Taxing rhetoric
C ORRESPONDENCE A clarification In my letter inquiring about the church's agenda regarding a sexual orientation that it considers objectively disordered, the editors of Commonweal replied,...
...cindy nolan Lincolnshire, III...
...That bias leads directly to another: the government that governs least _5_ governs best (except for military spending...
...Robert j. comiskey Springfield, Va...
...Airline safety, a secure food supply, drug testing and regulation— to name only a few of the most basic government responsibilities—all show the continuing effects of the cutbacks imposed during the Reagan administration...
...6 (Continued from page 4) goodness of sexual pleasure" more than enough...
...The January 26 issue was the last straw...
...I sure would like to know...
...ANTHONY DI RUSSO Greenville, N.H...
...Yet everything that the Bush administration hopes to accomplish, from education reform to modernizing the military to providing Medicare prescription coverage, may depend on marshaling resources that lie in those surpluses, to say nothing of all that needs doing and currently goes unattended...
...In a time of budget surpluses, it is an offer that few will resist...
...Moreover, as you are well aware, a sexual orientation is only one component of the totality of personhood...
...In fact, taxpayers don't always know better how to spend their money, because they often can't see the larger picture or focus on what needs to be done...
...One of the first tasks of the new administration should be to conjoin its rhetoric with reality...
...In the immediate future, the Federal Reserve's lowering of interest rates is likely to work more smoothly and more quickly...
...In looking at the ecumenical movement, Ryan pointed out real possibilities and opportunities to come together and share our faith without our traditions inhibiting our worship and dialogue...
...Why is contraceptive intercourse not like the Romans' vomitorium...
...Not for the lukewarm "A Disembodied 'Theology of the Body'" reminded me to look again at C.S...
...Or again, has anyone demonstrated that dissent from Humanae vitae has produced more stable and faithful marriages...
...As an educator of adolescents and a married mother of three, I have searched for writings that present a balanced view of the gift of sexuality, including both its pleasurable and difficult aspects...
...Where else can you get all this for $44 per year...
...Chronic funding shortages at the State Department hobble our ability to conduct foreign policy...
...The article by Luke Timothy Johnson attempts to take Pope John Paul II to task, thereby defining his deficiency, for not showing some "appreciation for the goodness of sexual pleasure...
...when it fails to assume them, the needs simply go unmet...
...Paul O'Neill, secretary of the treasury, acknowledged at his confirmation hearings the high priority a tax cut has in the new administration...
...Pope John Paul II has a specific message to convey, and there are at least two of us who think his message is right on...
...Where is the common good, or the common sense, in this...
...Yet, as carefully crafted as the speech was in its appeal for the nation "to seek a common good beyond your comfort, to defend needed reforms against easy attacks, to serve your nation, beginning with your neighbor," it also exposed the contradictions embedded in the Republican agenda—contradictions that belie the president's appeal to the common good...
...On those maxims, Ronald Reagan leveraged the country during the 1980s into its biggest deficit ever...
...Indeed, the promised cut of $1.6 trillion was the first order of business in the Senate the Monday after inauguration day...
...And Alan Greenspan's mixed blessing a few days later (cut, but not too much...
...Certainly there is no point or virtue in defending bloated government bureaucracies, but when government officials lack the personnel and resources to carry out and supply the most basic "common goods," it is the citizenry itself that ultimately pays the price...
...In another elegant sentence, he urged Americans to "show courage in a time of blessing, by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations...
...There was much to applaud in Bush's brief address, though to his credit, the president did not play his lines for easy applause...
...Absent the particulars, examine and consider the justifications for the cuts frequently repeated by Bush and Company: "The surplus belongs to the taxpayer, not to the government...
...It would be excellent for Johnson to expand these topics and to open the dialogue for those who would join him in his plea for a revisiting of Humanae vitae...
...Note: we do not even mention the potential need for increased welfare and unemployment funds, and increased health-care spending, should the economy sink...
...Minimal support of international bodies and foreign aid is stingy, counterproductive, and unjust...
...It would be interesting to see an article explaining why the analogy is unreasonable...
...REV...
...As noted in the original letter, until such time as the church can adopt a more neutral stance on the interpretation of the orientation itself, the dialogue will remain one of defensive posturing...
...Johnson is also sensitive to the hidden sexist underpinnings of much of the current church teaching and to the basic logical flaws in many of its supportive arguments...
...C ORRESPONDENCE A clarification In my letter inquiring about the church's agenda regarding a sexual orientation that it considers objectively disordered, the editors of Commonweal replied, "We doubt that the official church is supporting research to eliminate gays through genetic surgery, or otherwise" (January 12, 2001...
...I have enough questions of my own...
...The polarities of views on this question range from the "objectively disordered" to "a gift of God...
...He urged that we think of ourselves as "citizens, not spectators...
...In calling for civility, courage, compassion, and character, he spoke to the desire of many for greater national comity and citizen accountability...
...When the metaphor is theft, tax cuts are taken as a form of restitution...
...President Bush insisted that we take our responsibilities seriously both in this country and in the world, reminding us that "compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government...
...The tax cuts Bush proposes are very likely to be plowed into consumer goods when that money is actually needed "to seek a common good beyond your comfort...
...Lewis's Mere Christianity and his comparison of contemporary sexuality and gluttony...
...I'm sending in my check today...
...My inquiry was directed toward the implications of the current, official institutional position of the church...
...There are some activities and responsibilities that only a national government can assume...
...I never stated, or implied, that the church is supporting research to eliminate gays (human persons...
...Instead, Bush instinctively appeals to a hardy American prejudice: taxation is a form of confiscation...
...Reducing the federal deficit used to be a Republican mantra...
...Who needs it...
...Exactly...
...The principal issue, of course, is how to interpret orientation itself...
...Taxpayers know better than the government how to spend their money...
...Johnson is careful to be inclusive of concerns of men and women, heterosexual and homosexual, single and married...
...It is rare to find this in a single voice...
...Hoping & praying I thoroughly enjoyed Jerry Ryan's "1054 & All That" (January 12,2001...
...Many of the details for cuts are still to be worked out and they may prove to be more prudent and equitable than they sounded during the campaign...
...ben shafer Chicago, III...
...RAY TOLOSKO West Newbury, Mass...
...the deficit could reemerge if surpluses fail to materialize) was taken by Republicans as an order to move full speed ahead...
...But do we...
...Take the promised tax cuts: the first and almost only extended round of applause during Bush's speech went to the reiteration of his campaign promise to cut taxes...
...My thought was: with my weak faith, do I really need to read discussions about the deficiencies in the Catholic church as perceived by others...
...After thinking about the article, I concluded that it produced some very thought-provoking ideas...
...I hope and pray that I will be able to see this happen in my lifetime...
...As many economists have pointed out, there appears to be little economic justification for tax cuts that will kick in after the current slowdown has ended...
...Bush should listen more carefully to his own inaugural address...
...If I have an open mind to the Bible and to the magisterium, then those ideas can result in very wholesome and faithstrenghening thoughts...
...And by the way, for what it's worth from a nontheologian, I think the advertisers, media, celebrities and population in general, promote "the (Continued on page 30) 4 Taxing rhetoric To the surprise of many Americans, George W. Bush delivered an elegant inaugural address on January 20...
...Furthermore, down the line the cuts could turn out to be inflationary, bringing back the huge deficit that the Clinton administration inherited from the last Republican interregnum and finally tamed with the discipline supplied by the aforementioned Alan Greenspan...
...Sex & the pope Luke Timothy Johnson has gotten it right ("A Disembodied 'Theology of the Body/" January 26,2001...
...Simply stated: How will it respond, assuming no change in its present stance on nonheterosexual orientations, if the cause(s) of such orientations are uncovered in the future and subsequently the orientations themselves are subject to change within the canons of acceptable ethical norms...
...Could someone explain that to me...
Vol. 128 • February 2001 • No. 3
