They call themselves liberals
Carlin, David R. Jr.
Roman Catholic episcopal conferences to evaluate it. But there theologians to take into account? is little evidence in the response that the bishops' work was Finally, Francis...
...trol, much less derail, the Anglican-Roman Catholic journey The response repeatedly finds the final report falling short to reunion...
...Just ing remaining differences, which the commission had already as Inter insigniores has not controlled the discussion about ornoted...
...But the liberal temper of mind-the than a cheap shot it would be of little conworse than garden variety immorality...
...Sadly, cussion of the ordination of women within the Roman Catholic Rome now conveys little longing for reunion, little sorrow over church, but today the issue is more alive than ever...
...How the long-range impact of the Vatican's response by comparing much credibility can it have when it sets aside the wisdom of it to Inter insigniores (1976), the "Declaration on the Question the bishops of England and Wales who are most familiar with of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood...
...I like how get it...
...The flourishing "natural" forms...
...the kind they say someone is Columnists...
...sixth, you have to have a thorough unHave they reflected that these believ- Maybe they are suffering from a perse- derstanding of your opponent's point of ers belong to religious faiths which have cution complex...
...Or that they believe the ultimate goal of the gay rights agenda is to win full OF SEVERAL MINDS John Garvey social approval of homosexuality, not mere tolerance...
...greeted not with dialogue but with deness in Human Be- Let Anthony Lewis of the New York nunciation...
...is little evidence in the response that the bishops' work was Finally, Francis Sullivan's discovery that the response quotes heeded or used...
...What is presented as the official poit does not invalidate the response as the church's present of- sition of the Roman Catholic church may actually express a ficial position...
...So how angry letters that there are readers who a man of less principle than they had can they take seriously the opinions of the seriously think it would have made a thought, not really the messiah, etc., etc...
...ing, cheating, violence, etc., not to men- accusing tens of millions of people-of But the debate on this issue has revealed tion other forms of sexual misconduct...
...intellectual courtesy that presumes the cern...
...That is a strong one...
...How tleman tried to enter into the worldview of thought it would have made a signifi- about vagueness, cloudy good feeling, the servants...
...where it becomes almost sectarian...
...ings...
...And a conservative Catholic...
...They no more try major difference to the future of the na- What do they expect of a man who has to understand the point of view of such tion if George Bush had won and Bill to appeal to as many people as possiprimitives than the Victorian lady or gen- Clinton had lost, I must say that if I had ble...
...condemned homosexual conduct as im- that liberals should at least try to under- This is a heavy set of conditions, and moral for thousands of years...
...Insight...
...Have they talked with an agree with their conservative opponents...
...and only motive...
...Words and deeds, not words alone, reveal unconvincing...
...fear giving the okay to homosexuality that have to be met before you can legit- I don't know what impact gays in the will open the door wider to lying, steal- imately accuse a person-not to mention military will have on military discipline...
...It is a symptom of the narAre they aware that these believers fear no clue as to what motivates opposition rowness which is overtaking the average social approval of "unnatural" forms of to gays in the military is, as I said at the contemporary liberal mind, to the point vice will lead to further approval of already outset, appalling...
...R.I.P...
...Not only did it fail to squelch disthe Eucharist, ordained ministry, and church authority...
...That they Think for a moment of the conditions liberal is turning illiberal...
...of "Catholic doctrine" or "Catholic faith," but it does not ex- Obviously, this past year has been a stressful one for Anglicans ploit the fact that even doctrinal differences need not stand and Roman Catholics eager for the day when their churches in the way of unity...
...But is it too much to ask view...
...As a forthe continuing division...
...someone like Anthony Lewis should have thing more...
...Do they understand why these people point of view of those they disagreed If the bigotry charge were nothing more consider homosexuality to be something with...
...Here, because I know from all, a waffler, a man who miscalculates, ditionalists are to be held in disdain...
...defects of Inter insigniores became apparent soon after it apWorse, the authors of the response themselves seem to lack peared...
...member the existence of the order or `hierarchy' of truths of We can still say that two, ten, and even a hundred obstacles do Catholic doctrine, since they vary with respect to their con- not obliterate the possibilities that still constitute our common nection to the foundation of Christian faith" ("Decree on task and hope...
...maintained by someone who rapidly the press has found out that The answer of course is, no, they don't...
...In his January 29 Now this is blindness...
...terly devoid of rational justification...
...cultural lower orders...
...Fourth, your opever actually talked with someone whose military-he should defer to his betters...
...doesn't care who wins but is fas- Clinton-whose victory was so obviAnd the reason they don't is that it is al- cinated with the way the game ously cheered on by the media-is, after most an axiom with them that religious tra- is played...
...Its gratitude for ARCIC I's work is per- mer archbishop of Canterbury said, the ordination of women functory...
...It even insinuates that there are far more massive road- daining women, neither will the response to the final report conblocks on the journey than previously envisioned...
...It takes an unnecessarily negative tone by underlin- is not an issue between our two churches but within them...
...Fifth, your opponent's reason ligiously based...
...And that they believe the ultimate goal of secularism is not separation of church and state but the erosion and eventual destruction of religion...
...proposal to lift the ban against gays and suffering from who doesn't understand, Different people find different things to lesbians in the military: bigotry...
...John Henry Newman, who belongs comparing doctrines, let them [Catholic theologians] re- to us both, said that a thousand difficulties do not make a doubt...
...The distance is that Since I didn't, I didn't...
...That's it...
...JON NILSON an "official response" of the Roman Catholic church hope to John Nilson teaches in the theology department at Loyola be when it overlooks precisely what Vatican II mandated its University of Chicago...
...The Anglicans...
...0 one item on a much larger gay rights agenda...
...Lewis, bigotry is the opposition's one OF SEVERAL MINDS David R. Carlin, Jr...
...How influential can sibility-Still...
...for being on the wrong side has to be utOrthodox Jew, an evangelical Protestant, Maybe the conservatives are wrong...
...ponent has to be equally obviously on the opposition to homosexual conduct is re- Now I'm not saying that liberals should wrong side...
...After all, the temptation to take Have they ever taken the trouble to see what other fellow has something to say that is cheap shots in the midst of heated debate traditionalists mean when they call ho- worth listening to-is vanishing...
...What he said is what the entire cultural Left has been saying BAH, HUMBUG for the last month or so...
...We might be able to gauge when it ignores the thinking and sentiment of the bishops...
...It ignores Vatican II's injunction: "In embrace one another again...
...It should be noted that those cant difference of the sort I care about, and all the hard-edged thinking you old-fashioned servants were better be- or that a lesser of two evils could have might expect of a man who would haved than your typical Protestant evan- been found during this election, I would choose Al Gore, Fleetwood Mac, and Commonweal 26 February 1993: 9...
...for example, what it is like to live as a be appalled at in the current controversy That's the whole story-the beginning, the homosexual in American society...
...All opposition is toered a lecture titled, al has exhibited regarding the motives of tally irrational, and it deserves to be "On a Certain Blind- their opponents...
...Third, you have to be obview, I wonder if Lewis and the others have tions of social justice-like gays in the viously on the right side...
...the kind of blindgive a lecture called, "On a Certain column, Lewis revealed what motivates ness liberals specialize in accusing othBlindness in Liberals, Especially Liberal the opposition to President Bill Clinton's ers of...
...But I fear this really is somemosexual behavior "unnatural...
...Boldness...
...But middle, and the end...
...According to the pro- voluntary blindness, a moral blindness: what appalls me is the abysmal igno- found and well-researched psychology of the refusal to see things from the other 8: 26 February 1993 Commonweal fellow's point of view...
...Courage...
...First, the issue at stake has to be a wretched lack of intellectual discipline Can they appreciate that these people a moral and social question of funda- on the part of people who pretend to be see the issue of gays in the military as but mental importance...
...Such a consultation was not required and the the final report inaccurately no less than seventeen times makes Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's failure to draw upon the anomaly inescapable...
...Maybe their imaginations are overheated...
...In short, do those on the cultural Left distance...
...I don't mean to single out Lewis, who is ordinarily an intelligent commentator THEY CALL THEMSELVES LIBERALS on affairs of the day...
...gelical of the present day, who doesn't re- possess a thorough understanding of the Speaking of the other fellow's point of alize that when it comes to important ques- issues involved...
...Can they understand that many religious believers see the gay rights movement as PREJUDICE OR DISAGREEMENT...
...While it still holds a strong official position, most thefirst-hand familiarity with Anglican life and worship...
...Rich In PosEcumenism," Unitatis redintegratio, 11...
...Canterbury and Rome...
...Nowadays somebody ought to Times stand for the rest...
...selves on their ability to understand the all opposition to Clinton's proposal...
...plainly they have not been met on the part these people take their religious convic- Time was when liberals prided them- of liberals who dismiss as mere bigotry tions seriously...
...part and parcel of a secularist assault on HOMOSEXUALS IN THE MILITARY religion...
...The fight to admit gays to the military, they assure us, is a fight against bigotry, a fight on all fours bout a century ago rance-or better, the abysmal lack of cu- with the battle against racial prejudice William James deliv- riosity-which the cultural Left in gener- and discrimination...
...Still, how influential and persuasive can it be minority position within the church...
...Second, you have to liberals...
...Even bishops have declared publicly that its arwhat Anglicans-and all other Christians, too-believe about guments are not persuasive...
...It is a about homosexuals in the military...
...And that stand the religious conservatives...
...This is a ologians, nevertheless, consider it intellectually shoddy and serious deficiency...
...bigotry...
...Mr...
...love watching politics from a have found it morally necessary to vote...
Vol. 120 • February 1993 • No. 4
