Summer breakdown:
Bell, Robert H.
severe testing which should greet whatever proposes to be Commonweal has moved its editorial, advertising, and fuller...
...often stirring premature enthusiasms rather than the sober and Commonweal: 452 this examination take place under non-Catholic auspices...
...He gets my before new ones can be constructed and tested in the wings...
...would appear fearful of truth, hostile to inquiry, guarded However polemically attractive, these arguments all swerve against experience, suspicious of imagination...
...fully...
...He'd probably appreciate a week on the beach, and Vineyard," I replied, more-or-less calmly, "but he might I'd certainly appreciate peace of mind...
...Which is it...
...That happy solution being strange lands and finding disguised places like airports no longer possible, it would be prudent for theologians to and interstate highways, I hate wnrrirtg about whether my express themselves in extremely oblique or obscure terms...
...It sure would be great if you certain whining tone I use when inanimate objects con- could squeeze it in tomorrow...
...Scandal...
...ble, public theological questioning of established but non- As for fairness, Congress managed to reduce, not eliminate, infallible church teaching will provoke the very fragmentation the loopholes, write-offs, and shelters whose creation and and loss of authority it is meant to prevent...
...ROBERT H. BELL I cursed for a couple of hours while my wife located (Robert H. Bell teaches English at Williams College, somebody with jumper cables and the kindness to jump and airs his humor on National Public Radio...
...Oh, thank you so much...
...little cut for nearly everyone - progressivity has become the In the end, the move to exclude the possibility of responsi- first casualty of tax "reform...
...Ten thousand people on this (making the ferry, negotiating the drive, finding Route island and everybody's got a story...
...Perplexing and pressing problems of faith controverted theological questions...
...The answer still depends upon whose What about the new shift of the tax burden from individuals taxes are in question...
...It is mainly getting flexible belic institutions...
...The experience of lay people ergy will be channeled toward building the skills and tools in the world can only get filtered through the categories used needed to assure ideological conformity...
...Fill her up, Art," I say, "and you buttressing current teachings without ever concluding that better give her the usual once-over...
...The alternative is to exploitation had become a lucrative and ingenious industry by find a way of maintaining the church's identity and proclaim- which too many rich individuals and corporations weaseled ing a truth not in the tow of cultural fashion, while simultane- out of paying their fair share of taxes, and sometimes, any ously recognizing that fidelity to this truth itself requires con- share at all...
...This has been ac- the corporate tax shift, particularly via the repeal of the Incomplished in two ways, whether by design or not: first, vestment Tax Credit (ITC), a cherished government subsidy to through a preoccupation with simplicity in the tax revision business, although its benefits were recently challenged in an process...
...It's probably the battery," my rubber ring or something...
...He's "She won't start," I comment to a grimy mechanic...
...For now, the to build national tax policy...
...Meanwhile, a path toward the flat tax was quietly tors), and/or that consumers will pay the tax in the form of engineered by both parties in Congress...
...I'm sure we could come to terms for his time that "I don't expect him to make house calls to Martha's week...
...At most...
...perhaps for all identifiable Catholics (at which point, ened...
...in certain capital intensive industries, to increased efficiency At first, simplicity seemed a worthwhile goal...
...Or car will make it...
...What realistically to the problem of maintaining church unity in a was wrong...
...the mainland...
...But they believe that alike, at both the popular and scholarly levels...
...Often dubbed a group and a redress of grievances for the bottom do not quite "reform," it has also been called both a "miracle" and an balance on the scales of justice...
...Almost by definition, conducting theological theological exploration will have lost all influence...
...It has two things going for it...
...An hour or so later It is easy, perhaps too easy, to dismiss the doctrine of sotto he's fixed it...
...Get the cables, jump start the car, "Gosh, that's great...
...Otherwise they'll rebuild my engine with silly smirking...
...Obviously the understand- "No, two dollars and thirty-eight cents...
...with the new bill, this group - some six million people president and Congress self-congratulatory, entrepreneurs - will finally experience a redress of their burden by being self-pitying, universities and charities threatened, the real es- dropped from the tax rolls altogether...
...First, it is familiar to many "What's the damage, Art...
...Our, vacation this year was at Martha's Vineyard...
...Yet the media readily one but couldn't match it, so we had to .buy you a new inflates whatever is new or singular in theological discussion, one...
...The prospect of a Synod on the Laity "Jeez, Art," I stammer, with tears of gratitude in my start our car...
...went on in my head...
...For all the Catholics distressed and confused by (c) the commentaries that treat Catholic institutions as the coexistence of contending views in the church, there are as branch offices of the Vatican, and Catholic thinkers as sales many or more who are dismayed and repelled by a church that representatives...
...illusion...
...severe testing which should greet whatever proposes to be Commonweal has moved its editorial, advertising, and fuller and truer recastings of the truth the church must subscription service operations...
...Oh, don't be silly...
...Alchurch's theological efforts from the rest of the university and ready, the inability to address candidly the deep crisis in moral from intellectual life generally...
...Well," I ask, "what's the damage...
...They will find the serious consideration...
...church in which they were trained...
...Only for a minority within a minor- The further danger, given all the unknowns in a tax shuffle ity of taxpayers - those who will have enough new incentives of this magnitude, is that too many immediately-felt ill effects to forego itemizing deductions - is the new bill significantly will be lobbied into "corporate exceptions" during next year's simpler...
...Fortunately I had brought "It won't turn over," I yelled, deleting adjectives, in a along some dirt to grovel in...
...During the same period the lowest income group MIRACLE OR ILLUSION has had its meager income subject to increasing rates of taxaWhat one act has made the bond market euphoric, the tion...
...Such a justments or for governmental evaluations to be made, could move might, happily, have alarmed the public to the slippery well result in dumping parts of the corporate burden back on slide away from its former ideal of progressivity...
...Phone: (212) 732-0800...
...The basically (and sometimes rightly) appalled by today's sexual church's history is marred by teachings that were denials of standards and ready to lay responsibility for them at the feet of Christ's redemptive revelation, not embodiments of it...
...Boosting corporate taxes Now the public is being told that simplicity has in fact been has been the populist-sounding trade-off for the cuts in upperachieved: after all, are not two tax brackets significantly sim- income tax rates...
...For this kind of service, Art should be canonized...
...spire against me...
...I "Jeez, no, I kind of hoped you might be able to help steeled myself for the ordeal, but for the first few days the me...
...I tried to get you a used tions cannot be reformulated lightly...
...For the tenacity to resist the pressures of special stant and courageous self-questioning...
...The logic, once accepted, will leaf: "Rome wants flexible confessors," goes the phrase, be contagious...
...It promised a developing over time in others, to a tax break for some corponew efficiency in the offices of the IRS...
...The restriction of open theological discussion seriis dealing with non-infallible teaching...
...If that were to occur, the failure to allow an was no real push for the ultimate in flat taxation - one bracket appropriate period of time to pass for prudent corporate ad- surely, by its own logic, the simplest scheme of all...
...But of the tempting of credibility...
...We're sort of stranded without a car and no way to get Kind Gods seemed to be smiling...
...En- is necessarily closed to outsiders...
...The Vatican's conserva- and morals are going to be posed, like it or not...
...which might weaken the legitimacy of established positions Many times I've called Art with rouble...
...mind-boggler then or now...
...Narrow restricthe only way this process of change can be kept from turning tions on Catholic theological discussion will only assure that into anarchy is to require that direct questioning of official BMW doctrine be conducted sotto voce...
...Our new address is: safeguard...
...servative and our liberal instincts tell us this: it is a dead end...
...I'm the kind of guy for whom able support: once the pope or Roman congregations have those Delco radiator belt ads were invented: `' You never insisted on a teaching, theologians should do no more than know when your belt will wear out - and where you'll be circulate their doubts or objections privately...
...On the fifth day, just as I to the beach...
...the Ironical Gods sneered...
...There is a stricter view yet, but one with consider- better than most anyone...
...Predictions vary from the loss of jobs in favor of pragmatism in the battle for fairness...
...The rule of sotto by those who know the rules of the game, and whose observoce is advocated by some churchmen who consider them- vance of theological etiquette has not disqualified them from selves faithful to the vision of Vatican II...
...Commonweal: 454...
...At least, not for the taxpayer who tively nullified if the great mass of lower- and middle-income merely has to turn to the correct line on the correct table to find wage earners simply end up paying the corporate check at the the tax owed no matter how many brackets there are...
...It brought to mind rations, such as retailers, that have been subject to the visions of a one-page, E-Z tax form to be filed speedily by all...
...second, through a willingness to throw out principle article in Business Week...
...The conciliht Vision swiftly eroded by the kind of dyn*airii9fti that church will become dependent on others for the dynamic fed the anti-Modernist excesses...
...voce...
...As I pulled into Vineyard Auto Repair and eyes, "what would I do without you guys...
...for all individuals directly working for the lievers...
...Loans, full of fear and trembling, I invoked Art prayer"We're just your local, small-town service station...
...ConN. Y. 10038...
...a little and take it to the garage...
...car...
...if that proves unduly penetrable, then perhaps discussion When I absolutely have to make a trip, I take the Subaru might restrict itself to hinting at weaknesses in the arguments to Art at B&L Gulf...
...You're getting off easy for only two "Right where I can find them - hanging in the utility hundred and thirty-eight bucks...
...And two theories have emerged Simplicity, however, came to function as a smokescreen about who will bear the brunt of the "passed on" cost of the obscuring what might have become a clear and fully-blown new corporate taxes: that stockholders will, in effect, be public discussion of the merits or demerits of progressivity vs...
...culture dominated by mass media...
...Theological exploration conducted sotto voce tion or threats of excommunication becomes necessary...
...One cheer...
...Then I'll Two days later, after hitch-hiking back to Vineyard know what to say to the local felons who pose as Auto Repairs and Loans, I encounter the boss, who is mechanics...
...I exclaim...
...This merely returns them tate industry vengeful, lobbyists exhausted, and the citizenry to their pre-1978 nontaxable status...
...teachings on sexual issues has resulted in an occupational Escalation...
...wife said, opening the trunk...
...full-grown from Rome - and the understanding or practice of Besides the awesome responsibility of navigating the church be modified accordingly...
...closet at home...
...As it is, direction and any consen- list of variables is long enough to warrant caution if not sus informing it are lacking...
...higher prices for goods and services...
...twice-taxed (paying tax as individuals and as corporate investhe flat tax...
...For a bowl of porridge now - a outright skepticism about the new bill...
...A little rubber ing of the Gospel which the church hands on from past genera- ring on the piston was worn out...
...Catholic tives know that non-infallible teaching can change, indeed that teachings will be debated, by Catholics and non-Catholics even infallible teaching can be rethought...
...assures me, and starts to work...
...Art knows my psyche themselves...
...whole has suffered a loss...
...to corporations...
...Two-thirty-eight...
...and Art...
...Why any theologian who has ever dared deviate from Father Kelly's believe that this history is entirely behind us...
...Sotto voce can mean different things...
...putty and bandaids and charge me six hundred bucks...
...from the central issue: the legitimacy of public discussion of Abdication...
...Not really...
...We'll try to get to it 128 when Route 95 veers off, coddling the radiator belt), tomorrow or the next day...
...1 better call Art...
...element in its thinking, while its own criteria for responsible Hypocrisy...
...At least, that is, when the children are listening - when the debate might escape the SUMMER BREAKDOWN confines of the theological community and have reverbera- ON BEING TAKEN FOR A RIDE tions among the faithful generally...
...It might have the individual taxpayer, with most of the fallout hitting the revived the debate about what is a proper philosophy on which middle- or lower-income groups...
...Art asks...
...A condescending (and theology cannot easily stop with a few dramatic actions against unexplicated) concept of "pastoral" practice serves as a fig scholars in pontifical faculties...
...Look at the record in context: the top income group has had its tax rate slashed from 70 percent in 1981 to 28 percent with the new bill...
...The situation can only worsen if the clamps are tightchurch...
...And how will the middle class fare in such a Already, however, almost imperceptibly, the nation as a changed economic climate...
...Hitch-hiking back to the beach house, a little light bulb "Call Art from Martha's Vineyard at suppertime...
...Next summer, instead of taking my asked my wife gently, the way you'd ask a guy if he really family and a baby-sitter to the beach, I'll take my family wants to jump off the World Trade Center...
...there this year's bill...
...Modern Youth and Chastity...
...12 'September 1986: 453 under such conditions is a sorry spectacle...
...review process - the Technical Corrections Act - unraveling The.rhetoric of simplicity causes us to wonder why...
...If theologians could dispute in a sufficiently unknown language (Latin...
...It is a path neither interest lobbyists, thereby restoring to government a measure clearly mapped nor smoothly paved...
...be able to explain the parameters of the disaster...
...servatives should be as aware of the reasons as liberals: Sin...
...for want of institutional leverage, the resort to public denuncia- Exclusion...
...No supermarket or department-store cash register...
...In all cases, what when it does...
...The enforcement of a sotto voce discipline in schizophrenia among church leaders...
...Where do you keep the "Nah, we had to replace the starter...
...ously underestimates the problem of the church's own failings, (b) the expressions of undifferentiated outrage from those its hardness of heart in both hearing and living the Gospel...
...maximum corporate rate...
...15 Dutch Street, 5th floor, New York, But the realism of a sotto voce theology is spurious...
...The notion of progressive taxation For weeks the financial pages have been full of predictions - that those most able to pay should pay at higher rates - has about what may happen to the nation's economy as a result of slipped from the national consciousness...
...bishops, being essentially the practice of the pre-conciliar "Two thirty-eight...
...Had to ship it from jumper cables...
...dya make an appointment or what...
...for instance, then debate might go boldly forward, behind closed doors as it were, until some T His St1MMER proved a universal point: the only thing indeterminate moment in the future when either the old views more trying than a vacation is a vacation with your would be roundly affirmed or a revised consensus could spring car...
...Second, it seems to respond "Two hundred and thirty-eight dollars...
...such weaknesses indicate a need for change in the teachings `'Going out of town...
...Congress deserves a cheer, but not nearly the authoritarian road again beckoning the church, both our con- amount of ticker tape it has been showering upon itself...
...But this distributional "deal" will be effecpler than fifteen...
...A sharp differentiation between the habits of public one of certainty and affirmation, the quiet one of comCatholic theology and the commitment of the scholarly com- plexity, question, and doubt, Dissimulation, on the part of munity to testing ideas by open discussion will isolate the both theologians and bishops, becomes second nature...
...Cut to forlorn pilgrim trekking through cannot be tolerated is the kind of open and clear discussion the Sahara Desert...
...Time will tell...
...consistency will be demanded - for all Catho- "not flexible theologians...
...was beginning to worry in earnest about the return trip "Save the sob story, Mac...
...What was it...
...DiGo-Go...
...The present tax bill, of course...
...discussion sotto voce requires speaking in two tongues, the Isolation...
...already the Patron Saint of my Subaru, the Guru of "Hey, fella, we'll do the diagnosis," he snarls...
...A windfall for the top confused...
Vol. 113 • September 1986 • No. 15
