CORRESPONDENCE
CORRESPONDENCE Taxing Gifts Bethesda, Md. To the Editors: The error in 'Taxing Educational Gifts," by William E. Johnston, Jr., [Oct. 10, 1975] is so substantial that it vitiates his conclusion....
...Apparently success or failure was subjectively determined by the "reporter...
...Expressions such as "knock-down" and "knock-out" do not appear in the original report...
...And in view of recent Commonweal articles, {vide Abigail McCarthy and others), that have been supportive of women's rights, I wondered if Father Hillman subconsciously rejects this concept except in Westernized society...
...The gifts are all tax deductible...
...KENNETH AMAN Department of Philosophy and Religion Montclair State College Montclair, New Jersey New York, N.Y...
...and a tax deduction claimed, the rich person does not get to keep the money or property...
...If a religion cannot maintain an ideal-which, it should be needless to say, means a single standard-for such fundamental relationships as the conjugal state of men and women, what is its purpose...
...Would it be fair to tax the money given as though it had been kept...
...Reply I believe Mr...
...Aman...
...The whole effort was received with reserve and even anger by Blacks, Chicanos, women, etc...
...Perhaps the only way that tiie pluralist bias of the social sciences and the sense of a single truth which is essential to Catholicism (or any religion) are to be reconciled is for the church to recognize that it is not essential for that polygamist husband to become Christian and accept the monogamist dogma...
...at 70 percent the tax on income would be $3150...
...He reduces his tax, he gets to keep $7,000...
...Herein lies the problem for any religion which seeks to arrive at (a) a standard and (b) a religious community which are both catholic...
...if one is going to describe the oppression of another, he/ she had better get it right" Perhaps Mr...
...21] Eugene Hillman makes a provocative case for a more catholic approach to defining ideal marriage...
...Without passing any value judgments on the situation, it is still a sad reflection that we in the West forget too often the price that others pay while we are concerned with equal pay for equal work and a greater influence over our own life decisions...
...Aman's report was called, one must wonder where some of the "reporters" such as Mr...
...But I wish Professors Bethea and Edwards had been more dear in the reasons for their anger...
...Aman continues, one does liberation theology at his/ her own risk...
...So Professor Gutierrez scored a "knock-down" by his absence on the first day, and a "knock-out" or "home-run" when he arrived...
...But the more important error is the contention that in giving away $10,000 the donor gets to keep $7,000...
...To the Editors: In "Reconsidering Polygamy" [Nov...
...rather it is its insistance that everyone must become Christian and conform to that norm...
...21], but then I am proudly atheist and anticlerical...
...In any event, however much the- Marxian analysis of the Latin Americans accounted for their actual contact with the liberation processes, Mr...
...when a donation is made...
...I think that, in asking, for instance, whether a "missionary [must] tell polygamist husbands that, if they wish to become Christians, they must first divorce the mothers of their own children," he shows a profound misunderstanding of the nature of religion...
...And, surely, when one- is reporting in Commonweal, one ought to at least try to "get the story right...
...That advantage, I believe, is rooted in their Marxian praxis...
...Aman did not understand the process...
...To the Editors.-1 find myself in almost complete sympathy with Eugene Hill-man's notions in "Reconsidering Polygamy" [Nov...
...Aroan's "report...
...All too much of what I have read reported in the various religious journals gives the impression that those who were there to "report," thought that instead of dialogue between persons with different responses to liberation theology, the conference was supposed to be an arena of competing theological positions...
...I quote one simple example from Mr...
...Parenthetically, shouldn't the editors of a journal with literary airs guard against such usage, replete with unnecessary suffixes, as "historicity" for "history...
...Has it occurred to the hypothetical missionary, mentioned in the quote above, that he should stop evangelizing for a moment...
...First, stock which has appreciated and is then sold is taxed as- capital gain, not as regular income...
...The charitable contribution is deducted from gross income to determine the remainder to (Continued on page 29) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 3) be taxed...
...I have not had occasion to evaluate the second provision but, as to the first, Mr...
...However, in reading some of the "views from Detroit" as Mr...
...and "conceptualization and structuring" for "concept and structure," to draw my examples from just one paragraph...
...WILLIAM E. JOHNSTON, JR...
...The ERA should not be seen, for example, as liberation of American women to exercise options, and only that...
...No North American theologian, Protestant or Catholic, could be expected to offer a single theology of liberation...
...Our Latin American counterparts have an almost insurmountable advantage over white middle-class theologians (and academicians such as myself) in understanding liberation processes...
...that the task thrust upon him was just impossible...
...It may be sacrificed for socio-economic security,' and for cultural traditions that deserve bur respect But her rights have been abrogated...
...Apparently," Mr...
...Dutton whether as a matter of principle he believes that this donor who exercises charitable self-taxation at the 70 percent rate should nevertheless pay income tax on $100,000...
...Assume a donor with $100,000 income per year regularly gives away $70,000 per year to his/her alma mate>, to charities for the blind, to a private home for the retarded, to cancer research, and to a place of worship...
...The whole point of my report was that liberation theologies are emerging from different struggles, and that each is learning-painfully-to respect the other...
...But the gift of the stock (and its future income) must be made in order to reduce the taxable amount...
...Joseph b. bethea Director of Black Church Studies HERBERT O. EDWARDS Associate Professor of Black Church Studies Duke University Reply I do not mind-too much-assuming the risks of reporting...
...There is, to me, a rather pleasant irony at work in this character-a pluralist with Catholic pretensions-which I hope is not lost...
...Aman, were, during the proceedings [Sept...
...Professor Aman is apparently from that school of religious journalism that feels it has the "religious" license to appeal to uninspired and non-creative imagination to provide the interest that it is feared honest reporting might not evince...
...The donor does this year after year and lives on the undonated portion of income ($30,000...
...phyllis l. collins Shorewood, Wise...
...Does one of the tribal chiefs 300 wives in the Cameroons feel her own unique dignity as a person...
...Johnston is obviously wrong when he writes...
...This prospect does not bother me, but doubtless it would not be well received by Father Hillman...
...Dutton objects to some escaping taxation...
...GEORGE B. DUTTON, JR...
...Where were you, Professors Bethea and Edwards, on August 21...
...To the Editors: It is unquestionably true that many of us who went to Detroit as participant-observers, went with various and mixed emotions and expectations...
...KICK INMAN...
...By such means and' other loopholes, wealthy men, while admittedly slowly eroding their estates, have avoided paying any income tax at all...
...Johnston argues that proposed legislation disallowing deductions for the amount of capital gain in gifts of appreciated property and discontinuing or apparently limiting the tax-free status of estates left to charitable insti-tuitions will not close tax loopholes for the rich but will tax charitable institutions such as colleges and universities...
...It would appear, then, .that when one is going to report the responses of others, one does so at his/her own risk...
...The "reporters" were there as score-keepers, umpires, and referees...
...accounted for his assumption that the Blacks, at any rate, were angry with Professor Herzog...
...In the example Mr...
...Any attempt, by the church, to embrace intrinsically contradictory doctrines cannot but result in a debilitation of its moral authority...
...Reporting Back Durham, N.C...
...I would not challenge the viability of polygamy, but something vital is tost...
...is constitutive or for "constitutes...
...In fact, none of the $10,000 is kept...
...Dutton commits two mistakes, one of which I tried to warn of in my article...
...Marriage involves persons...
...This is simply a matter of fact, but personally I have never witnessed a clearer sense of anger and dissatisfaction to a theological presentation...
...A good deal of the language is theirs, not mine...
...The fact is he does get to keep the money, or a large part of it...
...who were the etc...
...I would ask Mr...
...Frederick Herzog made a valiant at-tempt from the Protestant side, but his Barthian approach could not match the Latin Americans' more Marxian analyses for actual contact with liberation processes...
...Which brings us to Frederick Herz-og's presentation...
...Suppose a donor in the 70% income tax bracket gives away stock now worth $10,000 which he bought years ago for $1,000...
...Allen Tate hit upon the problem for Christians when he wrote, in his essay "What is Literary Criticism?," that he would not discuss the social sciences because he had no proof that they did not exist...
...And I heartily agree that Westernized values and attitudes should never be used as moral yardsticks to measure civilization expressed in other cultures...
...And when he did arrive on Friday, his emotional identification with Blacks, Chicanos and women in the United States became symbolic of the liberation about which all were talking...
...My interpretation of the response was that it was not in fact Herzog's fault at all...
...The problem is not Catholicism's maintenance of a single standard...
...In a less than perfect world the rights-and duties within this institution admk to an infinite variety of structures and relationships which "work" or do not A norm does not exist But without imposing Westernized living patterns on the majority of the world, can we not uphold a concept of marriage that provides (potentially, at least) a framework Within which personhood is enhanced...
...However, I believe one critical fact is obscured by his persuasive arguments...
...cultural embeddedness" for only God knows what...
...So do I. But consider the following...
...A further interpretation was implied by my comment about the Marxian analyses...
...Its essential raison d'etre is the recognition that women are human beings, wherever they live...
...Significantly, the only attempt to draw up a genuine North American liberation theology ended in dismal failure...
...Beware of the single or "simple" example...
...Aman's lack of contact with "Blacks, Chicanos, women," etc...
...Dutton provides, only $4500 would be taxable...
...Is it the criticism of Bethea and Edwards that there was not a negative response such as I described...
...And why do they introduce terms such as "score-keepers" and "umpires...
Vol. 103 • January 1976 • No. 1
