Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors A rage for order Paul Baumann's "Anthropology with a Difference" (August 17) was very thought-provoking. There is no doubt in my mind that a more conservative or...
...What is debated today, however, is the fate of a hundred thousand human embryos that will be discarded if no further use is made of them...
...Assad repeated one of the most durable and vicious anti-Semitic canards, namely, that the Jews are the enemies of humanity...
...The writer is president emeritus, distinguished professor of religion, University of Bridgeport...
...If my language was not contemptuous and if I connected rap with an ancient tradition of poetry supported by music, how can my comment be "elitist at best and racist at worst...
...Add an alleluia to your "Amen...
...Assad's assault John Kelsay got it right in "Denouncing the Jews" (June 15...
...Such a system is not amenable to critical scrutiny...
...What the church must deal with is a society where stability and coherence have been sacrificed for maximum personal freedom...
...And yes, through this we experience reconciliation, but not without accepting the hard invitation into Christ's death, so that we may also rise with Christ...
...Heart of the matter Bravo for your editorial stand (August 17) on the stem-cell issue...
...These caveats show that the church has not contradicted itself on the qualified respect owed to an erroneous conscience...
...The problem with Garvey's argument is his archaic rendering of baptism as merely "forgiveness of sins...
...Off key I take offense at the article "The Rap on 'Rap'" (June 15...
...This does not mean that there can be no basis for ad hoc accommodations between the Israelis and their opponents when accommodation is perceived to be in the interest of both sides, but only if Israel keeps its powder dry...
...If an example is needed, why not find out who wrote the original version of the Beatles song "Money...
...It is, unfortunately, the basis for holy wars of extermination...
...However, Mary Douglas's time in a convent school is not normative for people in our society...
...As for the salvific necessity of the Catholic Church, both the council (Lumen gentium, 14) and the new catechism (section 846) reafCommonweal 35 September 14, 2001 firm the doctrine that salvation is impossible for those who knowingly and culpably refuse to accept Catholicism, which Vatican II calls the "one true religion" (Dignitatis humanae, 1...
...Alleva might try to investigate that dichotomy, instead of assuming that just because most of white culture doesn't embrace hiphop means there's something inherently wrong with the music...
...The August 17 Et Cetera gladdened my heart—your objective reporting on: 1. the agreement between Sister Joan Chittister and her superior, Sister Christine Vladimiroff, O.S.B., with regard to Vatican silencing edicts, as well as your lack of condemnation compared to the pharisaical stone-throwing that is present in other publictaions, such as a recent Our Sunday Visitor...
...I devote the last paragraph of my essay to an expression of hope for rap because of the way the form is now evolving...
...2. Archbishop Rembert Weakland's dealing with engineered outside interference with his cathedral project, a meddling that makes me think these Benedictines are leading our church in splendid and special ways, and that moves me to ask if some investigative reporting on the likes of the forces be(Continued on page 34) Commonweal 4 September 14,2001 (Continued from page 4) hind the interference—the Saint Joseph Foundation, Catholics United for the Faith, and canon lawyer Alan Kershaw in Rome—might be needed...
...Alleluia...
...Lefeber tells us that Western music often "stole" songs and beats directly from black singers and songwriters, citing the Beatles as examples of this larceny...
...Amen...
...Confessing sins In his "Sinning and Sorrowing" (July 13), John Garvey made a case for reinvigorating the sacrament of confession by reconnecting it to an early historical meaning of baptism, which is forgiveness of sins and therefore reconciliation with Christ...
...The wisdom in these words should be applied to the dilemma presented us by stem-cell research...
...Callahan mentions restrictions on religious liberty, and the dictum "Outside the church there is no salvation," as examples of what she regards as "dinosaurs" that have "vanished...
...PAUL A. HOTTINGER Downers Grove, III...
...Unless we can convince the general public and legislators to think of embryos as persons, it is unlikely that we can ever achieve an absolute ban against this kind of research...
...There is no doubt in my mind that a more conservative or traditional social order makes it easier to pass on values...
...Maybe we're back at the beginning...
...Although the metaphysical claims on either side continue to be disputed, it is precisely the point you make about dealing with human life that requires at least the presumption that embryos are persons...
...As an African American adult who grew up listening to all kinds of music, and who also enjoys musical theater immensely, I believe that Richard Alleva's article is a collection of his opinions that has very little personal experience to reinforce it...
...HARRY D. CARROZZA, M.D...
...On the contrary, if we look at what the contemporary magisterium has actually said, in contradistinction to what theological mythology thinks it has said, it is clear that the church has not reversed previous official teachings on either of these issues...
...With Friends like these Regarding Grant Gallicho's "Got Religion...
...Such statements set the stage for conflicts in which pragmatic compromise becomes betrayal, and the total annihilation of one's adversary becomes the only acceptable long-range objective...
...Whatever agonies and angers racist white America instilled in them, Parker and Davis didn't play "black" and "white...
...The author replies: Yes, I shied away from calling rap numbers songs because I associate pop songs with melody, while designating recitals of any other sort (poetry recitals, for instance) as something else—"numbers" in this case...
...Although Douglas may be "pessimistic about the fate of a hierarchial and sacramental religion in an increasingly individualistic and socially fragmented world," we should not forget that Christianity did not come into the world as a neat, organic package, but began as a remnant torn from the cloak of a highly organized, rational social order...
...This implies chaos and discontinuity...
...Baptism is more accurately a call to ministry that invites us to walk with Jesus through death in order to create a resurrected world where peace and justice reign...
...YOLANDA LEFEBER Houston, Tex...
...To preserve the sanctity of life, John Paul II and our bishops have urged us to oppose the use of these embryos because extracting their stem cells will destroy them...
...PAUL KRENZELOK Duluth, Minn...
...That's What I Want...
...Rap "sampling," while not necessarily original, is certainly more creative than theft...
...Was Miles Davis a thief when he derived his great Porgy and Bess LP from the Gershwin score...
...That is not a value judgment, just a distinction...
...Only persons have rights—including the right to life...
...On what grounds does that assertion rest...
...Maybe I'll go for joint citizenship...
...But let's not forget that Western music, as Alleva calls it, often stole—and sometimes still does steal—songs and beats directly from black singers and songwriters...
...However, Garvey's notion of confession as a deepening of the spiritual life may appropriately be linked to the challenge of baptism...
...If a music is "inherently wrong," it wouldn't be able to evolve fruitfully, would it...
...Is it that they are not sentient, or don't have a developed nervous system, or are not self-aware, or are not capable of making autonomous decisions, or are not sufficiently individuated at conception...
...The Beatles are a group widely revered in white culture, but largely ignored by black culture...
...Catholic dinosaurs According to Sidney Callahan ("The Pope Says!," June 15), the belief that "reversals, even extinctions," of doctrine have occurred is compatible with a commitment to the Catholic faith...
...it merely taught that such a state must acknowledge the freedom of non-Catholics (Dignitatis humanae, 6...
...Tucson, Ariz...
...Alleva's hesitation to call rap "numbers" songs is elitist at best and racist at worst...
...Neither bishops nor theologians have created this situation, but all of us in the church have to deal with it...
...Thus, if we support embryonic stem-cell research and do not recognize the heart of this matter, namely, that to use embryonic stem cells is to destroy human life, we too will foster and support another plank in the culture of death...
...when Arab leaders make such statements in the highly publicized presence of the pope, they are "signaling that they really mean these things" (Jerusalem Post, May 6...
...If Assad succeeds, Jews and Judaism will be equated with radical evil, and any Muslim who seeks peace with Israel will be tainted with that evil...
...As Kelsay correctly points out, Assad seeks to end the ability of Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians to make such compromises...
...Douglas may be right in rejecting "methodological individualism," but the society we live in is thoroughly individualistic...
...richard alleva Commonweal 36 September 14,2001...
...I think if they had had "Commonweal Catholic" as one of the categories, the Quakers would be out of business...
...The real import of the occasion lay elsewhere...
...By the way, Vatican II did not even withdraw the church's insistence on the ideal of a Catholic confessional state...
...TOM BAKER Princeton, N.J...
...RICHARD L. RUBENSTEIN Bridgeport, Conn...
...Benedictions Bless the Benedictines...
...The Catechism of the Catholic Church (section 2109) teaches that religious freedom cannot be totally unrestricted, thus reiterating Vatican II's stipulation that this liberty exists only "within due limits" (Dignitatis humanae, 2...
...DONATA GUERRA Cary,N.C...
...I loved it...
...STEPHEN M. O'BRIEN Staten Island, N.Y...
...Bless you for your short Et Cetera, "Before There Was a Vatican" (August 17...
...The media have unfairly focused attention on Pope John Paul II's alleged silence when unexpectedly assaulted by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's invitation to Christians to join in a holy war against the Jews...
...If the church could contradict herself in her doctrinal statements, then this Catholic would find it intellectually impossible to call himself a Catholic...
...GERALD WILLIAMS Basking Ridge, N.J...
...Stem-cell rights Your otherwise excellent editorial, "The Stem-Cell Sell" (August 17) is flawed by your assertion that "these embryos are not human persons...
...Offering an updated version of the Protocols of the Elders ofZion, Muhammad Ziyadah, Syria's minister Commonweal 34 September 14,2001 of religion, told the pope, "We must be aware of what the enemies of God and malicious Zionism conspire to commit against Christianity and Islam...
...I have to dissent from this assertion...
...The use of adult stem cells is both ethically and morally permissible...
...No, although the church develops her doctrines, as she did at Vatican II, she never discards them...
...REV...
...Those dinosaurs are still happily roaming around...
...And it could do wonders for Commonweal's circulation...
...Thus, confession of sins finds little basis in a holistic understanding of baptism...
...Perhaps he felt that most of your readership would titter at the oxymoronic nature of the term "rap artist...
...Well, was the great Charley Parker a thief when he played variations on "Laura" by the white songwriters Johnny Mercer and David Raskin...
...Amusing to note that in the August 13 issue of Newsweek, there is a piece about the Belief-O-Matic quiz that notes its prejudicial skew in favor of Quakerism—apparently it has resulted in record numbers of inquiries to the Quaker magazine for sample issues...
...As Barry Rubin has commented, when the Arab news media express anti-Semitic statements, they are making propaganda...
...Each of these points has been argued by bioethicists for denying personhood to embryos (and fetuses), while still others have offered counterarguments to refute them...
...While I would agree that much of hip-hop's vulgarity and objectification of women make it offensive, I find the tone and implications in Alleva's article to be even more offensive...
...Proverbs 14 states that "sometimes a way seems right to a man but the end leads to death...
...While we may admire and appreciate other forms of social order, we cannot duplicate them...
...jim lein Minot, N.Dak...
...Nevertheless, I did go to the local Friends meeting last week—just to see what I was missing...
...They played music...
...If embryos are not persons, it follows that directly taking their lives doesn't amount to murder, and utilitarian arguments which appeal to the greater good for using them in stem-cell research tend to become persuasive...
...August 17): I took the Beliefnet test a few weeks ago as well, and I came out as 100 percent Orthodox Quaker—and of course, we look down on you Liberal Quakers as cafeteria Friends...
Vol. 128 • September 2001 • No. 15
