Nursery screams
Bell, Robert H.
moving determinedly into the mainstream, propelled by strong GOP...
...And PAT ROBERTSON is a God-hearing, tongues-speaking, the integrity of his faith allows no room for compromise...
...Marpay now find themselves without effec- thousand dollars for an office and a staff tin's, 1982...
...It seems possible that a deeper familiarity advancing religious demagoguery...
...And should fully politicized Christian Right to the ultimate test with the Robertson, in the course of his explanations, upset one of ultimate elective office would finally quantify that power...
...Our two-year-old daughter Mussolini make you Prisoners of Conscience this month...
...He is miracle-believing, dominion-taking, prosperity- defined by convictions whose foundation is eternal, unassailaclaiming, demon-binding, born-again biblical literalist...
...Having put in a solid 20 percent parents, for example - the very people who once waxed of the work, I fear that something has to give...
...She says it won't be that much of a deprivation Dear Mr...
...help...
...If he Yesterday's little political surprises become today's big news, wins, bingo...
...A lot of Yuppie Papas The other guest on the show was Margaret Mead, who drivel about the joys of "parenting" and "actualizing didn't treat Omar Sharif s view very respectfully...
...being subjected, as DAUGHTER: I don't want the blue tights, they don't you put it, to "blood-curdling screams night and day, match...
...Sharif, not just another pretty face but a bridge player, took umbrage and asked what women do that is so important...
...20-80 --- but who's count- against Omar Sharif...
...And it would surely arouse The supposed political power of the Christian Right in the Silent Variable...
...Janet Scott Barlow has written for Chronicles, Parents (Perhaps its members made a difference in the 1984 presiden- Magazine, Marriage and Family Living, and the Cincinnati tial election, but they obviously didn't make the difference, so Post...
...and airs his humor on National Public Ra~lh...
...Talk about a Role Model and a Renaissance NURSERY SCREAMS Man' PRISONERS OF CIRCUMSTANCE Sharing the business of giving birth, educating the young, tending the sick, and maintaining civilization in my house has given me new insight into The Bridge Question...
...It can't be Robertson...
...It fundamentalism's several subgroups, he will be the agent of would certainly reveal that, in political terms, the potential to anything but Christian unity...
...These are the people who are called anti-God adulatory...
...A nun is trying to explain tive retirement and health programs...
...He said, "The reason women aren't report that two adults, working flat-out, full-time, can just any good at bridge is that they aren't logical...
...After their potential...
...The attitude mediately preceded by stories in the na- the pastoral...
...welfare...
...AIDS, nonsubscribers - depending on their interpretaion of What's wrong with this picture...
...When the going gets tough I am There is truly no rest or comfort for the weary...
...and excrement" resembles torture tactics Ten minutes later, having scoured the entire house, I common to tyrants everywhere...
...He is now Robertson poses a triple threat: (1) should Pat Robertson run a marathon...
...listen to Dire Straits - and still run Commonweal: 392 for president, every one of a supposed 22 million fundamen- The issue, of course, is not the validity of the Christian talist votes is his, simply on the basis of common spiritual and Right's principles, but the translation of those principles into moral values...
...His authority among his "followers" depends to a very great extent on the integrity of his faith...
...I agree with Bill Cosby that until ergy...
...Somehow I knew Margaret Mead wasn't going to say, "their make-up...
...Granted, the dimensions of the problem of the sisters' poverty has been hidden, even from the bishops, over the THE TIMING was less than felicitous...
...We now have two little girls, aged one month I T'S NOT TRUE that raising children saps all your en- and almost three years...
...Second, it fails to to the character of serious presidential candidates...
...Robertson is said to have scored a "coup" in MichiSilent Variable...
...make the point on the Dick Cavett Show...
...These, in turn, have existed historically outside the Christian mainstream...
...WAAAAH...
...The They are unlikely to quiet down voluntarily, having disgreat mistake of political analysts is to assume that the second covered, in their own numbers and financial resources, naof the above characterizations has any real bearing on the first...
...the body of Christ.' "Will sees this as a losing proposition for A "political" story as interesting and as relevant as the the Republican party,, worrying that Robertson "might taint Michigan test appeared with less fanfare a week later, when it the GOP with peculiarity and extremism...
...Welcome to the rest of and "repressive" by liberals when they reject the idea that America...
...ble, absolute...
...I can't find the red tights...
...For the whole story you need a reliable narrator...
...I mean, I've had time to get born, become educated, get measles...
...nomic house," wrote John J. Fialka in THE-;CHURCH'S CARE OF ITS OWN the Wall Street Journal...
...In short, welcome to the world beyond Nielsen by religious conservatives when they question school prayer, ratings and sympathetic contributors...
...Robertson and was reported that "fundamentalist preachers from coast to Will notwithstanding, it seems that the greater risk of a coast" have prepared a "prayer hit list" and are "praying for Robertson campaign would be to the Christian Right itself...
...So far the bishops have provided a excellent novel about a community in ters,,who made the parochial school sys- sixty-thousand-dollar emergency fund extremis by Sister Irene Mahoney, tem possible by teaching for little or no and earmarked two hundred and fifty O.S.U...
...And to make further studies...
...With all best wishes that in these trying times you will DAUGHTER: George wants his shirt...
...has become a little more bossy and demanding since her Prisoners of ' Conscience must be nominated, riot prosister arrived...
...It is not, however, natural instead to cast their votes as citizens...
...A more re- years...
...They are the analysts...
...lengthy delegate selection process, that threat is again being These Americans become a political "group" simply by their examined seriously - almost breathlessly - by political refusal to fall neatly into any political group...
...I want the red Your description of life with an infant and a two-yeartights...
...I for one have had the time to make a great your second kid is born, you're not really parents, you're a scientific discovery: I now know why more women couple with a child...
...Its conclusion is that it will which prevailed in many small comtional press about the dire economic take at least $2 billion to right the situa- munities is realistically explored in an plight of,America's aging nuns...
...Exactly is a segment of Americans that sees itself as neither sliding what is he going to buy...
...and Mrs...
...This intolerance is simply natural - were expected to vote for one of "their own" and decided to the character of fundamentalism...
...morality has to be relative...
...Robertson's religious/political bind: if such practices are Should Pat-Robertson run for president, the explanations he "scriptural," he cannot refute them...
...her order's predicament to a lay friend...
...We were disturbed by your statement that although you DAUGHTER: George wants his shirt...
...These are the people who are My wife and 1, of course, share the responsibilities of In this state I wouldn't want to play bridge - not even parenthood 50-50...
...In a theology that claims a biblical basis Robertson's large financial wellspring seals the case for num- for everything from a Soviet foreign policy to the existence of bers one and two...
...is, and I have to get to work...
...A neat trick, yes...
...Well...
...coincidental releases...
...or, God forbid, more) can you really call yourself "parI've wondered about that ever since I saw Omar Sharif ents...
...lence would permanently disqualify you from consideraFATHER (seething): I don't know where George's shirt tion for Prisoners of Conscience status...
...free speech, their understanding of the will of God, and their For one thing, it ignores a parallel from the 1984 election, in party affiliation - are judged as less than moral, less than which American women - another "special interest group" spiritual, less than patriotic...
...return with the red tights...
...But that's not the whole aren't grand master bridge players is, "They have more story...
...Putting the implied power of a doctrinal nit-picking and hair-splitting...
...And seeking professional help, we rehour runs every afternoon because "she needs a little ceived this disappointing response to our plea...
...11 July 1986: 393 forever balancing their commitment to a moral life and moral lopsided was Ronald Reagan's victory...
...will receive their greatest scrutiny from his fellow fundamen- That bind can only tighten if Robertson pursues the Repubtalists, - a group historically given to almost compulsive lican presidential nomination...
...sion "constituency" and an enormous amount of money...
...DAUGHTER: I don't want the blue tights...
...Jimmy Swaggart alone on an off influence is also the potential to antagonize...
...posed by themselves...
...It would likely day can yank the best of them through a doctrinal keyhole, and publicize the conflict and competition that have always existed he remains ever watchful for the opportunity...
...An Accidental Grace, St...
...With Pat Robertson's culture with their desire to live and let live...
...He is also a very successful entrepreneur, a well-educated, If the "give" won't come from Robertson, neither will it attractive, and articulate man with a large, ready-made televi- come from his supporters in the conservative Christian Right...
...among conservative Protestants...
...the death of their foes," one foe being Supreme Court Justice The risk is two-fold, putting at stake both its present appear- William Brennan...
...Admittedly...
...Eventually, something will have to give...
...JANET SCOTT BARLOW recentyears has existed mainly as an implied power, a threat...
...but as a serious presidenwill be forced to give (repeatedly) on the "religious issue" tial aspirant, he cannot endorse them...
...moving determinedly into the mainstream, propelled by strong GOP primaries political views that are founded on specific and uncompromisI ing religious convictions...
...He made the After a full month of really being a parent I am here to point very forcefully...
...what he, Robertson, considers "a `win-win' proposition...
...relying on public assistance...
...recent showing in the first stage of Michigan's complex and but somebody's got to do it...
...Secretary-General, Amnesty International MOTHER: Honey, it doesn't help to lose your temper...
...ROBERT H. BELL FATHER: I'M NOT LOSING MY TEMPER, I'M LOS- (Robert H. Bell teaches English at Williams College, ING MY MIND...
...tional visibility and respectability (especially the latter...
...But we have seen this kind of reaction before...
...At a given point he what can only be called an aggressive longing for respectabilbecomes irreducible...
...If he looses, the attempt `would still bring unity to to be forgotten by tomorrow's fresh surprises...
...Access beyond his natural audience to toward hell on a moral banana peel nor requiring rescue from the public at large...
...sleeplessness...
...old, while heartrending, seems to our committee less FATHER (gently, patiently): Sweetheart, wear the blue compelling than what is happening in Chilean prisons and tights...
...many:,bave been reduced to applying for Business reporters with advance They must, she tells him, sell "St...
...Our intermittently available...
...Although Margaret Mead took the wind out of Omar's sails, the bridge question still nagged me over the years: why couldn't a woman give birth, educate the young, tend the sick, maintain civilization, and score an occasional grand slam...
...Russian mental hospitals...
...George Will has written that Pat Robertson is looking at Maybe so...
...3) in their own society...
...George is her doll...
...have neither used nor advocated violence, "how long this a little monkey who is nearly as bossy as Mussolini and...
...The sis- tion...
...about cope with two children...
...My wife said - can chuckle knowingly and recount horror stories about our you believe this...
...Bell: because I could easily log eighteen miles a day running I am sorry to say that Amnesty International cannot around the house...
...gan, emerging as a "new force" in presidential politics...
...It's nice to hear that they like to change she stopped laughing she said the reason more women diapers and bathe their kids...
...2) those particular values are prevalent enough political decisions that carry judgment on other citizens' place among nonfundamentalists to bring him even more votes...
...There are people who bewith Robertson's particular views, combined with the consid- lieve it's all right for Pat Robertson to declare who are "the eration of him for president, might prompt voters to offer him a enemies of the Lord" - as long as he isn't running the country "message" of their own, and that message wouldn't be at the same time...
...Trump...
...Placed in a national context, Robertson's beliefs can be seen in their real social and POLITICAL IMMERSION political proportions - proportions that appear strikingly ROBERTSON TESTS THE WATERS small...
...MEAD: Oh -- give birth, educate dhe young, tend the sick, and maintain civilization...
...I remain, FATHER: Listen, if you don't shut up and get dressed, I Yours truly, Henry Hope am going to kick George's butt right through the window...
...economy, are facing a large moral problem in their own ecoMOBS THAN COINCIDENCE...
...important things to do than play silly games...
...that I couldn't take two-and-a-half childhood antics...
...Conservative Christians share with liberals the notion that Pat Robertson is first and last a religious figure...
...As long ago as 1981 a bishops' copies of this recent survey in hand were Aidan's," their school and convent: survey showed at least one thousand nuns not slow to point out the irony of the "But after all these years there . Commonweal: 394...
...ity...
...The American Of several minds: Abigail McCarthy bishops "who for two years have been deliberating how to improve the moral quality of the U.S...
...Revelations like this one expose ance of spiritual unity and its future political potency...
...The first lyrically on the subject of babies and family life - now thing to give will be my marathons...
...To Robertson may be more than his religious convictions and view most religious broadcasting is to see countless forms of practices, but he certainly is no less...
...Religious orders, guarding their The release of the bishops' third cent study, Retirement Needs Survey of independence and unprepared for longdraft of the economics pastoral United States Religious, was slated for range planning, have tended to keep their called Economic Justice for All was im- release in the same week as the draft of troubles to themselves...
...keep the faith...
...And somebody always has...
...will remain true we cannot say," Any evidence of vioaccording to my daughter, "doesn't like the baby...
...It's a solid 20...
...Only when you are taking care of two haven't become grand master bridge players...
...consider the possibility that the constriction of Robertson's Unaccounted for in the recent presumption and speculation beliefs renders his money, in a sense, meaningless...
Vol. 113 • July 1986 • No. 13
