Editorial
After the deluge I ollowing the American Revolution, there was a burst of energy in American society so great that historians have likened it to an explosion. The energy produced propelled not...
...That should not be so...
...Such radicalism would plunge the country into a bitter and divisive confrontation...
...Such inequality, the Economist noted, leads to social stress and slower economic growth and productivity...
...How he responds to divided government will prove his mettle...
...Most Americans are still not against government...
...In stating his views, he represents no one but himself...
...At one point Levenson recalled a discussion he had with a class about Satan, and reflected on how difficult it is these days to rely on a base of common cultural knowledge...
...With it in hand, he will be able to save the Republicans from their habitual temptation to adopt Reaganesque deficit financing...
...Finally, one student raised his hand and asked the inevitable question: "Who is Milton...
...The "draft" letter sent by the Congregation for Worship to Archbishop William Keeler in June gave this explanation...
...After all, the election of 1994 proved the Founders correct: an aroused electorate can clean house anytime it wants...
...David Trosch has never held any position of leadership in the prolife movement...
...Their main concerns are the pit-in-the-stomach issues: remunerative employment for themselves and their children...
...Equality of opportunity, democracy's novel and most powerful means of encouraging equality of condition, is something Democrats used to talk about...
...Across the land and across the board, Republicans gained not only parity but dominance...
...But politics in America are anything but simple...
...President Clinton has already indicated he favors a line-item veto...
...As Republican strategist William Kristol has rightly warned: "If a Republicanled Congress can't cut farm subsidies and big-business entitlements, then we forfeit any legitimate claim to being the party that wanted to cut government" (Wall Street Journal, November 10...
...Born of voter anger, frustration, and even enmity, it led to an earthquake in the political landscape...
...Tax cuts may be possible, but they must be accounted for beforehand...
...It will not do to offer them a stone...
...In a preelection issue, the Economist (November 5) devoted its cover story to the growing economic inequality within the developed nations...
...President Bill Clinton, elected in 1992 to change the way Washington does business, failed to deliver and became the lightning rod of all discontent...
...The Vatican letter has it, "the law of believing is the law of praying...
...The center and circumference of all democracy...
...Why...
...should the media give this priest the kind of coverage he currently enjoys...
...Senator Daniel Moynihan (D-N.Y...
...That's just how desperate the cultural situation is, Levenson laughed...
...Indeed, its leaders have repudiated his opinions...
...Republicans claim a mandate, but, schooled in obstruction, they must now learn to govern...
...Always eager to amuse, Levenson responded: "Milton Berle, of course...
...He should use such forums to reach out to the American people...
...safety on their streets...
...Weakened and, we hope, chastened, he is not yet a lame duck...
...Alice Rivlin, director of the budget, has it right: "Now that the president has helped restore financial discipline, the last thing that we need is a return to the failed policies and soaring deficits of yesteryear...
...With the latter in place, the need for mandating term limits—a draconian solution to a real problem—will be obviated...
...In the United States, it noted, the distance between the haves and the have-nots has reached a postwar high, a disparity more pronounced here than in any other major economic power...
...and his young cohorts will not rebuild Washington in a day...
...Who's Milton Berle...
...He should make it a legislative priority, using its passage as a test of the new majority's professed bipartisanship...
...Well, it was only a tradition...
...To anyone who has seen Clinton at press conferences and town meetings, he 3 comes across as smart and caring...
...He must stress hard work, the common good, planning for tomorrow, and equal opportunity for all...
...The public will demand that they shrink the size of government—cutting budgets of congressional committees and staffs—and, at long last, reform campaign financing...
...See, Rembert G. Weakland, page 25...
...AS LONG AS IT'S A LAW...
...Demonstrating discipline, tenacity, and enthusiasm in a difficult situation is the only way he will get people to take him seriously, and even that may not be enough...
...Recently Levenson spoke at the Jewish Theological Seminary on Manhattan's Upper West Side, and had his audience laughing during much of his lecture on the very heady topic of "Creation and Anti-Creation: God and His Enemies...
...What they want is honest, efficient, responsive government...
...Last month's midterm election was an explosion...
...According to Wood, it was the notion of equality, the most radical ideological force set free by the Revolution...
...What was that principle again...
...It is time they rediscovered how to make it happen...
...Thus far, the Republicans' "Contract" comes nowhere near paying for what it-promises...
...Following upon an examination of the NRSV of the Sacred Scripture by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and in fidelity to the principle lex credendi, lex orandi, it has been decided that this 4 translation is not suitable for liturgical use...
...ET CETERA SATAN WHO...
...The new Republican majority has set out a bold task for itself, but when it comes to cutting the size, of government, the proof of the pudding will be in the swallowing...
...There were a few laughs, but then another hand went up...
...But here, too, draconian measures—such as the harsh suggestion of Congressman James Talent (R-Mo...
...While he retains his office and his platform, both potent symbols, he will be met head-on by the opposition on issues from free trade to foreign policy (see, J. Bryan Hehir, page 9...
...Trosch is not a newsmaker in any legitimate sense...
...Nor should they...
...Instead of reacting tactically and piecemeal to the majority's onslaughts, his only hope is to articulate a positive vision, one that speaks to the better instincts of all Americans...
...AH of the vows in the Republicans' "Contract with America" notwithstanding, Newt Gingrich (R-Ga...
...a fair shake, not a shakedown...
...Levenson was contrasting the Satan of the Bible with the Satan of Milton...
...It is not going to be easy for the Democrats to recover the people's confidence...
...But it will do little good unless he has first made up his mind what he wants to do...
...Deeply troubling for Democrats (particularly in the South), is that Republicans took command not only of the political momentum but of the farm clubs: statehouses and numerous legislatures...
...The media have restored to him the pulpit that I, as his archbishop, have denied him...
...was right to have advised the president to undertake it before health-care reform...
...Professor Jon D. Levenson is the Albert A. List professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard and the author of The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and Historical Criticism (Westminster/John Knox...
...If you are still wondering why the Vatican nixed the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible for liturgical and catechetical use, consider the following which had to be cut from Gabe Huck's "Rome Speaks: Inclusive Language Verboten" (November 18...
...He noticed, however, that only consternation was evident on the faces of his students...
...and a renewed moral sense that will insure a coherent and enduring future...
...According to Gordon S. Wood (The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Knopf), within a few short decades a new society had been created, a democratic polity unlike any other before seen in history...
...RELIGION & THE MEDIA From a speech given by Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb (Pensacola, Florida, September 9,1994): "I wish to say something concerning the attention paid by the news media to David Trosch, a Catholic priest who advocates killing abortionists...
...Welfare reform should come at the top of the legislative list...
...to deny payments to children born of mothers younger than twenty-six, and to place such children in orphanages—must be vigorously resisted...
...He is also a very funny man...
...As one long-time Tennessee Democrat put it, explaining his defection: "The Republicans are the party of the people now...
...But the maxim known to Catholic tradition is not lex credendi, lex orandi (which would let the CDF shape all liturgy from the universal catechism), it is lex orandi, lex credendi, "the law of praying is the law of believing...
...The only reasonable possibility of an independent future for many people who receive welfare is a decent job...
...Apparently, the sensationalism of a man in a Roman collar advocating killing is reason enough...
...So powerful was this liberating concept that Herman Melville went so far as to call it "The great God absolute...
...What was the catalyst that powered this remarkable social and political development...
...The media need to reexamine standards that permit them to ignore the many prolife leaders, representing millions, who speak compassionately and sensibly in the prolife cause, while giving enormous publicity to a figure on the fringes, in fact beyond the fringe...
...The energy produced propelled not only the great geographical expansion westward, but a vast entrepreneurial and even religious awakening...
Vol. 121 • December 1994 • No. 21
