Free Republic

And Greer, vilified by many religious protesters, is a church regular. He also is a conservative Republican in a state whose conservative Republican governor tried to overturn one of Greer's orders. "George is the religious right," said lawyer David Kurland, a longtime friend. Friends say Greer's intellect is perfectly formed to withstand the very tempest he now faces. Always calm, not prone to mood swings or flares of temper, unerringly polite, he is not easily ruffled, they say. But the criticisms sting, friends say. His relationship with his church, for example, has changed. "He's been through a lot of storms...

Q Who made the world? A. God made the world. Q. Who is Terri Schiavo? A. She is one of God's creatures, who suffered a heart attack and irreversible brain damage at age 26. She is at the center of an international battle over whether she should be kept alive artificially. She has been kept alive for the past 15 years because she was given nutrients through a feeding tube. Her husband says she would not want to live that way; her parents desperately want to keep her alive. Congressional subpoenas and last-minute legislation hope to overcome a court order...

For most of his career, Judge George W. Greer presided over mundane local disputes that drew little notice outside Pinellas County or even his courtroom. People who know him say he considers himself a "compassionate conservative," a man whose religious faith is as dear to him as his reputation as a legal scholar. For the past seven years, though, Judge Greer, of Circuit Court, has been at the center of one of the nation's most contentious civil cases, the battle over whether to withdraw the feeding tube of a critically brain-damaged woman, Terri Schiavo. The case has made him a...