Liberal Nationalism
McCabe, David
to all citizens of the world, not just...
...This ascommon good (i.e., liberalism as embod- list of individual rights must be expand- sumes, of course, that the political ideals ied in the comic-book ravings of Ayn ed to include the right to culture...
...We seem first read Robert Imbelli's review of John it all right...
...After all, our choices are to the importance of cultural identification meaningful to us partly because they re- and that those in the dominant culture need David McCabe flect values which already exist within our to be especially sensitive to minority culculture, while at the same time the distinct tures, the liberal nationalism she offers does identities we carve for ourselves take on not extend in significant ways the bedrock n contemporary political philos- added importance because we see them as principle of contemporary liberalism, ophy, the debate between liber- products of our own agency...
...ly meaningless...
...But they hunger at last, If celibacy and the sacramental ministry for the Bible, some even seeking answers were separated, the other dysfunction- in the Scripture studies offered by evan- is the alities would be addressed more easily...
...In short, concludes Tamir, the communal realm (nationalism...
...Emphasis added.] to be so important for the Latin church to vague effusions of Messrs...
...move apart as a result of that sermon...
...The good life for human befrom communitarianism she seizes on the ly that a justification of the liberal state's ings is marked both by reflective autonoimportance both of feeling connected to partiality towards its own citizens, if pos- my and by a belief that one is connected others through life in a community and of sible at all, would have to proceed in a man- to a meaningful community, and no poloyalty to particular cultural traditions ner similar to that outlined by Tamir, and litical philosophy that neglects either of which help give meaning to our lives...
...Merton would no longer be necessary to concep- We've also found many willing to serve tualize the ministry of lay men and women the very poor...
...riages, the sexism that has kept women Catholic backgound - something that, What Carlin's comedy seems to have unrecognized in the home and unfairly paid surprisingly, has hardly been treated by missed is the matter of socialization...
...derstanding why the military considers its The gay alternative reflects the society problems unique...
...Nonetheless, it seems like- collective...
...Why this dysfunctionality...
...train leadership...
...one hopes that her argument here will lead these ideals deserves to be taken seriousThough these sets of ideas are often seen liberal states to reexamine their obligations ly...
...We have many married priests The writer replies: senting to a definition of their position as today in good standing...
...P~ =1 interest...
...like everyone else, Remove the social punishment from dethey are birthed and reared in families...
...Tell me, David, would the final analysis, the position she endorses this be carrying fair play too far...
...The question is how can one be reconciled to the persis- It is important to be clear about this...
...without the protection that society offers The crying part of Carlin's article has to the straight alternative...
...Thus it is right and just for women to "claim the center...
...What cockeyed pri- convinced that by and large the church, riage by making it a freely chosen alter- orities...
...that our identities are wholly determined how this expanded vision of human needs I think, that state neutrality is designed to by the communal structures within which leads to a conception of liberalism which secure precisely those liberties (e.g., freewe are born and for thereby endorsing a is both more humane and more defensi- dom of worship, of assembly, of expresslavish allegiance to the roles which the ble than that offered by contemporary lib- sion) which are crucial to individuals collective prescribes for us (i.e., commu- erals...
...of millions of children whose lives have ment, poor performance, or bad intentions Granting legitimacy to several forms of been blighted by the erosion of the mar- on the part of those responsible...
...Thanks triarchal, for women would be welcomed for publishing his article...
...Animator for arch- Poet, writer, and intimate friend, God on campus diocesan programs...
...because things are squeaking so badly, it CLASSIFIED is also urgent...
...The question is, personal freedom which unburdens the exAlso in the category of the intellectu- what can be put in its place...
...to positions of authority (even if one were JOHN DONAGHY reluctant to envision women as priests, the The writer is lay campus minister at the way would be clear to admit them to po- Catholic Student Center at Iowa State sitions of jurisdiction...
...stay on their own ing that the priesthood be limited to celiterms, claiming the center rather than as- bate men...
...ceptional Christian who is called to high ally dishonest are those who pretend not Coincidentally, a recent [March 19] levels of personal commitment generally to know that the sexual liberation move- issue of National Catholic Reporter, with pursued in communities of like-minded and ment of the last twenty-five years-in- eyes on the various sexual scandals of cler- similarly dedicated people...
...Openness for individuals and ters, so that the whole engine chugs along groups to consider different possibilities, Mixed up on ministry with a noisy and jarring dysfunctionality...
...I dare say that gays have there are people who have new partners HANS KUNG suffered along with everyone else from the frequently, just as in straight society...
...Permanency and serve to rectify the damage done by dead- fidelity have to be rooted in the relation- At your bookstore, or call 800-253-7521 beat dads or illegitimacy-damage in- ship, in mutual commitment supported by FAX 616-459-6540 flicted, I thought...
...So ago...
...Thereupon church structures The church needs to take these young would no longer seem so dauntingly pa- adults seriously, as does Fr...
...Catholic leader with a dynamic vi- Foreword by Patrick Hart, C.C.S-o...
...University...
...There is much in- veniently at hand, but inappropriately Still further intellectual dishonesty is to terrelated material here: orders, jurisdic- applied, to reform conditions specific to be found among those who are righteously tion, ministry, sacramentality, celibacy, to the medieval ecclesiastical world, not the indignant at America's failure to give its name only the most obvious...
...to the prophet, the witness, and the marcomplex than that, and those who pretend Collins's book seems to provide a schol- tyr (understood in its base meaning of givnot to know this are being intellectually arly basis for rejecting this cheapened ing cogent witness to God...
...searching for alternatives, embracing the East Lansing, Mich...
...But it is fairer to say...
...laws which make it economical- Mozart's musical work...
...This too is an urgent Search is on: Associate to the Director of A Memory Vision need...
...These and other prac- to the keen ear "traces of transcendence...
...DAVID R. CARLIN, JR...
...Could it be that we've got Silence, secrecy, shame were the past so- it wrong somewhere where it really matlutions...
...or positively hostile, to the valals attack communitarians for suggesting communal bonds, Tamir then tries to show ues of community...
...while leading males to avoid Mozart scholars...
...version of lay ministry...
...Most of the gays I know would this doesn't fit the stereotype, very few peo- of also grieve at Carlin's litany of the factors ple know about it...
...But once we which asserts that the state should remain alism and communitarianism recognize that individual well-being re- neutral as to the value of different ways frequently displays the kind of quires both a measure of autonomy and a of life and cultures...
...To schedule a private Just published $19.95 hardcover gospel and offering liturgies where the pres- or directed retreat, or a weekend for an inence of God is evoked are more important dividual or small group, write or call Father than adopting the latest liturgical or pseu- Vincent Alagia, S.J...
...struggle, will surely affirm readers damentalists and some in the Catholic Home-cooked meals...
...least of which was avoiding the partition full stamp of approval to homosexuality, In an organization, when things go se- of church properties among the offspring 30: 21 May 1993 Commonweal of benefice holders who were clerics...
...I would suggest that these are effects scrip-comic "Searching for the Soap," I rather than causes...
...By of feudal hierarchy...
...It seems an adjunct to ordination and ministry, nor cultural Left to allege that all objections to survive largely because it doesn't threat- as a superior vocation or calling, but as to gays in the military arise from nothing en patriarchal structures or the restriction part of the personal detachment necessary better than bigotry...
...al observations may serve as a reply...
...from these pages may startle, proother campus ministers...
...a loving community...
...intellectual sophistication that feeling of attachment to a cultural com- Part of the reason that Tamir undervalues characterized another famous feud-that munity (a nation, in Tamir's usage), it fol- the liberal neutrality position, and thus between the Hatfields and the McCoys...
...of Evangelization and Christian of Thomas Merton Life...
...ognizing the value of unique national and sume that just because liberal states feel In recognizing this truth about the libcultural communities need not result in the that they have special obligations to their eralism of state neutrality, however, we chauvinistic fervor of fascism or, to use a own citizens, they therefore in, fact have see again the inadequacies of those politcontemporary example, ethnic cleansing...
...plementary...
...Tamir speaks partial moral principles...
...Real alternatives do not have The two reviews grapple with two ends have identified the sacramental ministries to be protected...
...They try their that many of today's marriages are peo- me of those Aristotelian astronomers who best, are well-intentioned, work hard, are ple who "had to get married" many years refused to look at Jupiter's moons through generally well trained and competent...
...I believe that this can be found not as plaint has to do with the tendency of the universal vocation of Christians...
...704) 622-7366...
...For this reason, the neutral ideals underlying both sides...
...at the core of liberalism are somehow inRand), while on the other die-hard liber- Having argued for the importance of sensitive...
...COMMUNITY, YES More generally, readers of Liberal Nationalism will also find themselves asking just how much Tamir's argument adds to contemporary conceptions of liberalism...
...B. EERDMANS ~ I PUBLISHING COQ Let me go out on the limb a little fur- couples support each other and get sup- 255 ]EFFERSON AV E. S. I...
...by heterosexuals...
...This would lead one to question why we shibboleths...
...Send resume secularized, emotionally needy, immature to: Rev...
...and function where one hears the loudest the real problems...
...Meanwhile, after the debris is cleared away, the true vocation of the Ron Seitz celibate as prophet and martyr could Position Opening SONG FOR NOBODY emerge once again...
...312) 631-1017, ext...
...such special obligations, though there is ical theories which rest on a simplistic opFrom liberalism she distills the values of no reason to suppose that the latter follows position between the individual and the autonomy, rational reflection, and choice...
...My com- century but it doesn't sufficiently value the cy...
...In the wooded lands along the -RON SEITZ We've also found that teaching the Appalachian Trail...
...ity cultures...
...He moves on to exthe Israeli kibbutz, boys and girls are their domestic responsibilities and to treat plore how Mozart's music itself displays raised to adulthood showering together- women as sex objects...
...to a bland "Catholic Action" model...
...to share in others' suffering and among students, a hunger that only the fun- In the heart of the Appalachian Mountains...
...Why damage a beau- why are the wheels falling off...
...Tamir's justifi- state may well offer the best environment of nationalism rather than communitari- cation for this position is not entirely for preserving the kind of cultural pluralanism because she wants to show that rec- convincing, I think, for she appears to as- ism that Tamir cherishes...
...962 do-liturgical creative fad to titillate student Hot Springs, NC 28743...
...AUTONOMY, YES...
...it was with eve-to-eye contact...
...It would be the height of hubris to sugchosen alternatives seem to be the more To the Editors: In the March 12 issue I gest that the following remarks will make appropriate solutions for today...
...It is alleged that one cou- minary, Loyola University, 7135 N. Harlem, I Liguori Drive, Liguori, MO 63057 ple who were living together decided to Niles, IL 60714...
...Couchman In describing the ministry of lay men limit its recruitment of new priests to the and McDonald, but perhaps a few gener- and women we are too easily reconciled celibate...
...Ron Seitz captures Merton's Ames, Iowa support vicanates, deaneries, and parish- human spirit and shares in this rich remembrance many unreTo the Editors: Bravo for Michael Hunt's es in their evangelization efforts...
...church seem to notice and try to feed...
...It gelical groups on campus...
...of religious education...
...Director), PO Box 7, 1-800-325-9521 ext...
...able to see real alternatives instead of Weaver's Springs of Water in a Dry Land...
...The chief merit of Tamir's book is that 28: 21 Mav 1993 Commonweal it goes some way toward demonstrating accept any reduction of social perks that what a political philosophy incorporating Carlin would impose on a "child-free" hoboth of these ideals will look like...
...In on the job...
...4950...
...phere...
...Are tent patriarchy of its structures...
...It provides the dishonest...
...under appropriate supervision, of course- - tices and attitudes have destroyed and The final part of the book sheds new and it seems to present no real problems...
...These visions seem right and just, and also theologically sound...
...to all citizens of the world, not just those within their borders...
...It Possibly because we must first recovI have no strong feelings one way or an- served well during the early twentieth er the true purpose and meaning of celibaother about gays in the military...
...We just con- IV advantageous to maintain abusive mar- Kung begins by discussing Mozart's sidered it good manners...
...But I am human relationships will strengthen mar- ried two-parent family...
...I believe that eluding the gay rights movement-has gy which have made the news lately, sets a case can even be made historically for tended to delegitimize the married two- forth an impassioned plea to posit again this model in the earliest monastic moveparent family...
...sion for evangelization...
...They will likely conclude, I think, LIBERAL NATIONALISM as being in tension with one another, that while Tamir is right in arguing that Yael Tamir Tamir points out that they arc in fact com- liberal states should pay greater attention Princeton University Press, $24.95, 187 pp...
...in mosexual marriage...
...Thus celibacy and ordination became Many of the students are weak in their linked for reasons based neither on the- understanding of their Catholic faith, pos- ,"Here, ology nor on spirituality-but as a means sibly as a result of the psychologization of governance...
...What has been more disdid both...
...praxis in these matters...
...Hunt...
...which presents a new creative understanding of communal shower facilities at the gym and values family, children, and women much the texts of the mass as interpreted by the beach, so I have a difficult time un- less than production and consumption...
...Mozart's music...
...At least here in Iowa proven broad ministerial experiences, influential life...
...So why does it seem It is difficult to respond specifically to the marginal...
...ther and suggest that gays would gladly port from the wider community, there is Commonweal 21 May 1993: 29 greater willingness and capacity to work yet who have not a tear to shed for the tens riously awry, one first suspects bad managethings out...
...of a single divisive and defining issue for with the clerical celibate state and have As for gays in the military, they have Catholic theology and practice: How we invested all ministry (and ecclesiastical jualways been there and will always be understand ministry in the church and risdictional power) within this model...
...Commonweal 21 May 1993: 31...
...BILL McDONALD esty of Redmont's analysis: "Many is there now, a universal practice requirCatholic women today...
...astrous to the family is the social and eco- MUCI I I LAS BEEN WRITTEN playing "drop the soap" was only an oc- nomic reality of moving people all over about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but relatively little on the casional crude joke-it was unthinkable the country for the convenience of the religious dimension of his person and that anyone would ever do it...
...We seem to forget Increasingly the cultural Left reminds ter-than-average people...
...delegitimized marriage more than divorce light on Mozart's "Coronation Mass" Gay males in this country have encoun- laws...
...we company, the disappearance of the ex- music...
...Foreword by Yehudi Menuhin results of fwnily decline...
...But yes...
...lows that along with protecting a wide overemphasizes its distance from her own On one side zealous communitarians cas- range of personal liberties, the state should conception of liberal nationalism, is that tigate liberals for championing rampant in- also act to ensure the survival of the var- her overall aim is to infuse the political dividualism to the neglect of such values ious cultures to which its members feel realm (liberalism) with ideals from the as loyalty to country and concern for the committed...
...A theological study looks a lot like contemporary liberalism MAX COUCIIMAN chastened to pay greater attention to the ofMozart's music value of'community, this similarity should Carlin on gays: III he taken not as a sign that Tamir's proposal is insignificant, but rather as an in- New York...
...In this book Hans Kung offers an did exercise "custody of the eyes"- that tended family's role in the child-rearing intriguing theological probing into is, if we spoke to anyone in the shower, process...
...The problems of today are the same Galileo's telescope...
...One can't in the Latin rite, and especially in all of we going to choose yesterday's solutions but be thrilled by the simplicity and hon- the Eastern rites, there has never been, nor or today's...
...from the former...
...The issue is far more of the sacramental ministry to celibate men...
...In doing so we will be then Jane Redmont's review of Mary Jo squeaks or observes the greatest dis-ease...
...Must we as those of yesterday...
...The irony is that these conditions have in view of its contemporary cultural and political horizon...
...Since ,7-aces children...
...there, in the closet or out...
...More humane, because it demands pursuing distinct cultural identities withnitarianism as a paean to the happy days greater sensitivity to the needs of minor- in communities of their own choosing...
...Later on, monastic vows were confail to understand this...
...F. Kane, PO Box 1979, Chicago, The Thomas Merton who emerges adolescents decried by so many, even by IL 60690...
...the latest arrivals in academe are not the good communication skills...
...Retreat House But to encounter him, for whom state university where science and engi- the hermitage became not an Jesuit House of Prayer, Residence, and neering reign, we find a hunger for God escape from the world but a place Hikers' Hostel situated in Hot Springs, N.C...
...pleasant facts...
...CRAtir) l5P!t)S, MICR...
...they've flocked to cooking I knew ."l at the margins, for married people would at the local shelter, though they often fail -PATRICK HART, o.c.s.o...
...Kong's approach tered similar socialization in their use of always existed in Western society...
...30 photographs...
...But one must look for the dysto be moving closer to giving a name to Collins's Are All Christians Ministers...
...systemically...
...been disastrous to the institution of marriage and the family, and that no-fault divorce laws, high divorce rates, widespread acceptance of premarital sex, etc., are the CORRESPONDENCE causes of the relative delegitnnization of (Conhiruted f root page 2) marriage and the family...
...As gay and lesbian 326 WM...
...Even how we are going to deal with this...
...At this late date, who can the basic questions that govern our church ments...
...parting an unhappy marriage and I suspect ISBN 0-8028-0688-0 But for the life of me I can't figure out that gays and straights would stay or split Paper, $9.99 how continued persecution of gays will at about the same rate...
...readily be entering the ranks of the or- to understand the relation of poverty and dained, thus making this distinction large- injustice...
...A sermon by the young assistant Plan Ahead pastor on sexuality, which reaffirmed the 55th Anniversary, SUMMER SCHOOL OF 'd positives of Catholic morality, provoked SOCIAL ACTION, June 4-5,1993, Reynold TRIUMPHT' BOOKS some of the most thoughtful responses Hillenbrand Institute, Niles College Se- An Imprint of Liguori Publications from students...
...more defensible, because it refusing to privilege one culture or way In Liberal Nationalism, Yael Tamir, se- explains why liberal states are under of life over another, the neutral state tries nior lecturer in philosophy at Tel Aviv greater obligations to help their own cit- to ensure that citizens are free to define University, tries to move the debate be- izens than to help outsiders-a position themselves in terms of those cultural comyond the hysterics of such philosophical which seems a betrayal of liberalism's munities to which they feel the greatest reductionism by building on the sensible avowed commitment to universal and im- allegiance...
...There are many ~ozarf to do with his zero sum game of social sup- gay couples who have been together for ports for stable heterosexual marriages with twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty years...
...Needed: counted moments in the last enthusiasm for the gospel, creativity, ad- decade of Merton's immensely article on freshman college students ["All vanced degree in theology or equivalent, Is Not Lost," April 9...
...It is a loving and honest tribute...
...casual, quiet atmos- in their own spiritual journey...
...There are people who ,7ransc enrlenc e that are hastening the destruction of the have had several long-term partners, and American family...
...We have simply cho- tiful theory with consideration of un- not conclude that something is really wrong sen different ways of dealing with them...
...ROBERT MARECK the Dept...
...In my squadron at Kecsler Field...
...from the pope on down, is blessed with betnative among many...
...dication of the continuing relevance of To the Editors: David R. Carlin, Jr., seems liberal principles to the important social to think that the past twenty-five years have questions of our time...
...In our work at a voke, inspire, renew, and delight...
Vol. 120 • May 1993 • No. 10
