LETTERS
LETTERS George and Norm's excellent adventure Regarding your smug and condescending discussion of George Bush's motivations and policies in the Gulf: "If Bush had the resolve to stick to the...
...Your piece "Casualties of War" [April] in particular illuminates the error of it all...
...Moreover, whatever Jimmy Swaggart or any other minister does with his personal money (on which he or she has paid income taxes) is no argument for taxing churches...
...Peters In April's "Tilting at Windmills," you suggested that we desperately need Sam McCorkles...
...SARA PEARSAUL Chicago, Illinois Spurning Japanese For a magazine that was designed to "increase the sophistication of the American press," you seem to show an extreme naivet...
...PETE PFEIFFER Solon, Maine The real heroes of this war are the people who spoke their minds and now stick to their guns...
...KAREN TREANOR Forest Hills, New York...
...Having read the rest of the issue, I'm convinced we need more people like Charles Peters...
...The same is true about the idea that American schools are creating a class system separating the college educated from the rest—in fact, it's even more true in Japan, with its pass/fail college entrance examination and its tendency to hire employees based on the ranking of their college...
...They pay their taxes just like everybody else...
...Thank you...
...JERRY SKURNIK New York, New York You have done it again...
...with regard to Japan...
...STEVEN FEINSTEIN Shizuoka, Japan St...
...But we've already paid Caesar...
...DANIEL BORGSTROM Fullerton, California Sacred cows Elizabeth Lesly's excellent article on tax exemptions for churches ["Pennies From Heaven," April] fails to mention one other serious difficulty with granting tax-exempt status to religious organizations...
...It seemed that the last thing I needed was to receive in-depth coverage of corruption and stupidity in American government and business, but your uncompromising opposition to this recent war is so intelligent, refreshing, and unusual that I have to re-up...
...Sanctions that inflict pain are not nonviolent...
...BURLEIGH F. WYMAN All right, you win...
...It is also shocking to have your magazine imply that Edward Deming's statement, "People are entitled to selfesteem," is somehow relevant to Japan...
...LETTERS George and Norm's excellent adventure Regarding your smug and condescending discussion of George Bush's motivations and policies in the Gulf: "If Bush had the resolve to stick to the embargo," as you put it, then we could still be tied up in legalisms, and Kuwait would still be being raped...
...They cause hunger, illness, and death...
...JACK WHITEHEAD Fremont, Ohio Elizabeth Lesly argues that churches should be taxed because 1) they have a lot of money and, 2) in her estimaLion, they're not spending it very well...
...I could go on, but I won't...
...I also suspect that, 10 years from now, many yuppies will be wishing they had been part of it...
...The only difference is that the phrase "college educated" would not be used in Japan, where college is generally regarded to be a farce...
...JEFF TUCKER Reston, Virginia Elizabeth Lesly's "Pennies from Heaven" failed to mention that the ministers and employees of churches pay taxes on their earned income...
...They don't...
...Ask James Fallows about that...
...Your readers should know that the descriptions of Washington, D.C., schools as decaying buildings without heat, hot water, or paper towels actually applies to almost every school in Japan, as I have learned as a high school teacher here...
...If you do not think that objective was worthwhile, then sanctions should have been opposed as fervently as the war...
...Great work...
...Leaving aside the question of whether sanctions in the absence of combat could have worked (the examples of successful use of sanctions you offered—Rhodesia and Nicaragua—were implemented in conjunction with guerrilla warfare), it is clear the sanctions could only work if they were inflicting pain on the people of Iraq...
...Jesus Christ said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's...
...The pain would have been less visible than the pain caused by a falling bomb, and it would have taken longer to be felt, but most of the pain would have been inflicted on children and the lower classes...
...Such a determination comes perilously close to the "establishment" of religions by the government...
...Now if you could only prescribe an antidote to the feelings of hopelessness that arise upon reading your muckraking magazine, I'd be all set...
...I would point out that the government is run by the same people who go (or don't go) to church...
...And it seems to me self-evident that the pain had to be at least equal to the pain caused by the air and ground wars...
...She seems to malign the churches' ministers in her zeal to collect money from the church...
...You, the people of The Washington Monthly, make me proud to be American...
...They'll probably waste some of it, too...
...I hope that in the future, The Washington Monthly will apply the same tough standards that it applies in articles about America to articles about Japan...
...He wasn't against paying taxes...
...If Lesly is going to argue for taxing churches, then let her keep the church separate from its employees...
...Simply treating religious organizations as corporations would avoid this pitfall...
...If such a corporation meets the standards for status as a nonprofit or charitable organization, fine...
...I continue to admire your thinking and fortitude...
...Anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of Japanese society knows that one of its main goals is to crush a person's self-esteem in order to create a compliant worker for the company and a submissive subject for the government...
...Churches have not been taxed for many good reasons, perhaps the most compelling of which is that the people who give their money to churches already give the first part of their worldly goods to the government...
...If not, it should be taxed on the same basis as any other for-profit institution...
...Therefore, she posits, the government should be getting some of that excess cash to put to better use...
...I suspect that George Bush's "adventure in the Gulf' will be remembered as a triumph long after The Washington Monthly has ceased to publish...
...If you believe that it was worthwhile to get Iraq out of Kuwait, then you have to say that Bush's policy did the job in an effective way...
...PAUL M. LION McLean, Virginia One of the most admirable qualities of Washington Monthly editors and writers has been your willingness to rethink theories after receiving a dose of reality...
...That's why this dove turned hawk is disappointed by your continued statements that sanctions were a superior alternative to war against Iraq...
...Government-approved religions realize substantial benefits under our system of taxation, while those that the government refuses to sanction do not...
...Almost every month you find a new sycophant to write another glowing article about Japan...
...In order to determine which groups merit the exemption, the government must, of necessity, decide which are "legitimate" religions and which are not...
...Your magazine is full of pieces striking the mark concerning George's latest folly...
...She made it sound as if preachers live on tax-free money...
Vol. 23 • June 1991 • No. 6
