VOL.66 NO.6 JUNE 1983 publication. and What Chances? reuse

for Michael T. Klare George F. Kennan required Susan B. Anthony Permission DFMS. / Church Episcopal the of I Archives

2020. I Copyright LETTERS could hold hearings was the first Convention's strong Standing Commis- Monday. Then both Houses had to act sion on the Church in Metroplitan Areas, on the proposal before Program Budget it may just be powerful enough to cut the T UtilBf and Finance went to press with their ground from under Jack Woodard's budget on Thursday. That was not eloquent plea "Look out for the Spirit possible. and wonderful surprises." And that Jubilee Ministry Wronged It is a matter of deep concern to many would be darkness, indeed. that the present national budget process The Rt. Rev. John E. Hines As always, it was good to read retired puts the real power almost completely in Black Mountain, N.C. Presiding Bishop John Hines' thoughts the hands of the Presiding Bishop. If a in the March issue of THE WITNESS. Standing Commission is trying to put Parenti Article Biased But about the Jubilee Ministry, the into the proposed budget something the record needs setting straight. He says, 815 staff does not favor, it might as well I found Nat Pierce's article in the Feb- "The forces that strove to help extend or save its energy. It will lose the battle ruary issue most thought-provoking. I publication. recreate a socially active ministry of the before the General Convention ever con- have known Nat from several General and national church did a heroic job, but venes. Significant reform of the budget Conventions and, in particular, as I they were too little and too late. Even process would seem to be in order. served as Co-Chairman of the Joint reuse though having been guided by some Committee on Committees and Commis- When one couples this learning with for astute minds of people, they didn't get sions before whom he appeared in sup- started soon enough. They didn't under- one of John Hines' WITNESS observa- port of the creation of the Joint Commis- stand sufficiently the financial struc- tions about the next P.B.: "I doubt if the sion on Peace. church is well enough to pick the kind of required turing the General Convention goes On the other hand, I suggest that for person who will give it the kind of leader- through, and therefore, they came up your publication to reflect freedom of ship the next decade is going to require," with their proposition too late to get it expression of various points of view, you the outlook is not hopeful for major new budgeted adequately." should have an article pointing out the Permission program commitments to groups (like oppression which seems inevitable in This is simply wrong. The Standing poor people) having no significant con- the Marxist dominated countries where Commission on the Church in Metro- stituency in the Episcopal Church. But DFMS. even freedom of religion is not prac- / politan Areas, which originated the then, look out for the Spirit and wonder- ticed, in response to the biased article by Jubilee Ministry, understood the Gen- ful surprises! eral Convention's budgeting structure Michael Parenti. He seems to equate Church very well, but was defeated by it. The The Rev. Jack Woodard, Member capitalism with oppression. ("Capital- budget proposal was entered into the Standing Commission on the Church ism: System Without Spirit," February.) process before the deadline of June 1, in Metropolitan Areas In my two visits to the People's Repub-

Episcopal 1981, but the whole idea of a major new lic of China in recent years, I had the

the commitment to poor and oppressed Bishop Hines Responds very strong feeling through what we of people was actively opposed by Pre- I owe Jack Woodard and those with were told, as well as what we observed, siding Bishop John Allin and his "admin- whom he worked, an apology for down- that they practiced quite a different istrative group" who pretty well control grading their persistent efforts to get the brand of communism from Russia and Archives what finally gets to the Program Budget Jubilee Ministry adequately funded. its satellites. and Finance Committee of General Con- Had I realized that Jack was so inti- Their new constitution guarantees 2020. vention. Thus the Jubilee Ministry was mately involved, I hope I would have both the right to believe in and worship a refused admittance to the developing restrained my impetuous (and unsup- supreme being and the right not to so budget. For perhaps the first time, the ported) judgment of the matter, for I believe, but the churches are open with

Copyright elected Executive Council rejected the know well that Jack has been over every increasing attendance. A most inter- P.B.'s proposed budget for the Trien- inch of the budgeting process many esting observation, however, is that they nium at its February, 1982 meeting times during the years he served the seem to be practicing more and more because not a dime had been included National Church with distinction. capitalism in the encouragement of for Jubilee. The resubmitted budget in However, his well-reasoned letter small businesses operated for profit and June, 1982 included a pittance for snuffs out the small glimmer of hope, farms operated for profit. Jubilee which was increased at Gen- concerning the Episcopal Church and After reading the Parenti article, I eral Convention, but woefully, only to the poor, that had appeared. For if the turned to the Special Offer on the back $250,000. budgeting process at "815" is so dom- page where it appears two of the three At New Orleans, the earliest day the inated by an administration group offers are further attacks on capitalism. Standing Commission and its related powerful enough to reduce to near ruins I did not mean to ramble on at such legislative committee in each House the well-articulated hopes of General Continued on page 18 THE WITNESS THE Editorial

EDITOR Mary Lou Suhor

SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Robert L. DeWitt

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS publication. Richard W. Gillatt We Oppose the Death Penalty Hugh C. White and he political climate in our courts became more strict in reuse T nation has begun to turn looking at it. Along with this, STAFF for sharply against Death Row popular movements to abolish the Ann Hunter Susan Small prisoners with the election of a death penalty grew in visibility and Bonnie Spady President who openly favors strength. From 1968 - 1977 not one required Lisa Whelan capital punishment. death sentence was carried out in In the fall of 1982, New Jersey the 50 states of this nation, even and Massachusetts restored the though defendants continued to

Permission PUBLISHER death penalty for certain crimes, receive the penalty and were Episcopal Church Publishing Company and in February of this year Sen. transferred to Death Row to wait.

DFMS. Strom Thurmond of South Today more than 1000 men and / Carolina introduced a capital 13 women, the largest number in ECPC BOARD OF DIRECTORS punishment bill in the Senate. our history, are waiting on Death Church CHAIR Seven men have been executed Row. Poor people and minority H. Coleman McGehee since 1977, and bills are being group members are dispro- VICE-CHAIR introduced in state legislatures to portionately represented. The Episcopal Barbara Harris limit legal defenses against that disparity in racial composition is the SECRETARY penalty. especially notable in the Southern of Helen Seager states. In 1982, Amnesty TREASURER We do not believe that the Robert Potter current drive in favor of the death International called attention to a Archives ASSISTANT TREASURER penalty reflects the noblest ideals study which concluded that in Robert Eckersley of the American people, nor that Florida, Blacks who killed Whites 2020. Otis Charles this drive reflects accurately the were nearly 40 times more likely to Robert L. DeWitt reality of declining numbers of be sentenced to death than Blacks Steven Guerra death sentences carried out in our who killed other Blacks — an Copyright Suzanne Hiatt nation until 1977. Such a reality unmistakable manifestation of Mattie Hopkins must, we would suggest, represent racism in applying the death Joan Howarth a deeper public aversion to penalty. James Lewis executing a human being at the Furthermore, statistics have Joseph A. Pelham hands of the state. never shown conclusively that the For a span of nearly 40 years death penalty reduces crime. The THE WITNESS is published monthly. Editorial following World War II, the number notion of deterrence assumes that office: P.O. Box 359, Amblef, PA 19002. Phone of executions in the United States potential criminals exercise (215) 643-7067. Subscription rates $12 per year. $1 per copy. Copyright 1983 by the Episcopal had steadily declined. Controversy rational judgment in deciding Church Publishing Company. Printed in U.S.A. about the death penalty increased whether or not to kill, whereas in ISSN 0197-8896. greatly during the 1960s and the Continued on page 19 "We dare not neglect the issue of conventional weapons and conventional wars."

An Open Letter publication. and to the reuse for U.S. Peace Movement required by Michael T. Klare

Dear Friends, At root, our opposition to conventional weapons must be

Permission For the past year or so, the American peace movement has moral: The loss of any human beings through warfare is an devoted its energies to the struggle against nuclear weapons abomination, whether they be killed by conventional or and nuclear war. This approach has aroused a great many

DFMS. nuclear weapons. Naturally, we tend to become especially / Americans who fear a cataclysmic war between super- disturbed by the slaughter of large numbers of defenseless powers, giving the peace movement real political clout for people — hence our profound outrage over Hiroshima and

Church the first time in years. Because we face a tremendous risk of Nagasaki. But conventional weapons can also be used to extinction, and because only with large numbers of level whole cities — witness Beirut in 1982 and Dresden in supporters can we hope to turn around the military policies 1945 —and we must not forget that at least 25 million people

Episcopal of the Reagan administration, we dare not slacken the have died in conventional wars since the end of World War the tempo of our educating and organizing efforts. While we II. of dare not diminish our antinuclear activity, however, we Morality aside, there are compelling strategic reasons must not neglect the issue of conventional weapons and why the peace movement — while retaining a primary focus conventional war. Archives on nuclear weapons — must address the issues of conven- Technically speaking, conventional weapons are "conven- tional weapons.

2020. tional" only because they kill through means other than • Nuclear wars are almost certain to begin as conven- nuclear fission: They may be as familiar as a standard tional wars. handgun or as gruesome as cluster bombs and napalm. While some analysts postulate that a nuclear war can Copyright Conventional arms are not as useful as nuclear arms in begin as an unanticipated, unprovoked "bolt out of the killing very large numbers of people rapidly — but nothing blue" (BOOB in the technical literature), most experts agree else about them should lead us to think that they are that a nuclear war will grow out of a conventional war that otherwise more "humane" or acceptable than nuclear blows out of control. Although no one can predict the exact weapons, or that they are any less devastating in their effects chain of events, it is likely that a nuclear war will begin when on unprotected human bodies. a local conventional war attracts the participation of the nuclear powers, one of which resorts to the use of nuclear weapons when its conventional forces face defeat on the Michael T. Klare is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, battlefield. Washington, D.C., and author of several books, the most recent being Beyond the "Vietnam Syndrome": U.S. Intervention in the The quantities of arms sold to the Third World in recent 1980s. years are nothing short of staggering. Between 1974 and 1981, according to the Congressional Research Service of • More and more nations are acquiring large arsenals of the Library of Congress, the United States, Soviet Union, conventional weapons, thereby increasing the intensity of and Western Europe provided Third World countries with local wars. 18,211 tanks and self-propelled cannons, 29,266 troop Not only are the major powers acquiring more and more carriers, 4,852 supersonic combat aircraft, 29,795 surface- conventional arms of their own, they are increasingly selling to-air missiles, and equally large quantities of other such arms to other nations — including many that are likely weapons. to figure in future regional conflicts. Between 1970 and 1979, And recent sales to the Third World have been marked as for instance, the United States sold $77 billion worth of arms much by the sophistication of the weapons supplied as by to Third World countries, approximately 25 times the their quantity. No longer are the major powers providing amount delivered in the preceding decade. More important only their obsolete hand-me-downs. They are selling their than quantity, however, is the quality of the weapons. The most advanced and powerful weapons. These deliveries United States and other major suppliers are now selling their have transformed the combat environment in the Third most advanced arms to overseas customers, including many publication. World into a high-risk battlefield. "near-nuclear" arms of the type described above. and • Conventional conflicts are becoming more frequent, Further, conventional arms transfers bind the fate of the and are more likely than ever to trigger a superpower reuse recipient to that of the supplier, thereby increasing the risk confrontation. for of superpower involvement in local wars arising in the Third Sadly, it appears that more and more countries are prone World. The big powers inevitably acquire a particular to employ military means to solve disputes or expand their

required interest in the survival of regimes to which they have sold wealth and power. Already, in 1982, we have witnessed large quantities of their most advance weapons. Should any several major conflicts, including the Falklands war, the of these countries face defeat in a local war, the credibility of ongoing conflict between Iraq and Iran, and the Israeli their supplier is inevitably threatened, thus producing

Permission invasion of Lebanon. Despite their high death tolls, these pressures to intervene. These pressures are bound to conflicts seem to have prompted no noticeable decline in increase, moreover, if there is any risk that the supplier's warlike behavior on the part of any of the world's DFMS.

/ military secrets will fall into the hands of an enemy. Indeed, governments. In fact, most nations are expanding their many U.S. lawmakers voted against the AWACS sale to arsenals on a scale unlike anything we've seen since the years Saudi Arabia precisely out of this fear. In the Middle East, Church preceding World Wars I and II. Moreover, both super- both superpowers have established close arms-supply powers are deploying more and more forces abroad, and relationships with potential belligerents. During the 1973 appear more inclined than ever to intervene in local conflicts Arab-Israeli war, both the United States and the Soviet Episcopal involving their allies and clients. Union transported arms directly to their allies in the war the • Conventional arms are becoming more deadly than of zone, narrowly averting a head-on collision. Next time, we ever before, thereby eroding the "firebreak" between may not be so lucky. conventional and nuclear arms. Clearly, each of these factors by themselves makes a Archives At one time, there was a clearly defined gap or "firebreak" between the most powerful conventional weapons and the nuclear war more likely; together, they make one a near

2020. smallest nuclear weapons, making it easier to halt the certainty. The final conclusion appears inescapable: The escalation before it reached the nuclear level. But tech- only way we can really hope to prevent the outbreak of nological advances are erasing this firebreak by making nuclear war is to prevent the superpowers from intervening

Copyright conventional arms more powerful and nuclear arms less in a localized war that has the potential for escalation. indiscriminate in their effects. For example, large cluster An effort to halt the development of "near-nuclear bomb units (CBMs) of the type used by Israel in Lebanon weapons" and prevent their proliferation to foreign govern- can kill all unprotected humans in a very large area, while ments is as essential to the antinuclear effort as the campaign new "mini-nukes" of the type developed by the United States against nuclear weapons themselves. can confine their destructive effects to an area of just about the same size. It is becoming that much easier for military Many people have told me, with considerable justice, that commanders to justify crossing the increasingly narrow gap an exclusive antinuclear focus is the best way of mobilizing between these "near-nuclear" conventional weapons and the large numbers of people against the Reagan war machine. I smallest mini-nukes, thereby igniting a chain reaction would argue, however, that we will not succeed in linking leading to a full-scale nuclear war. our own movement with those of poor people, workers and minorities unless we address the economic issues that affect significant reductions in U.S. conventional forces. While we them so intimately. And we cannot discuss the economic should in no way slacken any of our efforts to stop the effects of military spending unless we address the issue of nuclear arms race, we need to remember that an exclusive conventional weapons — for conventional arms, and the focus on nuclear weapons prevents us from seeing the forces of intervention, consume 85% of the Reagan war inescapable links between conventional and nuclear war. budget, while nuclear arms consume only 15%. Real cuts in Only by adopting a flexible approach that encompasses the defense budget that would free up more federal funds for both nuclear and conventional issues can we hope to address domestic programs and economic revitalization, call for those factors which most threaten world peace today. Keep the Bomb, Ban the Shelters publication.

and by Tony Heyes

reuse The author, a free-lance writer from New York, lost both parents in the for Liverpool blitz in World War II and has had strong opinions about wars and who profits from them ever since. required ure, I would like it if the nuclear bomb had never The virtue of the bomb is that for the first time in S been invented. I would also like it if the telephone, history, those that start the war are sure to lose and get transistor radio, and the wheel had never been killed in it. In the past when bombs were dropped, the Permission invented. Oh, that I could still be a private person and people who got killed were the poor who lived around travel at my own speed. But they were invented, and the targets, such as factories and docks. The vast

DFMS. majority of the army who died were of the working

/ like all technology, once here there is no way to ban it. Our only hope is for conditions that will prevent its class and they were all young. This time the rich and use. the old who have the power will also go, so will their Church Consider what we have to have in order to ban the own families. There will be no property left for those bomb: who in previous wars profited from it. It is the best situation we ever had for the prevention of a major Episcopal 1. Complete control of all the raw materials and war. Does anyone think there would have been a war the in the Falklands if Galtieri's Buenos Aires and of technology: Impossible. Thatcher's London were threatened by nuclear extinc- 2. Complete trust among those who have con- tion? trol of the means: Impossible. Archives It is the first time any government — capitalist, 3. Elimination of competitive forces and divisive socialist, or communist — has ever spent so much 2020. philosophies that cause people to fight: money on a program that will treat everyone equal, Impossible. rich or poor, Black or White, young or old, male or female. The only threat is from people who think they Copyright Consider what has to happen to prevent its use: can win and that they won't get killed. • To maintain our new found security we must insist • Elimination of the incentive to fight, i.e. the that those who can start a war, or vote for a ability to win: Possible. government that does, or stands in any way to benefit from it, is bound to die in it. The only thing that will restrain a potential This means outlawing shelters and any other means aggressor is the sure knowledge that he will lose. Why of escape. At last man has collectively pooled his has this not worked in the past? Because there was no resources for a consequence that will treat all people such condition. Those who started and hoped to profit equal. Don't permit any deviation — BAN THE by wars rarely got killed in them. SHELTERS. One Christian's View of the Arms Race publication.

and by George F. Kennan reuse he public discussion of the prob- nuclear weaponry from a Christian stand- for T lems presented by nuclear weaponry point, I am aware that the standpoint in which is now taking place in this country this instance is a primitive one, theo- required is going to go down in history, I suspect logically speaking, and that this places (assuming, of course, that history is to limitations on its value. This is, how- continue at all and does not itself fall ever, the way that a great many of us

Permission victim to the sort of weaponry we are have to look at the subject; and if discussing), as the most significant that primitive paintings are conceded to have any democratic society has ever engaged some aesthetic value, perhaps the same DFMS. / in. sort of indulgence can be granted to a layperson's view of the relationship of George F. Kennan, former U.S. Ambas- I myself have participated from time Church sador to the Soviet Union, is Professor to time in this discussion, whenever I nuclear weaponry to his own faith. Emeritus, Institute for Advanced thought I might usefully do so; but in I Studies, Princeton, and Co-chalr, Amer- doing so, I have normally been speaking There are, I believe, two ways in

Episcopal ican Committee on East-West Accord. only in my capacity as a citizen talking which one may view the nuclear weapon, The accompanying is a chapter from the his book, The Nuclear Delusion, re- to other citizens; and since not all of so-called. One way is to view it just as of printed by permission of Pantheon those other citizens were Christians, did one more weapon, like any other Books. Copyright© by George F. not feel that I could appeal directly to weapon, only more destructive. This is Kennan.

Archives Christian values. Instead, I have tried the way it is generally viewed, I am only to invoke those values which, as it afraid, by our military authorities and

2020. seemed to me, had attained the quality by many others. I personally do not see of accepted ideals of our society as a it this way. A weapon is something that whole. is supposed to serve some serious

Copyright In this article, I would like to address objective of governmental policy, one myself to some of these same problems supposed to promote the interests of the more strictly from the Christian stand- society which employs it. The nuclear point. I do this with some hesitation, device seems to me not to respond to because while I hold myself to be a that description. Christian, in the imperfect way that so But for those who do see it this way I many others do, I am certainly no better would like to point out that if it is to be a one than millions of others; and I can considered a weapon like other claim no erudition whatsoever in the weapons, then it must be subjected to field of Christian theology. If, therefore, the same restraints, to the same rules of I undertake to look at the problems of warfare, which were supposed, by inter- national law and treaty, to apply to can never be eradicated. civilization — and, in a sense, on its past other forms of weaponry. One of these Now the nuclear weapon offends as well. It has recently been forcefully was the prescription that weapons against this principle as no other weapon argued (and not least in Jonathan should be employed in a manner calcu- has ever done. Other weapons can bring Schell's powerful book, The Fate of the lated to bring an absolute minimum of injury to noncombatants by accident or Earth, 1982) that not only would any hardship to non-combatants and to the inadvertence or callous indifference; but extensive employment of nuclear entire infrastructure of civilian life. This they don't always have to do it. The weapons put an end to the lives of many principle was of course offended against nuclear weapon cannot help doing it, millions of people now alive, but it in the most serious way in World War and doing it massively, even where the would in all probability inflict such II; and our nuclear strategists seem to injury is unintended by those who terrible damage to the ecology of the assume that, this being the case, it has unleash it. Northern Hemisphere and possibly of now been sanctioned and legitimized by Worse still, of course, and utterly the entire globe as simply to destroy the precedent. unacceptable from the Christian stand- very capacity of our natural environ- publication. But the fact is that it remains on the point as I see it, is the holding of ment for sustaining civilized life, and and books as a prescription both of the laws innocent people hostage to the policies thus to put an end to humanity's past as of war and of international treaties to of their government, and the readiness, well as its future. reuse which we are parties; and none of this is or the threat, to punish them as a means Only scientists are qualified, of for changed by the fact that we ourselves of punishing their government. Yet how course, to make final judgments on such liberally violated it 30 or 40 years ago. many times — how many times just in matters. But we nonscientists are required And even if it were not thus prescribed these recent years — have we seen that morally bound, surely, to take into by law and treaty, it should, as I see it, possibility reflected in the deliberations account not only the certain and predict- be prescribed by Christian conscience. of those who speculate and calculate able effects of our actions but also the For the resort to war is questionable about the possible uses of nuclear possible and probable ones. Looking at Permission enough from the Christian standpoint weapons? How many times have we had it from this standpoint, I find it impos- even in the best of circumstances; and to listen to these terrible euphemisms sible not to accept Schell's thesis that in DFMS.

/ those who, as believing Christians, take about how many cities or industrial even trifling with the nuclear weapon, as it upon their conscience to give the objects we would "take out" if a govern- we are now doing, we are placing at risk order for such slaughter (and I am not ment did not do what we wanted it to

Church the entire civilization of which we are a saying that there are never situations do, as though what were involved here part. where this seems to be the lesser of the were only some sort of neat obliteration Just think for a moment what this two evils) — those who do this owe it to of an inanimate object, the removal of Episcopal means. If we were to use these devices in their religious commitment to assure somebody else's pawn on the chess- the warfare, or if they were to be detonated of that the sufferings brought to innocent board, and not, in all probability, the on any considerable scale by accident or and helpless people by the military killing and mutilation of innocent misunderstanding, we might be not only operations are held to the absolute people on a scale previously unknown putting an end to civilization as we now Archives minimum — and this, if necessary, even in modern times (unless it be, if you will, know it but also destroying the entire at the cost of military victory. in the Holocaust of recent accursed 2020. For victory itself, even at its apparent memory)? best, is a questionable concept. I can II

Copyright think of no judgments of statesmanship These things that I have been talking in modern times where we have made about are only those qualities of the greater mistakes, where the relationship nuclear weapon which violate the tradi- between calculations and results have tional limitations that were supposed to been more ironic, than those which rest even upon the conduct of conven- related to the supposed glories of victory tional warfare. But there is another and the supposed horrors of defeat. dimension to this question that carries Victory, as the consequences of recent beyond anything even conceived of in wars have taught us, is ephemeral; but the past; and that is, of course, the the killing of even one innocent child is possible, if not probable effect of nu- an irremediable fact, the reality of which clear warfare on the entire future of

8 product of humanity's past efforts in the ready to place at risk are the contri- development of civilized life, that of butions of our own parents and grand- which we are the beneficiaries and with- parents — of people we remember. out which our own lives would have no Like children, These were, in many instances, humble meaning: the cities, the art, the learning, Breathless. contributions, but ones wrung by those Hushed. the mastery of nature, the philosophy — We gather people from trouble and sacrifice, and what you will. And it would be not just At dusk all of them equal, the humble ones and the past of civilization that we were To glimpse the momentous ones, in the sight of destroying; we would, by the same The tlrefly — God. These contributions were products token, be denying to countless genera- Night's apostle not just of our parents' efforts but of Of hope, tions as yet unborn, denying to them in Faith's fragile their hopes and their faith. Where is the our unlimited pride and selfishness, the Lunacy. place for these efforts, these hopes, that very privilege of leading a life on this — Madeline faith, in the morbid science of mutual publication. earth, the privilege of which we our- Ligammare destruction that has so many devotees, and selves have taken unquestioning and official and private, in our country? greedy advantage, as though it were What becomes, in that mad welter of reuse drals, the poetry, the prose literature

for something owed to us, something to be —these things were largely unthinkable calculations about who could take out taken for granted, and something to be without the faith and the vision that whom, and how many millions might conceded or denied by us to those who inspired them and the spiritual and survive, and how we might hope to save required might come after us —conceded or intellectual discipline that made pos- our own poor skins by digging holes in denied, as we, in our sovereign pleasure, sible their completion. Even where they the ground, and thus perhaps surviving might see it. were not the products of a consciously into a world not worth surviving into

Permission How can anyone who recognizes the experienced faith, how can they be —what becomes in all this of the hopes authority of Christ's teaching and regarded otherwise than as the work- and the works of our own parents? ings of the divine spirit — the spirit of Where is the place, here, for the biblical DFMS. example accept, even as a humble / citizen, the slightest share of respon- beauty and elevation and charity and injunction to "honor thy father and sibility for doing this —and not just for harmony — the spirit of everything that mother" — that father and mother who Church doing it, but for even incurring the risk is the opposite of meanness, ugliness, stand for us not only as living memories of doing it? This civilization we are cynicism, and cruelty? but as symbols of all the past out of talking about is not the property of our Must we not assume that the entire which they, too, arose, and without Episcopal generation alone. We are not the human condition out of which all this which their own lives, too, had no the proprietors of it; we are only the custo- has arisen — our own nature, the meaning? of dians. It is something infinitely greater character of the natural world that I cannot help it. I hope I am not being and more important than we are. It is surrounds us, the mystery of the genera- unjust or uncharitable. But to me, in the

Archives the whole; we are only a part. It is not tional continuity that has shaped us, the light of these considerations, the read- our achievement; it is the achievement entire environmental framework, in iness to use nuclear weapons against 2020. of others. We did not create it. We inher- other words, in which the human experi- other human beings — against people ited it. It was bestowed upon us; and it ment has proceeded — must we not whom we do not know, whom we have was bestowed upon us with the implicit assume that this was the framework in never seen, and whose guilt or innocence Copyright obligation to cherish it, to preserve it, to which God meant it to proceed — that it is not for us to establish — and, in develop it, to pass it on — let us hope this was the house in which it was meant doing so, to place in jeopardy the natural improved, but in any case intact —to that we should live — that this was the structure upon which all civilization the others who were supposed to come stage on which the human drama, our rests, as though the safety and the after us. struggle out of beastliness and savagery perceived interests of our own genera- And this obligation, as I see it, is into something higher, was meant to be tion were more important than every- something more than just a secular one. enacted? Who are we, then, the actors, thing that has ever taken place or could The great spiritual and intellectual to take upon ourselves the responsibility take place in civilization: this is nothing achievements of Western civilization: of destroying this framework, or even less than a presumption, a blasphemy, the art (including the immense Chris- risking its destruction? an indignity — an indignity of mon- tian art), the architecture, the cathe- Included in this civilization we are so strous dimensions — offered to God! • The Gospel According to Tennessee Williams by Malcolm Boyd

hen Tennessee Williams was publication. found dead recently in a New

and W York City hotel room, immediately he occupied center stage once again on reuse Williams recognized clearly that he

for front pages and the TV News, and in our "existed outside of conventional society collective consciousness. while contriving somewhat precariously A controversial artist who led a to remain in contact with it." No matter required turbulent life, America's premier play- how brilliantly shone his celebrity, he wright intimately knew his priest- understood himself to be eternally an grandfather's Episcopal rectory when Outsider.

Permission he was a youth. Later, plays written by He knew intimately the alienation Williams were to be the source of and loneliness experienced by countless Tennessee Williams by Susan Rheiner innumerable sermons in Episcopal DFMS. people in modern-urban-technological of movement takes on spiritual meaning / churches from coast to coast. culture, whether they reside in Chi- in Tom's speech in The Glass Menagerie: The plays of Williams have loomed cago or Tokyo, London or Houston. "I traveled around a great deal. The Church large in my own consciousness. It was Williams noted in his autobiography cities swept about me like dead leaves, my privilege to see Laurette Taylor in that perhaps the major theme of his leaves that were brightly colored but The Glass Menagerie in the '40s in the writings was "the affliction of loneliness torn away from the branches. I would Episcopal Biltmore Theatre in Los Angeles. And that follows me like a shadow, a very have stopped, but I was pursued by the to see Jessica Tandy and Marlon ponderous shadow too heavy to drag something." of Brando in the original Broadway pro- after me all of my days and nights." Always, it seems to me, Tennessee duction of A Streetcar Named Desire, But there is also "A Gospel According Williams understood Francis Thomp-

Archives Geraldine Page and Paul Newman in to Tennessee Williams." In Camino son's The Hound of Heaven better than the New York opening of A Sweet Bird Real, he allowed as how in such a place almost anybody.

2020. of Youth, Bette Davis in a Detroit many were lonely, yet it would be I fled Him, down the nights and tryout of The Night of the Iguana, and inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone. down the days; the original New York production of He understood the need of community, I fled Him, down the arches of Copyright Camino Real in 1953. What extra- belonging, acceptance — and yes, love. the years; ordinary theatrical — and theological Keep moving, keep growing, is a I fled Him, down the labyrinthine — riches! recurring theme. Byron in Camino Real ways exclaims: "Make voyages, attempt Of my own mind; and in the them, there's nothing else." This sense midst of tears Malcolm Boyd, social critic, author of 20 I hid from Him, and under books, and a book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times, is writer-priest-in-residence running laughter. at St. Augustine-by-the-Sea Episcopal One senses an openness of Williams Church in Santa Monica, Calif. to grace, as part of a deep religious

10 religious and not humanist; which different kinds: from peace in crowded, recognizes, as the great religious tradi- violent, impersonal cities; from meaning tions recognize, the weakness and sinful- in a secular age that just may be bent on ness of man, and his need for redemp- self-destruction; from love in a time "Blanche's exit line in tion." when fundamentalistic report cards on Williams' A Streetcar Named Suchpraeparatio evangelica has long the human condition try to hold sway Desire: 'I have always de- been understood in terms of cultural over thanksgiving for God's creation. It and intellectual statements of identi- appears that all of us are increasingly pended upon the kindness of fiable human and moral problems. Art dependent upon the kindness of strang- strangers,' becomes a universal of this genre has been hailed because it ers; and strangers upon our kindness. statement as well as a personal touches people — it states their prob- Williams knew vulnerability inti- one in our present age of lems, even if it does not solve them, and mately. In The Glass Menagerie, a refugees of every kind who shows some touch of glory in the life broken glass unicorn is presented as a publication. pour across borders and they are living. loving gift. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and through city gates." Tennessee Williams spoke tenderly Maggie tells Brick: "Of course you always had that detached quality as if

reuse and kno'wledgeably of grace when he you were playing a game without much for referred to Rose, his sister, who was confined to mental institutions for much concern over whether you won or lost, of her life: "After all, high station in life and now that you've lost the game, not required is earned by the gallantry with which lost but just quit playing, you have that appalling experiences are survived with rare sort of charm that usually only grace." happens in very old or hopelessly sick people, the charm of the defeated." Permission Grace was like a flickering flame on the outer fringes of his consciousness, Chance, in Sweet Bird of Youth, says: sensibility in his work. His message — if "I don't ask for your pity, but just for DFMS. but something to be yearned for rather / your understanding — not even that — one wishes to call it even that; perhaps than grasped. He wrote of "the sense of "theme" is better — is inherently no. Just for your recognition of me in guilt that must always shadow my life." Church implicit. His work tends to leave us you, and the enemy, time, in us all." One And, "I live like a gypsy, I am a fugitive. caught up in what C.S. Lewis once finds a line of incredible transcendence No place seems tenable to me for long described as "an unforgettable intensity in Camino Real: "The violets in the anymore, not even my own skin." Episcopal of life — haunted forever with the sense mountains have broken the rocks." the of vast dignities and strange sorrows Yet he said that he did find an answer The Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon, a of and teased with thoughts beyond the in Blanche's exit line which he wrote for defrocked Episcopal priest, becomes a reaches of our souls." A Streetcar Named Desire: "I have tour guide for a while in The Night of always depended upon the kindness of

Archives Brother George Every, in his excellent the Iguana. The following lines, which book Christian Discrimination, spoke strangers." Williams gave Shannon, might serve as

2020. eloquently about implicit religious This becomes a universal statement, an epitaph for Williams himself: communication: "A distinction ought as well as a personal one, in our present "I haven't stuck to the schedules to be made between religious art and art age of refugees of every kind who pour of the brochures and I've always

Copyright on religious subjects. The poetry of the across borders and through city gates. allowed the ones that were willing 15th century French poet Villon has Who is not a refugee? Jesus was born to see, to see — the underworlds of been called extremely religious, though one, dependent upon charity, in flight all places, and if they have hearts he himself was a sad scamp; and we can from tyranny, homeless and hungry. to be touched, feelings to feel with, speak of the deeply religious outlook Many of us are refugees of vastly I gave them a priceless chance to implied in James Joyce's Ulysses, which feel and to be touched. And none was for some time officially unprintable. will ever forget it, none of them, In such a case we mean that the work ever, never!" implies an outlook on life which is Goodbye, dear friend. Go in peace. •

11 Would You Believe .. . Christians Flock to Liturgy In the Soviet by Susan B. Anthony

We hear much in the United States about "atheistic Archbishop Makary, world ecumenical figure, in communism" but little about the practice of religion Kiev, as she sought signs of Russian spirituality. publication. in the Soviet Union. On a Citizens' Exchange trip, As we go to press, the Rev. Richard W. Gillett of

and Dr. Susan B. Anthony, grandniece of the noted the Church and Society Network, contributing suffragist, had an opportunity to observe and editor of THE WITNESS, is on a tour of the reuse participate in services of the Russian Orthodox and U.S.S.R. and will report on the socio-political for Roman Catholic churches there, and to interview aspects of his trip in future issues.

required hristianity does indeed transcend golden-spired Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian-born Russian Orthodox C not only national cultural differ- Fortress Cathedral in Leningrad. I member of our tour. We entered the ences, but economic and political grieved with the suffering Christ a few lighted church, obviously in the midst of

Permission systems. That was my first and last yards from the cathedral in the jail cells the Divine Liturgy. The face of Jesus impression during a journey to the that had confined the great novelist was spotlighted in a full-length ikon Soviet Union in 1982. I saw this while Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1852, and the behind the altar. Two scarlet-clad DFMS. / attending services and heard it during Russian literary giant, Maxim Gorky in priests with long white hair were interviews with people such as Arch- 1905. celebrating. At this midweek service the

Church bishop Makary of the Ukraine, a leader One of my bonds of unity with Soviet majority of the 25 worshipers were of the Russian Orthodox Church as well Christians was forged when a young babushkas (elderly women), in simple as the world ecumenical and peace woman on our Citizen Exchange working clothes, and one young man.

Episcopal movements. Council tour rushed up to me in a hotel All of us stood, except one woman who the I worshiped God with brother and lobby during our first stop in Moscow. prostrated herself on the floor during of sister Christians, some of the more than She said, "You're the only member of the reading of the Gospel. George stood 40 million Russian Orthodox members, our tour who would have a Catholic behind me, quietly weeping. "This is my religion," he said. "I guess I get Archives whether in an obscure, small onion- Bible with you. There's a young Russian domed church in Moscow, or at the waiting down at the Metro station — emotional about it."

2020. grand St. Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev. I praying that I will bring a Bible to him." The numinous quality of that Russian saw the glory of the Risen Christ in the I told her that my Bible was at the Orthodox Mass, immediately after the bottom of my suitcase, jammed in under gift of my Bible to a young Muscovite,

Copyright luggage of 37 other tour members. I seemed to convert my secular tour into a didn't even know if I could get at it. But spiritual pilgrimage. The climax of the Dr. Susan B. somehow I did, and dug through my pilgrimage awaited me in Kiev where I Anthony, author, clothes for my well-worn Bible. I met, interviewed and was blessed and theologian and lec- inscribed it for the Moscow Roman anointed by Archbishop Makary of the turer, is currently Catholic and gave it to her to take it to Ukraine. counseling in pri- vate practice in him. I questioned him in the grand drawing Boca Raton, Fla. Just an hour before our departure room of the Kiev chancery. Hospitably, from Moscow I walked down to the he had served me tea in a filigreed silver Russian Orthodox church near the glass holder, and cookies and candies. Hotel Cosmos with George, the We sat under crystal chandeliers which

12 lit up the gilded carvings, the rich academicians are saying that it is the brocades and colors of the room. The purest language in the history of Russia. Archbishop's merry blue eyes and fre- I think that we will continue to prefer quent laughter contrasted with the this language for our liturgy for the time somber black of his hat or klobuk, black being." veil and black robe. The interior quality of religious life in The Russian Orthodox church, he the Soviet Union interested me more said, is well established inside the Soviet than the numbers of believers. I asked Union. "According to our constitution the Archbishop whether the great we can profess any religion we like, and Russian soul, manifested by the saints confess our Lord Jesus Christ." and portrayed by Dostoevsky and other Of the estimated 50 million Christians writers, survived the revolution. in the U.S.S.R. today, the Russian Archbishop Makary Archbishop Makary said that unlike publication. Orthodox lead with more than 40 "For the first time in history, the the West, all Russian monasteries and and million adherents. Of the other 10 Russian Orthodox Church is admitting convents are contemplative, rather than million Christians, 6 million are Prot- women to the theology academies. They active or apostolic. He didn't say, but I reuse estants and 3.5 million are Roman are being trained theologically for their would guess this is not a matter of virtue for Catholics. There are also 45 million work as choir directors. Some 40 only, but of necessity. The church in Moslems in the country. women have been admitted to Lenin- Russia is not permitted to proselytize; required "Many thousand 'open' or active grad's theology academy. Soon Moscow hence there is no real place for evangel- churches function in the Soviet Union," will open its doors." izing or even teaching religion, outside the Archbishop said. The figures range The Russian Orthodox, like the of the seminaries and academies. The 20

Permission from 7,500 to 10,000, according to our Roman Catholics, declared women monasteries and convents that do exist tour booklet. In Czarist days there were saints long before they permitted them are not divided into various orders or 77,676 Russian Orthodox churches. to study God in academies. congregations. DFMS. / Russian Orthodoxy was then a state "We do not have many women saints. There is a stable interest in the religion, with 95% of the population But we do have some — one of the very monastic life among believers, he said.

Church adhering to it. first saints in the history of our church is Some 50 to 60% of the monks and nuns Active churches are distinguished Princess Olga, who was called 'equal to are from 20 to 40 years old. Like from those that function as museums, the apostles' by the church. That is the contemplatives everywhere they ded-

Episcopal such as the Dom in Riga, the huge highest title that could be given anyone. icate most of their time to prayer, the the Kazan Cathedral in Leningrad, the ikon- She was given this title because she core of their life. of rich Cathedral of the Assumption in played an exceptional role in bringing One of the functions of the monks Moscow or others that are simply Christianity to Russia. She was the and nuns is to provide spiritual direction

Archives closed. grandmother of the great Prince for lay persons. Called staretz or elders, An important indicator of religious Vladimir. She had a vast influence upon they are very popular and venerated

2020. renewal in the Soviet Union, Arch- the choice that was made later by the among the believers. The staretz is, he bishop Makary said, is the doubling of Prince in bringing Christianity to said, like Father Zossima in The the number of theology students from Russia in Kiev in 988." The milennium Brothers Karamozov, whose "love-in-

Copyright 1,000 to 2,000 in the last five years. This of the introduction of Christianity will action" teaching inspired Dorothy includes 1,000 correspondence course be celebrated in 1988. Day's work for the poor and peace. students who cannot get to either of the The Russian Orthodox have not The monasteries are supported by three Russian Orthodox seminaries, or modernized their liturgy, Archbishop free donations of the believers. There the two graduate theology academies. Makary observed. are no wealthy, land-owning mon- "Applications for admission have been "We are interested in preserving the asteries as there were before the Revolu- running three or four times the number liturgy as it was in the course of many tion. The famous Cave (Pechersky) of available spaces in these institutions," centuries," he said. "Slavonic is the monastery in Kiev for example, in our tour booklet said. language we use — a classic language in Czarist days, owned thousands of Some of those applicants are now Russia — a beautiful language for producing acres. Today religious live women, according to the Archbishop. singing and reading. Some Soviet frugally with neither state support nor

13 that of royalty and nobility to provide think that if this kind of possibility arms race. them with land and money. Yet nothing would come more often, if we could The Archbishop fit my interview into is done to hamper the existence of the meet more often, I think we could a day which included a three hour monasteries, insisted the Archbishop. become more dear to each other. If liturgy at 6 p.m., and a four hour Divine "They have all the opportunity they that's the case, we would try to do Liturgy the next day at St. Vladimir to need to lead a normal monastic life." everything possible not to inflict any celebrate the Ukrainian feast, the I asked the Archbishop if he had kind of harm on another person whom Blessing of the Flowers. anything he would like to say to us we know, and whom we love, and whom Five ofusfromourtour walked down Americans. we respect." the hill from our hotel to St. Vladimir to "I think it is especially important," he He concluded, "If men and women attend the last half of the evening liturgy said, "that the Americans and the will gain peace inside themselves, they of the vigil feast. The crowd was so Russians come together more often. I would save many thousands of people dense in the cathedral that we arranged think it is beautiful that now I have this who are living around them. I think that to meet outside afterward. I squeezed publication. opportunity to sit together with you, to the spirituality of peace within oneself is through the men and women worshipers and speak with you, to share our common exceptionally helpful for the cause of trying to locate the altar and the interests, and to express toward each peace. It could be the strongest Archbishop. reuse other our sympathy, our love; and I weaponry which could really fight the Continued on page 19 for required Russian, U.S. Stereotypes Harmful

Permission he Russian stereotype assailing the minds of many culture typically does not flourish in a vacuum. It requires T Americans, is a demeaning caricature of the Russian the warmth of a great tradition, the air of a cultivated

DFMS. people. It alleges that Russians are ill-mannered and audience, and the light of sensitive criticism. / swaggering; bellicose and militaristic; dishonest, unreliable, Let me share with you the Soviet stereotype of Americans. deceitful, duplicitous, cunning, and atheistic; that they It is also inaccurate, demeaning, and self-serving. But with Church trample on all that is humane, on respect for the individual, their wand of class-consciousness, the Soviets tend to divide on tolerance for dissent, on compassion for the suffering, on Americans into a large group of poor workers oppressed by spiritual refinement; and that, like a bear, they are dull- a smaller clique of the evil wealthy, especially those Episcopal witted but powerful and only respond to displays of vastly financiers, manufacturers, and suppliers of armaments. the superior force, and even then with belligerent reluctance. The capitalist American is opportunistic, exploitative, of That there have been or are Russians who fit this mold is and ruthless; permissive, apathetic, and narcissistic; he is undeniable, as do some Germans, Italians, Japanese, and intellectually shallow, irreverent toward his heritage, and

Archives Americans. But I ask you whether a people embodying only obsessed with an amoral technology; and he is easily these features could have produced their rich folklore; satisfied with the trivial and tawdry in the arts and

2020. writers like Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, uncritically swayed by charisma and rhetoric in politics. Pasternak, and Solzhenitsyn; the composers Glinka, Most importantly, he is naive, inconstant, and thus Balakirev, Moussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, dangerous in his behavior. That is, he is capable of

Copyright Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, and Shostokovich; unpredictable and illogical responses which, on the inter- painters such as Ivanov, Perov, Repin, Surikov, Levitan, national plane, may well risk war and even the future of Serov, Vrubel, Kandinsky, and Chagall; and the ballet mankind to protect his position and ego. immortals Nijinsky, Plisetskaia, Nureyev, Barishnikov, This image fits Americans little better than our Russian Makarova, and Godunov, to name only a few? stereotype does their people, but both nonetheless underlie The answer must be that during the last two centuries much thinking and decision making. Russian society, carefully considered, yields about the same ratio of talent and degeneracy or creative flight and — Gary L. Browning obtuseness as any other. It may even be that the Russians Associate Professor of Russian have produced more than their share of great masters. And Brlgham Young University

14 Can Law and Religion Find a Better Relationship? by Henry H. Rightor

aw and religion have had an on- those responsible for the Declaration of plines themselves have both been impov- publication. L and-off relationship in the Western Independence and the Constitution of erished as they pursued their separate world since the time of Moses. the United States, were well aware that goals without the interaction that had and In the United States, religion has an orderly society needs the particular been part of the process of their joint

reuse done far more than supply law with its contributions that religion can make. ventures. for values; that is, what is "right" and what It is the First Amendment of the "Bill Law without the morals and ideals of is "wrong." Love of God and love of of Rights," often called "the soul of the religion is left to rely on the punitive neighbor have provided powerful reli- Constitution," that guarantees "the free aspects of adversary civil and criminal required gious incentives for obedience to law. exercise" of religion. procedures for its effectiveness. While Secular religion has supplied similar Article I of the amendments does this may be euphemistically described incentives through love of country and more, however, than guarantee "the free as "positive" law, the growing reliance Permission through the religious ideals and values it exercise" of religion. It reads, in its on adversary procedures alone has adopted. Law, in turn, has done far entirety, as follows: brought law and the practice of law to

DFMS. more than protect religious freedom. It Congress shall make no law the extraordinarily low point they have / has often provided religion with guide- respecting an establishment of now reached in public esteem. lines for its social and political concerns, religion, or prohibiting the free Religion, apart from the socializing Church through such humane legislation as exercise thereof; or abridging the effects of law, tends to become either an Civil Rights. freedom of speech or of the press; individual pursuit designed to make one When there has been this kind of or the right of people peaceably to "feel good," or the activity of a limited Episcopal interaction between law and religion, it assemble and to petition the group concerned with little beyond its the Government for a redress of griev- own welfare. The accompanying with- of has not only permitted the two disci- plines to help each other accomplish ances. drawal of concern that others exper- their separate purposes; their interac- The genius of the First Amendment ience justice and mercy has brought a

Archives tion has also permitted them to share a lies in the balance it achieved in the loss of respect for religion generally in common purpose and function, the relationship between law and religion. the public mind. 2020. ordering of society. Whenever they have It underwrites a society in which partic- Our social order had long depended accepted social responsibilities together, ular religious principles do not become on the combined effect of law and a close relationship has developed law; at the same time, it makes sure that religion for its order and grace. To- Copyright between the legal and religious com- religion will be free to contribute to law gether they had served as the taproots munities. the religious values and motivations which produced the blossoming of our The founders of our nation, certainly that are needed by an orderly society. society. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, an This century has seen the growth of a astute observer from another culture, The Rev. Henry H. Rightor, J.D., D.D., pronounced tendency on the part of includes our country along with the practiced as an attorney and served as a both the legal and religious commu- West generally in his recent prophecy: representative in the Arkansas State Leg- nities to restrict their interests to their "There is a disaster, however, which has islature prior to ordination. He is Professor separate goals. The result has been a already been under way for quite some Emeritus of Pastoral Care and Canon Law at time. I am referring to the calamity of a Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria. loss of the support they had previously The above is a chapter from an unpublished given to the social order. This has not despiritualized and irreligious human- manuscript looking for a publisher. only been costly to society; the two disci- istic consciousness."

15 One may object to this dire prophecy religion supplied by Harold J. Berman for such a venture is shared desperation and yet yearn for the grace of a genera- of the Harvard Law School. He defines — and "desperation" is not too strong a tion that inscribed the words of Emma law as "the structure and processes of word to use to describe many who agree Lazarus on the Statue of Liberty: allocation of rights and duties." Reli- with Solzhenitsyn's closing remarks in gion, he suggests, is "society's intuition his 1978 Harvard Commencement Give me your tired, your poor, of and commitment to the ultimate address: Your huddled masses yearning to meaning and purpose of life." In keeping If the world has not come to its be free . . . with these broad concepts it would be end, it has approached a major appropriate to include in the legal Boldness and confidence were compo- turn in history, equal in impor- community law students, lawyers, nent parts of the grace that inspired this tance to the turn from the Middle judges, legislators and all others who invitation. Such boldness and confi- Ages to the Renaissance. It will are concerned for the process of al- dence are almost startling today. They exact from us a spiritual upsurge: locating rights and duties. Similarly, in publication. were nourished then by the faith We shall have to rise to a new expressed in the motto, In God we trust the religious community there would be and height of vision, to a new level of included with lay people and ordained — the motto which still appears, per- life, where our physical nature will ministers of all denominations, those reuse haps anachronistically, on some of the not be cursed as in the Middle

for who profess no formal religion but who coins of our country. Ages, but, even more important, are committed to a high standard of It is neither possible nor desirable for our spiritual being will not be our society to go back to the time of ethics and moral action.

required trampled upon as in the modern The foregoing definitions would not Moses, or the imperial Popes, or the era. have satisfied either the legal or religious Protestant established churches, or This ascension will be similar to communities in the past. In fact, many even to the time of our own Founding climbing up to the next anthro- Permission who would be included in such a Fathers in order that a relationship pologic stage. No one on earth has comprehensive religious community between the two disciplines may be re- any other way left but — upward. today have warred against each other in DFMS. established. Each of those eras may / have something to teach us. A new basis the past and are at least suspicious of The temporary alliance between law for the relationship is needed now and each other in the present. There is a and religion during the Civil Rights Church in the future, however, if law and profound change in comtemporary Movement brought hope for a renewal religion are to meet their separate needs society that is, nevertheless, beginning of their old partnership. However, more and, together, help to order a society to change the outlook of all legal and recent activity by widespread religious Episcopal that is becoming more and more religious groups toward each other; that groups in this country poses a new the disorderly. change is the appearance of an enemy threat to the relationship. The groups, of The partnership between law and common to all law and all religion. The usually led by television and radio religion that brought about Civil Rights common enemy marches under a banner evangelists, achieved national prom-

Archives legislation was a glimpse of what can be proclaiming that "life is absurd" — or, inence in 1980 during the summer and in this country. While the partnership to be more precise, that life which aims fall political campaigns. 2020. did not last long, it illustrated that a at more than an individual's self- Their threat to the relationship lies in renewal of the relationship is possible. realization is absurd. the fact that the groups do not seek a Prerequisites to the development of a Significant members of various legal partnership in which religion supplies Copyright new relationship between the two in our and religious communities have become law with certain values, or offers reli- pluralistic society are far broader defini- aware of the dangers this attitude gious incentives for obedience to law. tions of both law and religion than those presents to the practice of law and of Their purpose, in too many instances, is to which people generally have been religion and to society; they are locking to take over the partnership and sub- accustomed. Encouraging signs are arms to resist it; and, more positively, stitute their particular moral principles appearing that suggest the acceptance they are sensing a fresh kind of legal for the law as it stands in certain places of such definitions, together with a universalism and religious ecumenism. in the Constitution, in legislative enact- much more comprehensive view of The presence of a common enemy is ments, and in Supreme Court decisions. those who may be said to constitute the neither a very elevating nor a continuing Witnessing the efforts of such contem- legal and religious communities. principle for a joint venture. The same porary religious activists as "the Moral I find helpful the definition of law and may be said when the motivating force Majority" and "the Christian Voice" is

16 like watching a replay of the action by ments by individual states that a bibli- Surely the intent of those who the religious groups that first brought cally fundamentalist doctrine of crea- brought about Prohibition was "noble"; about the enactment of "Dry Laws" in tion be taught in their schools. Still but, just as surely, the effect of Prohibi- many of the states, and then secured other groups are backing combinations tion was disastrous. First, it failed in its ratification of the 18th Amendment, of such issues on the local, state or purpose to bring about abstinence from proclaimed in 1920. This amendment national level by appearing before alcohol. More significant was the fact prohibited the manufacture, sale, trans- legislative bodies and by giving their that it produced a disrespect for law and portation, importation or exportation support, including substantial financial the authority of government that sur- of intoxicating liquors. support, to particular candidates for vived the amendment's repeal in 1933 There is a difference in the earlier and public office. and continues to infect our society the contemporary religious activists: The greatest difference between today. Today's groups do not have a single today's movements and the movement At the same time one deplores the publication. cause. Some are promoting a constitu- that brought about the Prohibition "Noble Experiment," it should be tional amendment that would permit Amendment is the experience our and admitted that its sponsors used the the states to require prayer in public country has had with that kind of political process in accordance with our reuse schools. Some are trying to prohibit all legislation. The 18th Amendment was constitutional system. Those who are for abortions by an amendment to the touted as the "Noble Experiment"; and again sponsoring the translation into Constitution; others would void the indeed it was. Never before had any law of their moral scruples, such as the Supreme Court decisions that permit religious groups translated a particular

required prohibition of abortion, are also within abortion in certain circumstances by moral scruple of their own, namely, their constitutional rights. having the Congress define human life abstinence from alcohol, into a law that as beginning at the moment of concep- imposed their scruple on the nation as a Opposition to their efforts can point,

Permission tion. Some groups are seeking require- whole. not to their illegality, but to the fact that we have already experimented with the legislation of moral principles. There is DFMS. / good reason to identify the proposed legislation of new moral principles as

Church LET HIM WHO IS new threats to a balanced relationship WITHOUT SIN between law and religion. Our history CAST THE indicates that another takeover of law FIRST STONE . . Episcopal by such principles would lead to further

the disrespect for law and the authority of of government. The strongest opposition to those

Archives who would have their moral principles enacted into law comes from others in

2020. the religious community who want to see law and religion working as partners to support the social order as during the Copyright brief Civil Rights Movement. The two camps within the religious community have long been fearful of each other. Among those who would legislate their moral principles are many fundamentalists who see those opposing them as humanists who would destroy the authority of Scripture by inter- preting it. On the other side are those who look on the fundamentalists and their allies as opposed to the intelligent

17 use of the Bible to cooperate with, Letters . . . Continued from page 2 escape. Marxism attacks a very basic rather than to dominate, the law. human spirit: the spirit to be free and length but have been a reader off and on think as an individual without fear of it The fundamentalists constitute a of THE WITNESS for the past 17 or 18 being considered a crime. formidable bloc within the religious years, as I have tried to keep up with all Dibrell L. DuVal community at present. They would be points of view in the Episcopal Church Tulsa, Okla. reduced to a much smaller and less through the various publications. effective proportion, however, if the Charles M. Crump religious community were broadened Memphis, Tenn. Parenti Responds and substantially enlarged. Professor Berger, quoted earlier, Mr. Crump says that oppression is Marxists Not Free inevitable in Marxist countries, then makes the case for religious and legal On the same day that I read the article on points to a Marxist country (China) that communities that welcome and make capitalism by Michael Parenti, I also seems to have a good measure of free- room for far more than their current publication. read in the paper about a Vietnamese dom, especially in regard to religion. My members. He is convincing when he refugee who struggled 1,560 miles in his own observations, and those of the Rev. and suggests that religion is "intuition of escape from Marxist Vietnam. Billy Graham and other religious per- and commitment to the ultimate reuse Although contrasted by some 80 years sons who have traveled to socialist

for meaning of life." A great many persons and thousands of miles, Tevye of fiction, countries including the USSR, are that possess this "intuition and commit- whom Mr. Parenti cites, and Ly Van people are free to worship as they ment" who have never thought of Tong, a real person, have something in choose. While religious practices are required themselves as "religious." Certainly a common: flight from oppression. certainly not encouraged, they are not number of them would ally themselves As Mr. Parenti states, hard work in repressed, and in most instances rela- tions between church and civic author- with the non-fundamentalists in the itself seldom makes anyone rich. It is also necessary to develop and use ities are good. (See Susan B. Anthony Permission religious community who are seeking a intelligence. Although Fiddler on the article on religion in the Soviet Union renewed relationship with the legal Roof is fiction, it would be interesting to this issue. — Eds.) community. DFMS. know what Tevye and his family did after

/ Mr. DuVal correctly notes that people Again there is a lesson to be learned arriving in America. Although lacking have left socialist countries, but he from the Prohibition Amendment: this any formal education there would be should add that it is especially ones like Church time a positive lesson from its repeal. opportunity unimagined compared to Vietnam and East Germany that had Many in the religious and legal com- where they came from — even to this been so thoroughly devastated by war, munities were reunited by their common day. or underdeveloped countries like Cuba Episcopal opposition to the legislation of moral Socialism has made a lot of promises that suffer the deprivations of a U.S. the scruples. They were joined by others but do we see workers flocking to those blockade. No doubt, many people are of countries where it is practiced, willing to attracted to the cornucopia they think who did not consider themselves learn a new language and culture, they will find in the United States. Few members of either community to bring leaving behind family and country and come in search of so vague a thing as Archives about repeal of the amendment in 1933. doing so with perhaps only a 50% "freedom." Smaller but substantial num- A similar alliance could now be chance of success? On the contrary, bers migrate the other way: about 2,000 2020. mustered to halt similar legislation on they flee by the hundreds of thousands Germans a year move from West both state and national levels. from those lands, so much so that walls Germany to East Germany, and about There remains an ultimate factor that must be erected to stop the flow. 60,000 elderly Polish-Americans now Copyright cries out for a new relationship between Marxism sees history in a rigid form of live in Poland (yes, Poland) because of the legal and religious communities — class struggle. Thus society must be the free services and because their Social Security money goes further on a world-wide as well as a national restructured. In practice, this means that people are reduced to little more than there. level. This, of course, is the present subsistence level — except for the threat of nuclear destruction of life on I would like to add that much of what elitism and exclusiveness of the party we call "freedom" is a class-bound our planet. It is not too much to hope, at members. experience. Formal legal freedoms are least, that the broadest possible legal People like Tevye wouldn't be spend- of little use if you and your children are and religious communities will soon be ing any time complaining to God in a hungry. In socialist countries there is a able consciously to acknowledge the Marxist society because there would not guaranteed right to a job and old-age existence of this threat and this even be any people like Tevye. They pension; people receive free medical opportunity. • either conform or perish — or they care, free education to whatever level

18 their abilities can take them, and heavily Editorial . . . Continued from page 3 subsidized housing, transportation and CREDITS fact most murderers act out of food staples. This kind of security — Cover, Beth Seka; p. 4, Fellowship, momentary passion from deep- which brings an important freedom from Jobs With Peace; p. 7, photo courtesy seated aberrations. Moreover, an want and misery — still escapes millions American Committee on East-West execution is irrevocable, leaving no of people in this affluent land of ours. Accord; cartoon p. 8, Bas, Greece, revocation for the number of those In addition, there is a good deal of News & Views; Williams sketch p. 10, discussion and criticism in socialist Susan Rheiner; cartoon p. 17, Mike killed by the state who have been countries about particular policies. But Peters, Dayton Ohio Dally News. later found to be innocent of the it is also true that opinions are some- crime for which they were deprived times censored. And no one is free to were closed because it was now a concert of life. advocate a return to the feudal, fascist hall-museum. Frustrated and cold I We are not ready to believe that and capitalist systems that had pre- walked through ancient gates on the restoring the traffic in state viously existed. No one is free to amass narrow, winding cobblestoned streets, executions, when that practice had publication. or inherit private wealth or get rich off and found myself behind a small, bent entirely stopped for nine years,

and the labor of others. over babushka scurrying along, I some- would in any sense be progress for Existing socialist societies have many how knew, toward Sunday service. I the humanitarian goals of the reuse features we might like or not like, but we followed her right into a church, seeing American people. We firmly for should start looking at the system we at a glance that it was Roman Catholic. live under and at what it is doing to us. oppose the death penalty as Not only was there a wall painting of St. Michael Parentl inhumane, ineffective as a required Washington, D.C. Therese, "The Little Flower," but a man deterrent to crime and inconsistent was reciting the rosary. There were also with the ideal of a modern USSR Christians ... pews, confessionals, and white-clad democratic nation. priests. This Sunday Feast of Our Lady Permission Continued from page 14 What can we do? We should A Ukrainian woman in a grey was filled with men as well as women become informed. We should worker's dress gestured to me to step and children, mostly well dressed. contribute to awakening public DFMS. / ahead of her in line. Smelling of the As 1 knelt, my neighbor, who was opinion by speaking to our fellow sprig of mint she was holding, she kept reading from a tattered prayer book, workers and neighbors and writing

Church pushing me along until I saw that the offered it to me. The Mass started to newpapers. We should witness worshipers were kneeling to kiss a promptly at 9 a.m. It was a traditional, to legislators, especially when such Crucifix that lay on a bank of flowers pre-Vatican II liturgy. The priest, with capital crimes legislation is being

Episcopal held by a deacon. his back to us, celebrated in a blend of considered. We should assure our the When the deacon led me around to Latin and Latvian with the choir making church leadership, locally, and on of the altar, I looked up to see Archbishop responses. The communion line was not a statewide and denominationwide Makary, under a radiant jeweled miter. packed like St. Vladimir's line for the level, of our support in opposing anointing. the death penalty. In our land and Archives He anointed my forehead with oil that seemed to be a seal for my "pilgrimage" I knelt on hard marble and copied the in our day one of the best ways to

2020. — a seal of peace. others, placing my hands under a cloth testify to the Gospel is to advocate I caught my final glimpse of St. the length of the altar rail. No com- to the state the inviolability of Vladimir from our tour bus enroute to munion in the hand here! But I was human life.

Copyright the airport. Though it was five hours happy to receive the host with my sisters On the Mount of Olives when the after the liturgy, crowds of men and and brothers in the Soviet Roman Scribes and Pharisees tested Jesus women were still walking in or out of Catholic Church. I felt such a bond with in regard to the stoning of an the cathedral entrance. these people, as at St. Vladimir, that it adulterous woman, Jesus declared Far to the north of Kiev the next day, became impossible to conceive of bomb- the death penalty wrong by Assumption Sunday, I dressed and ing them. demanding that first the judges walked quickly in the chill air of Riga, The words of St. Paul to the and executioners must be sinless. Soviet Latvia, toward the tallest spire, Ephesians came to me, "Make every It is our responsibility to see Christ looking for Mass. But that spire topped effort to preserve the unity which has in the convicted as well as in the an inactive church, the most famous the Spirit as its origin and peace as its victims. cathedral in Riga, the Dom. Its doors binding force." • (H.C.W. and the editors)

19 NONPROFIT ORG. The Episcopal Church Publishing Company U.S. POSTAGE P.O. Box 359 PAID North Walat ,Pa. Ambler, Pennsylvania 19002 Permit No. 121 Address Correction Requested publication. and reuse for THE required UIITIIESS supports and commends the Roman Catholic Bishops for their pastoral

Permission letter denouncing nuclear war and calling upon Christians to help rid the world of DFMS. / nuclear weapons.

Church Excerpts from the pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response. Episcopal the of "The nuclear age is an era of moral as well as "The 'new moment' which exists in the public physical clanger. We are the first generation debate about nuclear weapons provides a

Archives since Genesis with the power to virtually creative opportunity and a moral imperative destroy God's creation. We cannot remain to examine the relationship between public

2020. silent in the face of such danger... opinion and public policy ... "We feel that our world and nation are headed "It would be perverted political policy or in the wrong direction. The whole world must Copyright moral casuistry which tried to justify using a summon the moral courage and technical means to say 'No' to the moral danger of a weapon which 'indirectly' or 'unintentionally' nuclear age which places before human kind killed a million innocent people because they indefensible choices of constant terror or happened to live near a 'militarily significant' surrender... target... "A nuclear response to either conventional or "We therefore express our view that the first nuclear attack can cause destruction which imperative is to prevent any use of nuclear goes far beyond 'legitimate defense.' Such weapons and our hope that leaders will resist use of nuclear weapons would not be the notion that nuclear conflict can be limited, justified . . . contained or won in any traditional sense ..."