Hot or not?
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,...
...are nasty— a Bush /Cheney campaign poster is the first image you see—while others are plain bizarre ("Am I interested in weather shielding for my brickwork or not...
...Could someone explain that to me...
...In a time of budget surpluses, it is an offer that few will resist...
...Others range from political satire ("Am I President or not...
...Why is contraceptive intercourse not like the Romans' vomitorium...
...In the immediate future, the Federal Reserve's lowering of interest rates is likely to work more smoothly and more quickly...
...AmIHot.com, a similar site, has personal ads with each photo...
...Instead, Bush instinctively appeals to a hardy American prejudice: taxation is a form of confiscation...
...REV...
...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...
...If I have an open mind to the Bible and to the magisterium, then those ideas can result in very wholesome and faithstrenghening thoughts...
...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...
...And Alan Greenspan's mixed blessing a few days later (cut, but not too much...
...6 (Continued from page 4) goodness of sexual pleasure" more than enough...
...The principal issue, of course, is how to interpret orientation itself...
...Your attractiveness will be rated on a scale of one to ten—ten for hot, one for not...
...The site has inspired copycats of several varieties...
...Who needs it...
...You can upload pictures of yourself and be rated by visitors to the site...
...In the coming months, look for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to issue norms for a Catholic Internet rating system, tentatively titled Ex corde Webesiae...
...the deficit could reemerge if surpluses fail to materialize) was taken by Republicans as an order to move full speed ahead...
...That bias leads directly to another: the government that governs least _5_ Hot or not...
...ANTHONY DI RUSSO Greenville, N.H...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...It would be interesting to see an article explaining why the analogy is unreasonable...
...Where else can you get all this for $44 per year...
...Reducing the federal deficit used to be a Republican mantra...
...When the metaphor is theft, tax cuts are taken as a form of restitution...
...My inquiry was directed toward the implications of the current, official institutional position of the church...
...The polarities of views on this question range from the "objectively disordered" to "a gift of God...
...I have enough questions of my own...
...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...
...If you've ever asked yourself that question, here's a Web site for you: www.AmIHotOrNot.com...
...AmIGeekOrNot.com asks "How much of a geek are you...
...I never stated, or implied, that the church is supporting research to eliminate gays (human persons...
...Lewis's Mere Christianity and his comparison of contemporary sexuality and gluttony...
...In calling for civility, courage, compassion, and character, he spoke to the desire of many for greater national comity and citizen accountability...
...What a woman...
...I hope and pray that I will be able to see this happen in my lifetime...
...Robert j. comiskey Springfield, Va...
...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...
...After thinking about the article, I concluded that it produced some very thought-provoking ideas...
...One member lists among her hobbies "drinking/getting drunk," "wrestling," and "building sand castles...
...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...
...Moreover, as you are well aware, a sexual orientation is only one component of the totality of personhood...
...ben shafer Chicago, III...
...Sex & the pope Luke Timothy Johnson has gotten it right ("A Disembodied 'Theology of the Body/" January 26,2001...
...A plea beneath the photo reads "Please help keep this site fun, clean, and real...
...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...
...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...
...How hot ami...
...Some, like "Am I capable of understanding basic logic or not...
...Or again, has anyone demonstrated that dissent from Humanae vitae has produced more stable and faithful marriages...
...Paul O'Neill, secretary of the treasury, acknowledged at his confirmation hearings the high priority a tax cut has in the new administration...
...The January 26 issue was the last straw...
...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...
...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...
...Johnson is careful to be inclusive of concerns of men and women, heterosexual and homosexual, single and married...
...There was much to applaud in Bush's brief address, though to his credit, the president did not play his lines for easy applause...
...I'm sending in my check today...
...Taxpayers know better than the government how to spend their money...
...But do we...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...Even nihilists can find a home in cyberspace at the Web site "Am I not or not...
...Not for the lukewarm "A Disembodied 'Theology of the Body'" reminded me to look again at C.S...
...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...
...to the philosophical ("Am I an existentialist or not...
...When the home page appears you are greeted with an image of a man or a woman underneath a beauty ballot...
...Hoping & praying I thoroughly enjoyed Jerry Ryan's "1054 & All That" (January 12,2001...
...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...
...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...
...cindy nolan Lincolnshire, III...
...I sure would like to know...
...Sources dose to the curia claim the Vatican is in talks with AOL / Time Warner to develop a site...
...It is rare to find this in a single voice...
...Indeed, the promised cut of $1.6 trillion was the first order of business in the Senate the Monday after inauguration day...
...Submit your picture and find out...
...RAY TOLOSKO West Newbury, Mass...
...AmICatholicOrNot.com hasn't yet emerged...
...He urged that we think of ourselves as "citizens, not spectators...
...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...
Vol. 128 • February 2001 • No. 3
