In Solitary Witness
Cutter, John
for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits." Sheila Cassidy has given eloquent testimony to that audacious faith. I In...
...2. That the efforts of some religious groups to enact the absolutist position on abortion in effect would enforce one religious belief on those who believe otherwise...
...It only argues that the redeemed who misuse TV need to be more redeemed and more selective at the tuning dials...
...Zahn does not expect all to be saints...
...In no way is our organization attempting to "disenfranchise all religious viewpoints form an active engagement in the political process," as you claim...
...They force us to probe the limits of our conscience and our faith, pointing to the weaknesses in our moral and spiritual lives and, in comparison, trivializing our ethical choices...
...Only poor women who determine that abortion is a moral choice are denied a right to conscience...
...Muggeridge sees TV involved in a vast brainwashing operation that corrupts all traditional standards and values, leaving us awash in a sea of erotic and selfcentered fantasy...
...The influence of religion should not only be countenanced but should be celebrated when it advances what I want advanced...
...Gordon Zahn, who has written on German Catholic capitulation to the Nazis at length in German Catholics and Hitler's Wars...
...that religious communities are responsible for endangering dissent against all injustice...
...Earl A. Weis, S.J., ~ LoyolaU niversityo f Chicago Chairman 6525 Nooth St'mr=dan Road Chicago...
...The story is fairly well-known now, with editions in several languages...
...MASTER OF ARTS IN THEOLOGY 9 Scripture Studies 9 Historical-Systematic Theology 9 Spirituality Courses SUMMER SESSION BEGINS JUNE 18,1979 Department of Theology ~,lr~, ( contact: Sister Mary Peter McG=nty...
...Illinois 60626 AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EDUCATOR/EMPLOYER...
...Religious Comm on wea l: 60 men must, as Js refuse to participate in what they deem unjust or immoral...
...We would fight just as hard against a reverse Hyde Amendment that only paid for abortions and sterilization to preserve the religious and conscientious decision of pregnant women for whom childbirth is the moral course...
...and the complete text of nine "commentaries" he wrote before his imprisonment...
...Zahn sees in Jffgerstfi'tter's act--in his unwaveri.g commitment to his conscience, despite numerous pleas to serve from his family, friends and priests--an example which should challen_ge all to reassess their order of priorities...
...In your attempt to describe our position, you have caricatured our faith stance with insensitivity...
...As a plaintiff in the suit McRae vs...
...When there are so many varying religious viewpoints on abortion our concern is that the force and power of goverment in the Hyde Amendment supports one religious viewpoint to the exclusion of all others...
...Zahn draws conclusions here similar to those in his other works, specifically, that no one ought to render automatic support to "legitimate authority...
...Jesus himself was a communicator but Muggeridge claims that had the Lord himself met with a fourth temptation in the desert, this time an offer to preach the Gospel on prime TV, he would have turned down the temptation and preferred the way of the cross as the means of communicating his message...
...The cynic who was skeptical of American evangelists has become an apostle of the Kingdom...
...and, thereby interfere with our free exercise of roligion...
...but abuse of God's blessing is no valid argument against proper use...
...Zahn, the pacifist, is not directly concerned with that philosophy here but with "the ever-recurring confrontation between Caesar and Christ...
...Malcolm Muggeridge, one of Britain's best known TV personalities, airs his colossal contempt for all the media in this little volume comprising three lectures with audience responses...
...In this suit I was one of the witnesses for the defense who attempted to document the many and necessary ways in which moral judgment informed by religious belief interacts with public policy in a democratic society...
...8] lifts up most of the crucial questions in a case that has received all too little attention...
...Since Commonweal is edited by and (mainly) for Catholics, it is understandWhy toy with translations, when you can learn the real thing...
...Dec...
...JOHN C ~ Correspondence (Continued from page 34) pose" for legislation which our Constitution requires...
...and that the individual Christian must inform his conscience to be able to make ethical decisions and take individual moral responsibility...
...You speak of the constitutional rights of religious groups, particularly of Catholics, who do not wish to see their taxes used for a medical procedure which they hold to be immoral...
...Altogether, this is an excellent book to keep handy when some inspiration, or a little ego-deflation is needed...
...To the Editors: Your editorial "Do Catholics Have Constitutional Rights...
...instead, he wants all to realize that "no witness is wasted...
...JOHN B. SHEERIN IN SOLITARY WITNESS: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF FRANZ J.~GERSTATTER, by Gordon Zahn, The Liturgical Press, $4.95 paper [277pp...
...3. That the tragic effect of the Hyde Amendment on poor women to coerce unwanted and health threatening childbirth, extra legal abortion and sterilization is inconsistent with our moral and ethical practice of religion...
...they act out of enlightened and universal principles rather than sectarian motives, and they act as free citizens not under intellectual duress...
...The assumption, not very well hidden, is that of course their engagement is different...
...C.SJ...
...Moreover the Medicaid program guarantees recipients freedom of conscience in decisions about medical care...
...Reissuing the bc• now, just as the memory of Vietnam is fading, is a significant and timely gesture...
...BIBLICAL GREEK AND HEBREW SUMMER LANGUAGE PROGRAM June 4- July 27 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Princeton, New Jersey 08540 Princeton Theological Seminary admits students of any race, color and national or ethnic origin and without regard to sex or handicap...
...In his Jesus Rediscovered (1969) he revealed his new-born faith in Jesus and now finds TV and the other media irreconcilable with Christian faith...
...The enfant terrible who charmed, provoked and infuriated his British audiences is here at his creative best in this volume, at least in his dexterous felicity with words and his colorful imagery, but his generic condemnation of all media is just too, too much...
...These writings are distinguished for their extensive knowledge of the Bible (he was a sexton) and for their acute perception of the conflict between duty to country and faith in God, a commitment above that to nation, community or family...
...Then too, it seems to some of our separated sisters of the Methodist Women's Division that anxiety about the unborn or about the definition of human life is so patently non-rational that it could only be prompted by dogma reinforced by ecclesiastical coercion...
...It saves your soul, and maybe the souls of some others...
...Obviously not...
...By either idealizing their suffering--stressing the "solace" they found in death--or by viewing them as extreme religious fanatics, we quell the uneasiness their stories inevitably cause...
...The issue here is not a question of valid religious participation in societal concerns, but rather one of control...
...They do not challenge the bishops' more reasonable efforts to influence legislation on housing, unemployment, and a host of other issues on which "people of good will" are of like mind...
...treats Jffgerstfi'tter as a possible saint, at one point drawing a somewhat strained parallel to St...
...Those who view blood transfusions as a sacrilege are entitled to alternate treatment...
...2 February 1979:61...
...If your logic were to be followed, how would you regard the constitutional rights of tax paying Jehovah's Witnesses who deem blood transfusions abhorrent...
...EVE W. PAUL Director of Legal Services Planned Pare.nthood Federation Widening the gap New York, N.Y...
...To the Editors: The thoughtful editorial on McRae v. Califano [Dec...
...You have misrepresented the position of this organization...
...I In brief CHRIST AND THE MEDIA, by Malcolm Muggeridge, Eerdmans, $5.95 [123 pp...
...Martyrs disturb the general calm of our lives...
...He says: "If you want to know my absolutely candid opinion, I think the best thing to do is not to look at television and to that end, I have, as has been said, disposed of my set...
...The book, which was originally published in 1964 to record the thenunheralded "heroic sacrifice," is divided into two parts: a narrative-analysis of the events leading up to Jffgerstfftter's execution in Berlin, compiled from letters from prison and interviews with relatives, friends and several priests and prison chaplains he encountered...
...Franz Jffgerstfftter's life is not so quickly objectified as sainthood or subjectified as insanity...
...I was struck by the uncanny climate of a hearing in which socially activist Christians--in this case Methodists--were pleading that the government should prohibit precisely the kinds of activities in which they are themselves so deeply engaged...
...TV and other communications media have unquestionably been exploited or misused...
...Should their religious code be imposed on Medicaid recipients who do not hold such religious beliefs...
...In short, they are not Roman Catholics...
...Califano, The Women's Division, Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church, has attempted to present to the court these basic points: 1. That a conscientious decision whether to terminate or continue a pregnancy in accordance with the principles of responsible parenthood is a religious obligation for us...
...Thomas More...
...This young, uneducated Austrian peasant-farmer and father of three daughters was beheaded in 1943 for refusing to serve in Hitler's army in a war which he considered unjust and ufider a regime which persecuted his church...
...You do not seem to comprehend the depth of our faith commitment in a matter such as this, which has compelled us to plead before the court for our right toffee exercise of religious conscience and that of other women who hold similar beliefs...
...8], has succeeded in widening the gap of understanding of the abortion rights crisis among religious groups...
...THERESSA HOOVER Associate General Secretary Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church Bcn.ing their clause New York, N.Y...
...Our history as an organization which views social concern as resting at the .aeart of Christian mission would pre:lude such a stance...
Vol. 106 • February 1979 • No. 2
