A'Wing' & a prayer THE LAST WORD
Feuerherd, Peter
THE LAST WORD A'WING' & A PRAYER Peter...
...But sonally execute his mother's killer, he Peter Feuerherd is a frequent Commonweal when she does show up, he can hardly confides to the president...
...What makes this abortion...
...His by modern prophets that God's ways proportionality...
...and a Quaker visitor tell him to spare priest, played appropriately by Karl The hints were there early on...
...Others scribes to Andrew Greeley's theories but he is overwhelmed by the 71 permight go for Bill Bradley, about religious Catholics and the posi- cent of his constituency who don't agree George W., or "you can call me Al...
...A nonreligious perspective is taken the past few years...
...Somedrama "The West Wing...
...to hearing about the Oval Office over take Congress to the mat on gun control...
...with the pope on the matter...
...And one wonders about mother, a D.C...
...Will he up...
...Young and self-assured fourteenth in the series, did his religious gaging example of a lay, post-Vatican II staff members stalk the corridors, jockey preference become explicit...
...El the state of his marriage (the First Lady dered by a thug...
...He is an enministration...
...It's as if Malden has retired He is progressive yet cautious: unen- life to preserve civil order...
...He'd be willing to perseems hardly ever to be around...
...Commonweal 47 March 10, 2000...
...he wore the man...
...police officer, was mur- don't always adhere to poll results...
...But his presi- that their faith has an impact on how close-enough-facsimile used in the NBC dential character is not an activist...
...THE LAST WORD A'WING' & A PRAYER Peter Feuerherd ome may swoon for the keep his hands off her, so something Bartlett declines to stay the execution...
...The February 9 daughter as well as the possibility of nu- Bartlet wanders the White House episode concludes with Bartlet on his clear war on the Indian subcontinent, seeking counsel-a Jewish speechwriter knees in the Oval Office confessing to a and is a thoughtful, practicing Catholic...
...the dating life of his nineteen-year-old to say on the question...
...He ponders, Catholic, on prime time...
...sex are derided by some on his staff as a for advice for fear of resurrecting that That picture of the president in prayer lack of political will to deal with teen old canard about the Vatican controlling is a change from the stories we got used pregnancy and AIDS-he is willing to a Catholic president...
...mere men playing God by taking human ican cleric...
...a politician, attempting to forge social times, as in real life, the perspectives are Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, is a justice in incremental ways...
...let is confessing a sin of omission, a failterrorism, he needs to be reminded by Bartlet's likable young personal aide ure to act justly even when reminded his Pentagon about just-war theory and knows what it is to want vengeance...
...Sometimes irreconcilable...
...In the end, contributor...
...President Bartlet is prone to quote through a somewhat sophisticated ex- take on the sacred cows of the creative medieval philosophers, worries about planation of what religious tradition has Hollywood elite which has created him...
...moderately liberal Democrat...
...this year I am declaring my support for Sheen, who took his acting name from The episode gives us characters who, Josiah Bartlet, the first religiously seri- the famous television archbishop, is, of for the most part, take religious tradious Catholic to sit in the Oval Office...
...The speechwriter provides per- Malden, whose swaggering visage in a Notre Dame sweatshirt, his daughter spective from the Talmud, noting that On the Waterfront is perhaps the most attended Georgetown, and he quoted the ancient tradition cautioned against compelling movie portrait of an AmerAugustine when confronted with a crisis...
...for position, flirt, philosophize, rational- while fingering rosary beads as a mid- One wonders, of course, where "The ize, and play political hardball every night deadline nears, whether to spare West Wing" will take us...
...Bartlet's stance the real-life kind: It is led by a grown- willing to gamble that viewers will sit has so far remained a mystery...
...They are willing to say Well, not exactly the Oval Office, but the Catholic social activist...
...course, Hollywood's most prominent tion seriously...
...run out of the White House doesn't make spects, is a lot like a certain recent ad- Not till the February 9 episode, the him above these concerns...
...That his business is believe White House which, in many re- pediency...
...heroic Senator John Mc- positive must be going on, if one sub- His religious views tell him otherwise, S Cain of Arizona...
...How does this week...
...When confronted with by one argument in favor of execution...
...He is they do their very public jobs...
...I remain optimistic...
...The series he succumbs to political pressure, sac- Bartlet prays and worries that God is a look at the inner workings of a make- rificing moral principle for political ex- doesn't hear him...
...the life of a prisoner about to be execut- Catholic president, for example, view The television administration, how- ed for a federal crime...
...His very trendy staff is sure ever, seems to have one advantage over episode different is that the writers are to be solidly prochoice...
...The speech- from berating New York waterfront thusiastic about a graphic sex-education writer's rabbi cautions that this presi- gangsters to a quiet ministry for one report-his religious sensitivities about dent could never, of course, call the pope very prominent parishioner...
...It's implied that BartHe is no saint...
...But tive role of sex in their marriages...
Vol. 127 • March 2000 • No. 5
