There will always be an England
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,...
...But do we...
...After noting that packs of dogs chase the fox until it drops from exhaustion and then rip the animal apart limb by limb, the commission concluded that 'this experience seriously compromises the welfare of the fox.'" The legislation also bans hunting rabbits, deer, and mink with hounds...
...In a time of budget surpluses, it is an offer that few will resist...
...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...
...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...
...When the metaphor is theft, tax cuts are taken as a form of restitution...
...Moreover, as you are well aware, a sexual orientation is only one component of the totality of personhood...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...Who needs it...
...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...
...6 (Continued from page 4) goodness of sexual pleasure" more than enough...
...Instead, Bush instinctively appeals to a hardy American prejudice: taxation is a form of confiscation...
...It is rare to find this in a single voice...
...I sure would like to know...
...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...
...Sex & the pope Luke Timothy Johnson has gotten it right ("A Disembodied 'Theology of the Body/" January 26,2001...
...It would be interesting to see an article explaining why the analogy is unreasonable...
...The House of Commons passed the measure 387-174...
...The principal issue, of course, is how to interpret orientation itself...
...ANTHONY DI RUSSO Greenville, N.H...
...The measure, long supported by the Left and animal-rights groups, will give an air of class struggle to the campaign...
...Paul O'Neill, secretary of the treasury, acknowledged at his confirmation hearings the high priority a tax cut has in the new administration...
...In calling for civility, courage, compassion, and character, he spoke to the desire of many for greater national comity and citizen accountability...
...I hope and pray that I will be able to see this happen in my lifetime...
...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...
...The polarities of views on this question range from the "objectively disordered" to "a gift of God...
...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...
...To energize working-class Labor Party members, he introduced a bill banning fox hunting with hounds, a leisure-time activity of the gentry, indeed, of the queen herself...
...Robert j. comiskey Springfield, Va...
...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...
...In the immediate future, the Federal Reserve's lowering of interest rates is likely to work more smoothly and more quickly...
...cindy nolan Lincolnshire, III...
...He urged that we think of ourselves as "citizens, not spectators...
...Johnson is careful to be inclusive of concerns of men and women, heterosexual and homosexual, single and married...
...the deficit could reemerge if surpluses fail to materialize) was taken by Republicans as an order to move full speed ahead...
...RAY TOLOSKO West Newbury, Mass...
...REV...
...After thinking about the article, I concluded that it produced some very thought-provoking ideas...
...I have enough questions of my own...
...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...
...it will go to the House of Lords where there will be fierce but meaningless debate since the Lords can no longer veto legislation...
...I'm sending in my check today...
...Lewis's Mere Christianity and his comparison of contemporary sexuality and gluttony...
...Or again, has anyone demonstrated that dissent from Humanae vitae has produced more stable and faithful marriages...
...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...
...Apparently there will always be an England, class struggle, and Reynard the Fox and Peter Rabbit too...
...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...
...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...
...The January 26 issue was the last straw...
...My inquiry was directed toward the implications of the current, official institutional position of the church...
...I never stated, or implied, that the church is supporting research to eliminate gays (human persons...
...Not for the lukewarm "A Disembodied 'Theology of the Body'" reminded me to look again at C.S...
...If I have an open mind to the Bible and to the magisterium, then those ideas can result in very wholesome and faithstrenghening thoughts...
...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...
...Reducing the federal deficit used to be a Republican mantra...
...A blue-ribbon commission, in examining claims that hunting helped control an oversized fox population, found that—according to a report in the Washington Post 0anuary 18)—"hunting with hounds is the cruelest of all control mechanisms...
...Taxpayers know better than the government how to spend their money...
...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...
...And Alan Greenspan's mixed blessing a few days later (cut, but not too much...
...That bias leads directly to another: the government that governs least _5_ E T C E T E R A S There will always be an England as British Prime Minister Tony Blair is soon expected to call elections...
...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...
...Could someone explain that to me...
...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...
...Indeed, the promised cut of $1.6 trillion was the first order of business in the Senate the Monday after inauguration day...
...ben shafer Chicago, III...
...Where else can you get all this for $44 per year...
...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...
...Hoping & praying I thoroughly enjoyed Jerry Ryan's "1054 & All That" (January 12,2001...
...There was much to applaud in Bush's brief address, though to his credit, the president did not play his lines for easy applause...
...Why is contraceptive intercourse not like the Romans' vomitorium...
Vol. 128 • February 2001 • No. 3
