Capitol Ideas/The Bishops' Brain
Bethell, Tom
chess and the students around him, suggested that the kids play chess. Adepts of the social sciences might have considered this absurd, and their charts and statistics would back them up. When the...
...Did you know that Catholic churches put out press releases and hold televised debates with parish priests talking about such things as "a return to a MIRVed world," "vertical proliferation," and "strategic implications for superpower relations...
...u 9 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1983...
...According to one or two bishops, Hehir actually wrote the recent Bishops' Letter, 44,000 words long, on nuclear weapons and deterrence...
...Henry Hyde asked him whether he thought Christianity and Marxism were compatible, Hehir said that this was "a much disputed question...
...Certainty of retaliation...
...By Gerhard HHerm $1750 $8.50 6429 Listening To America...
...But, he added-vintage Hehir, this-"If you ask me does it rule out any use of nuclear weaponry under any circumstances, the Letter never says that...
...Hehir was the man to watch...
...By Jack Beaching Relales the extraordinary characters who were involved in one of the most spectacular military events of the 16th century 51795: 512.95 SHAPING HISTORY: THE MEN AND THE ISSUES THE TWELVE CAESARS M hdGcall .4t .a...
...Peter's...
...Behind the episcopal front lurked the church's by-now thoroughly leftist bureaucracy, and there, in its midst, sat Father Hehir, with his fast patter about a MIRVed world...
...Dan Lungren...
...Peter's Church in the nation's capital held such a debate, heralded by a press release headlined: "Bishops' Top Adviser To Appear In Capitol Hill Debate...
...by Tom Bethell St: Peter's Church was already packed full by 8 p. m. Some of the people in the pews seemed vaguely familiar, and with a sinking feeling I began to suspect that this was in part the same group I had seen at last month's IPS reunion-an itinerant flock of nuclear disarmers and allpurpose leftists ready to show up at a few hours' notice and cheer their heads off the minute someone said "growth," "commitment to change," or "peace &justice...
...He gives sermons in which the words "grow" and "growth" occur two or three times a sentence...
...NkCWC1iEET+4AM DM WrCK SMITH 5260.52000 $13.95 5652.$1595 $10.95 5710.$1695 $11.95 6239.535'x: $15.95 No matter what areas of history you enjoy reading about most, you'll fired that...
...Hehir started off the debate by stressing a new relationship between technology and morality-a dubious proposition, of course...
...The church has been turned into a big TV studio, with bright lights, cable TV on hand, those familiar bundles of electric cords taped to the floor, and-wouldn't you know it-a bearded priest sitting on a table in back, swinging his legs, and advertising his caringperson status...
...Oh...
...This work is intended to provide a platform once again for those who contributed in anonymity to the new nation's preparation for selfgovernment or were pushed from public memory by those contending for a place in history...
...I can't conceive how Soviet policy makers would perceive this as weakness on our government's part," he said...
...The kids at School 27 did indeed get flattened, hence their now forbidding nickname, Masters of Disaster...
...Having been bullied for so long they are now only too happy to have someone like Hehir whisper "peace &justice" in their ears to make them relevant again...
...Leahy "concurred" that abortion is a "very, very serious evil in this country," but "disagreed" with people who "say they are against abortion" and then "vote against money" for welfare and birth control pills...
...This evoked a steady downpour of respectful applause from the Rent-aCrowd Left...
...am Heritage...
...Pointing out that Hehir was the chief adviser to the bishops, and that Hehir himself had conceded that the Letter raised political questions, he thought it would be worth knowing "a little bit more about your political leanings...
...Rev...
...Its devastating effect and the certainty of retaliation makes it impossible for any government to contemplate using it...
...The explanations run from the sensible to the bizarre, but one thing we can all agree on is that these chess players had the desire to persist through arduous practices and through defeats...
...Catholic Conference in Washington, D.C...
...Hickey seems to be a soft touch for the peace & justice crowd...
...This is the court with which the bishops today are in dutiful if unconscious alignment...
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...In the church press release Hehir got top billing-above a senator, a congressman, and the former heads of the Central and Defense Intelligence agencies...
...By Stanley I lc utter $16 50 : $11.93 6445 The Galleys At Lepento...
...Here a cheer arose from a counterhive faction...
...Cheap shot," someone beside me said...
...C A P I T O L I D E A S THE BISHOPS' BRAIN I n the press release it was billed as a "debate...
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...Let the record show that in May 1983 St...
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...Let the record reflect his concluding creepie-crawlie comment: "We will stop abortion when we change those things in society that make abortion a more attractive alternative than life...
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...The latter condition is always more dangerous to . the human spirit...
...By the way, can somebody please tell me how someone so evidently weak and unsympathetic toward his own country came to be head of the CIA...
...We may not forget that the United States was the first to build and use [nuclear weapons...
...The press re lease said: "Contact: Bill Hinkes," followed by the telephone number of New Jersey Congressman Frank Guarinini's office...
...They are more interested in sin, for example, and their devil does not come in the guise of technology, as seems to be the case with our recently relevant bishops...
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...ar 40 II...
...We refer to them in the law as weasel words...
...Since then he has attained a kind of celebrity as a behind-thescenes manipulator of Roman Catho lic bishops-the sort who over a period of years were bullied into thinking they were "irrelevant...
...Others say it is because chess is all they had to do...
...In front of the altar was a table with microphones and in the center sat the gaunt, intense figure of Bryan Hehir...
...40 Guernsey Street...
...Secondly, if silence is regarded as a strength in the face of that kind of moral problem, then that's a curious definition of rationality, patriotism, and reasonable foreign policy to me...
...My answer is that there is strength in bringing the people who are the targets in the midst of this possible exchange into the discussion...
...Box 790...
...He specializes in ambiguity-rather odd, one might think, for a parish priest...
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...Could this be McCarthyism...
...Perhaps they need to be told that the new court, the only major power in the world today that commands a measure of deference and obedience from rival centers of power, is at the "Third Rome"-Moscow...
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...And on that centimeter of ambiguity the deterrence . . ." "Centimeter of ambiguity...
...What if we all listen to the ventriloquizing bishops, and the Soviets conclude that this Hehir Lobe BM LibertyClasszcs American Political Writing During The Founding Era: 1760-1805 In Two Volumes Edited by Charles S. Hyneman and Donald S. Lutz These volumes provide a selection of seventy-five pieces relating to the founding of republican government in North America, most of which have been available only in research libraries...
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...The aforementioned unquantifiable elements seemed to be activated by defeat, and elementary school kids who could not sit still for ten minutes became kids who trained two-and-ahalf hours nightly, five nights a week, and on Saturdays, for two years...
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...Likewise, "it is too early to make a real judgment on liberation theology," he told a reporter in Washington...
...That's the way we get out of contracts and so on," said Rep...
...Let the record show that the leafleteer, a perfectly respectable Senate aide, was told to stop by a church usher, none other than the aforementioned congressional aide, Bill Hinkes...
...But the U.S...
...Hehir's answer demonstrated the weakness, indeed the irresponsibility, of his and the bishops' position...
...and when the kids got flattened in competition the social scientists could have pulled out all their cant about endangering the fragile self-images of poor blacks...
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...Dan Lungren from California...
...She puts the burden on teachers first, then students I believe she is right...
...The question is how does one instill it in young people...
...Today this desire to achieve is always undervalued, yet it is essential to all human endeavor...
...The thrust of the Letter is to say that this country and the Soviets share a common problem, the common problem of the survival of both our nations and maybe the survival of parts of the northern hemisphere and maybe all of it...
...The moderator Gordon Peterson, a local TV anchorman, indirectly raised this point, wondering if the Letter might be construed as a sign of weakness on our part...
...Se I bets I have entered below...
...He's big on initiatives and negotiations (and let's not forget global interdependence), and a prot6ge of Stanley Hoffmann, the Harvard ambiguity specialist...
...At the Bishops Conference, remember, the Catholic hierarchy fell into line with the media and the academy (not to mention Moscow) by saying we should "halt," not "curb," the production of nuclear weapons, and then seemed to think it was due credit for bravery because the Reagan Administration disagreed...
...At question time Bill Gavin, the author of a recent booklet on St...
...The nature of nuclear weapons . . . has impacted international politics in ways that create very specifically a new moral question...
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...But their wordy document was filled with an unedifying cloud of clerical evasions, omissions, and quarter truths...
...Booooooooo-o-o-o," said the congregation in St...
...Then we heard from William Colby...
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...G 104 Indianapolis, IN 46250 8 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1983 fellow really has made an impact, so much so that the Americans wouldn't dare retaliate against a Soviet firstuse...
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...Father Hehir gave it a little thought, but decided not to tell us how he had voted: ambiguity reigned...
...of Washington Archbishop James Hickey, for example, while Hickey was testifying before Congress...
...and the USSR do not share a common enemy (technology), they are mutual enemies on ideological grounds...
...As a result, the position of the church emerges as misleadingly skewed toward political activism...
...It then does become possible for one government to contemplate using nuclear weapons...
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...Everything that Hehir and his episcopal mouthpieces say leads one to suppose that the elected Reagan is a greater threat to world peace than the gang in the Kremlin...
...This false perception of the problem derives logically from defining the problem in material termsone of weaponry...
...The bishops today may not realize how true this is because they stand opposed to the Court of Reagan and so see themselves as opposed to, not aligned with, the powers that be...
...Justice And kyustfre In The Cold War...
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...He calls himself a "radical centrist...
...When Rep...
...Oh, the Hive was in a buzz...
...Evidently this was something more than a gathering of curious parishioners...
...Any government...
...Here they all were, wedged into the pews, perhaps eagerly waiting for Hehir to tell them tonight that the arms race was sinful...
...Could you tell us what presidential candidate you voted for in 1972...
...Hehir (pronounced "hair") is an intelligent, fast-talking cleric of leftist persuasion...
...This was to be his "first major public appearance" since the Bishops Conference in Chicago, as though he were some Hollywood star or Las Vegas performer...
...Visions of excellence did not intimidate them but goaded them...
...Senator Leahy had showed up to talk about the immorality of destructive capability, despite his own 100-percent pro-abortion voting record...
...Later on, to the accompaniment of much discontented rustling and sighing from the pews, a bold questioner asked Leahy: "As a United States senator who votes consistently not only in favor of abortion, but also in favor of subsidies to increase the practice of abortion, don't you feel that you have a very serious credibility problem coming into a Catholic church and preaching on the value and dignity of human life...
...He is fluent in the by-now increasingly exposed verbal camouflage of the contemporary Left: commitment, challenge, conscience, compassion, coalition, community, change, and, of course, concern...
...By Douglas Porch $16 95 $12.50 6452 The American Inquisition...
...The summary of the Bishops' Letter handed out in church created, instead, the opposite impression that we were the greater threat...
...No doubt this was correct news judgment, too...
...That is why congratulations are in order not only for the chess players of School 27 but also for their coaches who no longer have to teach their charges how to cope with being patronized in defeat but rather with being celebrated in victory...
...When the fledgling team members grew mutinous after ten minutes of practice, the social scientists might again have pointed to their statistics...
...Their pose was one of heroic independence...
...As it happened, he kind of put his foot in it by saying: "The nuclear weapon today is unusable...
...Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery...
...Perhaps one day he will tell us what these veiled, ideologically charged words mean...
...Hehir has been photographed whispering into the ear Tom Bethell is The American Spectator's Washington correspondent...
...That was a reference to Rev...
...There is a centimeter of ambiguity...
...He said nothing about the Soviet Union and the likelihood that it constitutes the greatest threat to world peace in history, this because its ideology requires its rulers to make constant warfare on their subjects, and on all other nations not under Communist domination...
...El...
...J. Bryan Hehir, a parish priest in Falls Church, Virginia, and director of the Office of Justice and Peace at the U.S...
...Notice the way Hehir makes it sound as though a meteor, say, were headed toward the northern hemisphere, and Americans and Russians shared a common interest in diverting it...
...Some say it is because these kids are street tough...
...The bishops had become relevant at last...
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...Athanasius put out by the National Committee of Catholic Laymen, came to the microphone...
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...Hehir's misreading of the likely Soviet response to the Letter showed up irrefutably when the Soviet news agency Tass praised it...
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...Hehir told the crowd that we couldn't be the first to use nuclear weapons, and he didn't describe any circumstances under which a retaliatory use would be permissible...
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...To one side were his supporters, former CIA head William Colby and Senator Patrick Leahy, to the other 7 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1983 his opponents General Daniel 0. Graham and Rep...
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...You see, people like Hehir tend to win political battles in an institution like the Catholic Church because traditionalist clergymen by definition are not interested in learning whether MIRVing is a good or a bad thing...
...What Catholics in the United States need now," Gavin had written in his pamphlet, "in the bitter and divisive debate within the church over the morality of the deterrence theory of nuclear arms and the proper way to help the needy, is the wisdom, the common sense, the sensitivity and the leadership of an Athanasius...
...In Chicago, one of the Republic's most successful teachers of inner-city children, Marva Collins, insists that the desire to achieve is the result of devoted teachers holding high expectations for themselves and their students rather than low expectations...
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...Thus Hehir and the bishops have completely misstated the problem in a way that is congenial to the Soviet Union...
...As I came in I was handed a piece of paper calling Leahy's appearance in the church "a scandal to Catholics" in view of this record...
...Richard III...
...dollars...
...H I Address you want another book, or no book et all, return the card by the dale specified...
...How does one explain it...
Vol. 16 • July 1983 • No. 7
