some have dubbed our �politically correct post-Christian era� there was an attempt to expunge any �Christian� connection from STURP�s research in the false hope that such an effort would render the startling results of the research more �acceptable� to the Scientific Community. 

For those who may not know a �white paper� in short �...is an article that states an organization�s position or phi�losophy about a .... subject, or a not-too-detailed technical explanation ... (that) explains the results, conclusions, .... resulting from some organized committee or research collaboration ... Webster�s indicate(s) that the term arose ... to distinguish short government reports from longer, more detailed ones that were bound in blue covers and referred to as �blue books�... A shorter government publication providing a report or position about something was bound in the same white paper as the text - hence, �a white paper.� ...In government... is often a policy or position paper. 

Therefore my report will be MY own �white paper� with regard to the Shroud of Turin but will touch on the research of STURP from my specific position in STURP. With the loss of so many of the members of STURP over the years and particularly the only others who had been selected by consensus of STURP to write just such a report, I feel that this conference is the perfect venue for this report. Furthermore it will cover my own personal research for the last thirty-two years.

Like my previous writings on the Shroud I will not shy away from subjects that some may consider �controversial� or �unscientific�. In particular the paper will be neither �pistis-phobic� nor �logos-phobic� (from the Greek for faith and Word respectively) as I intend to deal in depth with matters of faith and the Word of God. Finally I will make my own personal attempt to take a reasoned �position� based upon the totality of the evidence rather than to argue from the �lack� of what some might call �proof�. Indeed while I think faith would not allow us to find the �smoking gun� of sindonology per se, surely logic and reason can indeed reach a �position� that true science should neither shun nor fear.  Sindonlogy itself is a great field entrusted to us and to cite the Apostle Paul we should �... keep that which is committed to (our) trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: 1 Tim6:20

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