A dangerous equation:

...ads, PAC contributions, and overall spending...

...176 to 36) are said to have failed in "their duty as Catholics," Indeed, big spending appears to have been unrewarding and are now liable to have Communion denied them unless enough to lend new life to reform proposals, like limits on TV they make a "public retraction of the sin...

...finally, that what we think of as religion Of several minds: John Garvey and what we think of as morality have relatively little to do with one another...

...I thought I did monastically...

...It is of moving towards a new form of the reasonable and acceptable form of birth vital that we understand how little even church Dostoyevski warns us against in control, or whether the state should be our best instincts and moral passions "The Grand Inquisitor...

...It doesn't give any comthat racism is reasonable are wrong...

...I am also unsure in many cases life...

...A set of connections between Our attachment to our ideas fills emobut for many Christians - not only Christianity, morality, and law can be tional needs which often have nothing to politicians aiming at re-election and found on the left-wing side of church do with the ideas themselves, and we are people who want to prove their morality politics as well...

...so have of this array of problems, and I think, the other wrong, with regard to such imCommonweal: 614 portant questions as whether abortion is a which we instinctively want to share...

...Who withheld Communion from the torturous TANGO ARGENTINA Argentine juntas of yesterday...

...polls of state lottery schemes...

...When most crippling illnesses, all of the truly desired ends are not Christianity's high- Nigerian planes strafed starving Biafran important questions would remain...

...All are right, to a very sonal or the social level, we are speaking down on the farm (and away from the important extent...

...Even the lob- Granted, there may be exceptional issues which merit the byists who manage PACs are grumbling that they're being heavy hand of the hierarchy in direct intervention with polititaken for a ride...

...tina...

...Not yet...

...If it were possible to abolish all such subjects but has no specific political Christian, who without hating his weapons from the face of the earth, reagenda...

...join the resistance to Hitler, despite the forms, educate the ignorant, and end the What I want to suggest is that even those fact that this might involve killing...

...I am against all of the of what we think matters most in human sheep) unless you threaten them with above...

...preferable to allowing the slaughter of world's deepest problems can't be anThe Jews whose country the Romans the innocent...

...Those who op- have to do with God's love for us...

...these days, when people who are against It is easy to see why morality, includYour average right-wing Christian tends pornography and nuclear war and racism ing social morality, matters so much to to agree with this simple-minded non- in South Africa and abortion all claim us...

...threshold many Democrats managed to reach, more is better Deputies in the lower house who voted for the bill last August but not much better...

...It could be that who have to choose between the green Christian politics is like Christian nutrishoe and the orange monkey, a choice tion or Christian proctology, a concept which makes wonderful sense in a dream which we ought to avoid...

...parent indifference to the most important pose apartheid are correct to do so, and In the past I believed that nonviolence social justice questions of his age ought those who believe, however sincerely, was essential to Christianity...

...And is divorce the primary issue...

...When we speak of the way people sense, in practice and even at times in some religious sanction for their various should or should not behave, at the pertheory: how are you going to keep them points of view...

...That may be what makes morality the just and the unjust alike, they do not and politics so appealing...

...A world where peace and refugees who were lined up for food, I would be possible to be unloving in such racial justice reign is a desirable human felt deeply that if it were possible to shoot a world...

...The implication is that our sues, has something to say about them, sense, and is ethically correct, and, in the questions, our directions, are wrong...

...Argentinian action will continue to be raised here...

...Some of them, of course, simply dissors...

...I may be wrong, in the light swered politically, but in a sense only occupied had an obvious moral griev- of eternity...

...The transformation we really need not awake), is deluded...

...I don't think, or who among those whoo seek power - though, that we should call this involveeven for the best reasons - is right or ment a Christian thing, or mistake it for wrong...

...We can change and may even have a compelling logic our politics and morality, given suffithere, but which, in the light of some- cient will, self-discipline, and convicthing we cannot now see (because we are tion...

...But Jesus apparently included There are moving examples of a con- agree with what they see as a liberal among his followers people who were nection between politics and morality in slant, and would probably applaud if the associated with both factions, Simon the the Philippines' overthrow of Marcos, bishops ringingly endorsed capitalism Zealot, and Matthew, a tax collector...

...I don't know...

...By now, we In Argentina, according to the bishops, it is the "duty" of should have learned the answers...

...When the anything we can accomplish by ourGospels speak of a mercy which falls on selves...

...Our and we must not ignore it...

...But given the sharp three years...

...Catholics over abortion and other next year, is now stalled in Congress, thanks to the misplaced moral-political issues, the kind of questions posed by the influence of the Argentine Catholic bishops...

...The point is essential, versities...

...But making tics, or morality and law, are frequently dismisser of religion speaks easily about too little of it really isn't our problem intertwined...

...There may be some very rare people who believe themselves to be sincerely duplicitous and hypocritical, but I haven't met them...

...Jesus' own apallowed to kill criminals...

...I think now to matter to us...

...That bill, which may still reach the Senate floor conflicts among U.S...

...There is no denying about what the varieties of law available ing views are concerned, both parties that religion has been used as a form of in the United States ought to do about any cannot be right - one must be right, and social control...

...in danger when we deny this...

...and in Poland's Solidarity movement...

...good people may disagree on enemies would feel morally compelled to lieve poverty, abolish racism in all of its best courses to achieve desired ends...

...I don't know many people who believe themselves to BLAKE once wrote that if Chris- power and influence within political sys- be anything other than absolutely right on tianity is morality, then Socrates is tems...

...So has politics...

...that I was wrong...

...The tianity...

...religion as a means of social control...

...refer to a form of justice or righteousness JOHN GARVEY 21 November 1986: 615...

...More than Argentine Catholics want to because divorce is not legal in the infant democracy of Argen- know...

...We are like people in a dream the goal of Christianity...

...and nuclear defense...

...How about requiring that half of But is withholding the Eucharist from congressmen the proper all contributions go into a lottery jackpot, for which everyone way for the church to exert moral leadership in a democracy...

...I do believe deeply that fort to supporters or opponents of the Christianity does address many moral is- nonviolence makes excellent human status quo...

...This is not a call for quietism...

...Your average secular want to make too little of it...

...wards nonviolence, it has to do with the yours, and mine - that political quesIt has been pointed out by a number of Gospel tangentially...

...the savior...

...But there is sense that the love of enemies which the major problems have so much to do with something infinitely more to Christianity Gospel demands of us prejudices us to- our hearts - not ours collectively, but than this...

...This is to their neighbors - the idea that Chris- There is a stream of connections be- especially true of ideas involving rporaltianity is not primarily about morality tween religion and morality, and I don't ity, and in our times morality and poliwould be baffling...

...who votes will be eligible...

...despair would still be real, and it goal, but it is not the point of Chris- the planes out of the sky, that would be would be possible to be damned...

...Others, though, The radical change of heart which Jesus Nothing in our time is more full of hope may sense a hunger in people which the called for, the turning around which re- than these two things, but when we see churches and synagogues sometimes pentance is, had to do with something their accomplishment somehow as the seem as unconcerned with as the surmuch more profound than the question of highest end of religion, we are in danger rounding secular culture...

...Someone should put together the problems of cians: the excommunication of those who supported Hitler big spending and low voter turnout, plus the success at the (unfortunately lifted as he approached power) comes to mind...

...is more radical than that, and it is beyond Our justice is not God's...

...What worries me' here is the capacity we all have for astonishing depths of A DANGEROUS EQUATION self-deception...

...cause by bringing income to the oppres- speaks of the need for swords at another...

...The Gospel direction on this It may be that this is what leads some instincts would probably be inclined to is not as clear as I once thought: Jesus conservatives to question the propriety of side more with the zealots than with the speaks of the love of enemies and the such things as the Catholic bishops' lettax collectors who supported the Roman need to lay aside swords at one point, and ters on nuclear arms and the economy...

...And where some absolutely conflicthell, or, worse, law...

...Well, it's an idea...

...ance, and anyone with decent democratic know, once...

...who was right or wrong, politically...

...But a bill with wide public support (70 percent in American Catholics may look on the action of Argentina's one poll) has been proposed that would permit divorce, al- bishops with outrage or resignation: it all smacks of a church though only after a couple has been legally separated for one to that Vatican II was supposed to transform...

...Who denies it to the brutal One million Argentines have obtained divorces in Uruguay Pinochet next door...

...It est vocation...

...What about the Catholic "duty" to oppose the abusive ruling minorities of Latin America...

...I can, however, en- tions can be a luxury and distraction for writers that Christianity sheds light on vision a man, truly repentant, deeply us...

...so has the denial of tenure in uni- any point which matters deeply to them...

...I am One implication of this is that we are willing to take and support political acconcerned with the wrong questions tion, as long as it aims at nonviolence and when we worry about who has the power, is informed by compassion...