publication. and reuse for required Permission Lethal Legacy: Radwaste DFMS. / Larry Medsker

Church Jeannette Piccard: Holy Dying

Episcopal Alia Bozarth-Campbell • Chester Talton • Daniel Corrigan the of A Feminist Theologian Views Abortion

Archives Beverly Wiidung Harrison 2020. Copyright the Left had by then turned its attention opposition to abortion is a matter of a to stopping the U.S. involvement in prurient and anti-woman bigotry. Vietnam. There was little energy and They are apparently unaware (or less vision remaining with which to choose to keep their readers unaware) tackle the tenacles of sexism. of the large numbers of feminist, Haitt and Heyward contend that progressive, and peaceful Christians sexism was the "volatile, explosive, and who oppose abortion because it is decisive" issue of the 1980 elections, violent — it is bloody — and it snuffs out precipitating the defeat of President human lives. LETTERS Carter and sundry U.S. Senators. Or is this perhaps another of those Special pleading alone would pick that "dirty little secrets"? TnTTTHll Q issue from the complex fabric of factors Ms. Juli Loesch affecting voters in late 1980. The Prolifers for Survival economy, foreign affairs, political Erie, Pa. publication. organization, money, to say nothing of regional and state-by-state differences and contributed to the liberal debacle (Iowa has never in the century re-elected a Heyward, Hiatt Respond reuse Authors' Ire Emotional Democratic Senator). And to suggest Dr. Kastner is precisely correct in his for The essay of the Revs. Suzanne Hiatt that Jimmy Carter was in the same final observation that the Right has and Carter Heyward on "Right-Wing liberal circles on women's issues as capitalized on the weariness and Religion's 'Dirty Little Secret' " Senators McGovern and Bayh is bizarre required weakness of the Left. That is what we (WITNESS, March) is unfair to the and contrary to the facts. As a final blow were saying in the article and liberal Left in its anger at the sexism of to the authors' thesis, polls continuously suggesting further that it was at the the religious Right. The authors' ire has indicate that the American electorate is Left's weakest point — its inability to

Permission led them to make statements of more more liberal on social issues than the deal with sexism — that the Right has emotion than sense. Republican candidates and platform. driven through the line. (When we've I certainly agree with both that the finally confronted racism and sexism we

DFMS. What the Right has done is to / political Left has not dealt effectively capitalize on the Left's weariness after will have to deal with the pervasive with issues of sexism, but not for the nearly 50 years of continuous political militarism of this society that allows reasons which Hiatt and Heyward cite; analogies of military strategy to be so

Church power and its lack of vision — and on the i.e., unconcern and lack of interest. weaknesses of President Carter — to easily used and understood.) Because Indeed perceptions, attitudes, and laws march into power. The Right has a plan sexism is so all-pervasive is no reason have changed in this area during the and a vision, but the Left presently has not to address it. It is because the Left Episcopal eminence of liberal thought in the neither. It is scrambling to find both. For has been marginally effective in the area the United States. Even the religious Right is the sake of the downtrodden and of racism, an equally deeply ingrained of not oblivious to nor opposed to all the excluded, we can hope that it does not evil in our culture, that the Right could advances of "women's liberation." take liberals as long as it took the Right not prevail with blatantly racist positions No, the problem of the Left was the all- to come up with vision and a plan. as they have with blatantly sexist Archives pervasive nature of sexism in society. I positions. suggest that sexual division and G. Ronald Kastner New Brighton, Minn. Ms. Loesch reads into our pro-choice 2020. discrimination are so deeply rooted that position an assessment of religiously any institution raised by man or woman motivated abortion foes as prurient and reflects this discrimination. Conse- anti-woman. It has often been observed

Copyright quently, great breadth of vision is that people debating the abortion issue needed to come to grips with the Abortion Violent are not really talking about the same problem. When that is coupled with the I have been warmly appreciating your issues. The pro-choice people are force of will necessary to develop a new magazine for several years now; I discussing the lives and rights of non-sexist vision of life and society, to especially thank you for your frequent women, the anti-abortion people are present it to the public, and to reiteration of the justice demands of the discussing the rights of fetuses. There is implement it, it is easy to see why the God of Justice: that we "hear the cries of a conflict of rights here, not an issue of Left was on the defensive for most of the the poor," that we "seek peace and convenience on the one hand and 1970s in regard to sexism. pursue it." murder on the other. There are at least It was unfortunate, but I suspect not This is why it seems so sad and two sides to the abortion issue. It is surprising, that sexism did not emerge inconsistent that you would accept the violent and bloody (as is birth). It doesn't first from the civil rights agitation of the shallow analysis of Heyward and Hiatt. It help for any of us to label our opponents, '60s. Unfortunate particularly because is their assessment that religious Continued on page 19 THE WITNESS THE

EDITOR Mary Lou Suhor EDITORIAL SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Robert L. DeWitt s the world watched and listened in disbelieving horror at the second assassination attempt upon a CONTRIBUTING EDITORS A major public figure within 30 days, the media, pressing publication. Richard W. Gilletl Hugh C. White close to Pope John Paul II, recorded him as saying, and "Why do they do this? Why do they do this?" The Pope, gravely wounded from three bullets, reuse STAFF perhaps unconsciously expressed in that moment of for Ann Hunter bewilderment the cry of people the world over as Susan Small seemingly wanton acts of assassination and attempted Lisa Whelan required Why do assassination have increased dramatically: What, dear Bonnie Spady God, is this world coming to? In the complex and confused morass of humanity They/We such as this planet currently represents, the question Permission PUBLISHER is not totally answerable. Episcopal Church Publishing Company do This? But certainly the analysis offered by U.S. Secretary

DFMS. of State Alexander Haig — that the chief threat to a / nation's security is now international terrorism and ECPC BOARD OF DIRECTORS that it is directed from the Soviet Union — is not the Church CHAIR answer. Even the director of the CIA, William J. Casey, H. Coleman McGehee declared recently that after due investigation his VICE-CHAIR department could thus far find no evidence that

Episcopal Barbara Harris Moscow controls and directs an international terrorist the SECRETARY network. Neither could FBI director William Webster of Helen Seager find proof of Soviet-inspired domestic terrorism. TREASURER Rather, terrorist incidents in the United States are on Robert Potter the wane, he said. Archives ASSISTANT TREASURER Robert Eckersley Nor, THE WITNESS is convinced, is much of an

2020. answer to be found in intensified studies of the Otis Charles childhood and family environments of so-called Robert L. DeWitt terrorist perpetrators of violence and such remedies as

Copyright Steven Guerra they might offer. However, the field of psychology may Suzanne Hiatt suggest one clue for proceeding. Psychologists long Mattie Hopkins ago concluded that the field of abnormal psychology, Joan Howarth wherein the behavior of mentally ill persons is studied, James Lewis offers major clues to the dynamics, and rationale of Joseph A. Pelham normal psychological behavior. Similarly, might it not be said that the abnormal, extremist acts of such perpetrators of violence offer important insights into THE WITNESS is published monthly. Editorial office: P.O. Box 359, Ambler, PA 19002. Phone (215) the pressures and tensions building to the point of 643-7067. Subscription rates $12 per year, $1 per explosion in the society as a whole? copy. Copyright 1981 by the Episcopal Church Instead, there is an increasing tendency, Publishing Company. Printed in U.S.A. Continued on page 18 Radwaste: publication. and Lethal Legacy reuse by Larry Medsker for

s we generate nuclear power and the nuclear age, is due in part to inaction Radwaste is classified according to required A produce nuclear weapons, we also by governmental agencies and industry, the level of the intensity of the generate radioactive garbage which will which has produced a poor record of radioactivity: last for many centuries to come. One environmental protection in general.

Permission way to minimize the problem would be This has been possible because of the • High level wastes, such as those to limit the amount of radioactive waste late awareness by the general public of from weapons development and from we are making. However, "radwastes" the potential dangers and unique spent reactor fuel, consist of DFMS. / are waiting for disposal now, and we are characteristics of radioactivity. concentrated radioactive materials with likely to be adding to this supply for the Radioactive materials contain atoms intense radiation. The spent fuel from a

Church foreseeable future. Some solution will that give off energy by means of typical 1000 million-watt reactor have to be found, and the quality of that electromagnetic rays and ionizing amounts to about 25 million tons per solution depends on the responsibility particles which can damage biological year and a volume of about 300 cubic we take for future generations. Episcopal material. The intensity of the radiation feet per year. The long-lifetime products The long-term management of drops off in a time period that is the determine the time scale of concern in of radwastes is a technological challenge characteristic of the particular isotope waste management. Estimates range and a moral imperative. Although some involved. After a time equal to one from a few thousand to several million engineering problems may well be "half-life," the activity is only half of the years for the period that high level Archives solved eventually, uncertainties in original amount. After another half- wastes should be stored before they can technical as well as sociopolitical life, the intensity drops again by half, be considered harmless. 2020. matters mean that some "acceptable" and so on. Some isotopes have half-lives Earlier plans called for the risks will have to be taken. Of course, of a millionth of a second, and others, reprocessing of spent fuel to recover there is an ethical dilemma of whether billions of years. If the half-life is a few

Copyright fissionable material for use in breeder we should be producing radwastes at minutes, then after a few hours, a reactors. This would eliminate some of all. negligibly small amount of activity the unwanted waste products and yield Lack of progress on this problem, would be left. The problem in radwaste a smaller volume for disposal. despite the fact that we are 30 years into management arises from the presence of isotopes with very long half-lives — as is However, plutonium could be diverted the case in the development of nuclear for use in nuclear weapons, and reprocessing introduces additional Larry Medsker is a physicist and computer weapons and the production of power with nuclear reactors. Instead of a hazards for workers and further scientist involved professionally in teaching chances for loss of radioactive material and research. He istreasurerof the Methodist waiting period of a few hours, a few Federation for Social Action and on the thousand years must elapse before through handling and transport. Board of the West Philadelphia Fund for certain of the radioactive materials Because reprocessing would reduce the Human Development. become harmless. magnitude of the radwaste problem, though, the present government policy leukemia. Some of the most Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of against reprocessing makes even more troublesome products have long 1978, remedial action has finally been urgent the need for a safe waste lifetimes and must be treated with the authorized but assigned to three management program. same considerations as high level agencies: the Environmental Protection • Low level wastes contain less wastes. Agency is to set standards for concentrated radioactive material, so "acceptable" radiation levels, the The low level radiation in tailings Nuclear Regulatory Commission is to the intensity of the radiation is lower. from uranium mills was long an Examples include contaminated tools have authority to license and make unrecognized problem. Authorities rulings, and the Department of Energy and clothing and radioactive trash from failed to deal with this and in the 1950s hospitals and research labs. However, a is to manage the remedial action. and '60s even denied the dangers to However, little guidance is available major source is the "front end" of the public health. More than 25 million nuclear fuel cycle: mining, milling and since the characteristics and effects of tons of uranium tailings have piled up at the tailing radiation are not fully processing of uranium for production mills now inactive. Over four times that publication. understood. of reactor fuels and development of amount is stored at active mills, and the and nuclear weapons. The sand-like production rate is 10-15 million tons per A number of ideas for dealing with radwastes have been proposed over the "tailings" left over from grinding and year. Except for accidental migrations, reuse years. Ejection into space, placement on crushing ores at uranium mills are an these low level wastes remain, awaiting for important source of low level radwaste. polar ice sheets, and dumping in the a plan for disposal. ocean are a few examples. These are While the radiation from low level The dispersion of low level wastes has usually dismissed as unworkable, overly required wastes can be diffuse, the total effect can already occurred through lack of expensive, or requiring too much be very large. The biological effects of awareness of potential danger and research and development. Most low level radiation are a subject of through insufficient safeguards. Wind attention has been given to storage in controversy and are currently being re- Permission and water erosion, theft, and early use deep underground excavated examined. In the example of mill of tailings in house construction have repositories. The Department of Energy tailings, radon gas is given off and can greatly extended the range of hopes to demonstrate this technique in DFMS.

/ cause lung cancer if sufficient amounts environmental contamination. The the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), are inhaled. Radiation from other decay problem is how long and how well to which is a facility for weapons wastes products in the tailings can cause secure the wastes. Under the Uranium and an intermediate-scale facility for Church wastes from about 1000 spent reactor fuel assemblies. Under the most recent plan, the wastes would be converted to Episcopal glass rods, packaged, and placed in the holes in the floor of a mined salt cavern of near Carlsbad, New Mex. After that, the isolated repository would have to be guarded for a thousand years or so. Archives Technical problems include choosing

2020. txi a material that will contain the wastes for the time period involved and choosing stable geologic sites for the

Copyright repositories. A prior problem is the establishment of standards for the acceptable release of radiation in the event of conceivable changes in the container and the geologic conditions. A number of nontechnical problems exist as well. Political insensitivity in previous repository site investigations has led to delays and wasted time and money. A history of hasty policy decisions and misplaced optimism on the part of federal agencies has reduced Deborah Bright credibility and will hinder efforts to win public support for future plans. And the techniques for sealing off the construction, and the use of presently necessity of guarding repositories for respository must be developed. Several operating plants should be examined thousands of years requires human researchers are looking at materials closely as long as waste disposal plans institutions of unprecedented stability. other than glass as the solid form for the have not been adopted. We should insist Despite official optimism that a plan converted wastes, and others are that any plans have the support of such as WIPP will be successful, the studying alternatives to salt as the knowledgeable nuclear power critics. several problems to be solved require geologic medium. However, efforts to limit the use of nuclear power should be accompanied new extensions of geochemistry, rock This is not to say that technical mechanics, hydrology, and long-term by realistic alternatives. The waste problems will not eventually be solved problems associated with coal-powered predictions of seismology and climate. — but the risk will probably always The difficulties in the current proposals plants may well be even worse than remain high. Radwastes exist now, so those for nuclear plants. Therefore, for repositories have been pointed out we have to find some means of ina 1978circularbytheU.S. Geological large-scale energy efficiency programs managing them. However, optimistic would be necessary, followed eventually publication. Survey. More recently, a detailed report statements from officials that all the by the development of renewable energy

and was submitted to the White House by its problems have been solved should be sources. Interagency Review Group (IRG), viewed with skepticism. reuse which was made up of representatives of Here are some ways we can take for 14 federal agencies including DOE. The action: Resources IRG concluded that a mined repository 1. We should watchdog government William Sweet, "Unresolved: the Front in a deep geologic formation is the only

required agencies that are responsible for kind of plan that is achievable in the End of Nuclear Waste Disposal," radwaste management. Policy decisions Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May, near term (1990s). must be based upon realistic However, their final report was 1979). assessments of scientific capabilities. J. D. Bredehoeft et al, "Geologic

Permission cautious and acknowledged "gaps and Continued temporary storage would be Disposal of High-Level Radioactive uncertainties in our current technical preferable to a bad plan adopted in knowledge" and the need for "societal Wastes — Earth Science Perspectives,"

DFMS. haste or in order to meet political

/ Circular 779 (Wash., D.C.: U.S. judgment" as to the acceptable risk. timetables. According to the IRG subgroup report, Geological Survey, 1978). 2. The process should be open to the Interagency Review Group on Nuclear

Church "Given the uncertainties associated with involvement of citizens — especially Waste Management, "Isolation of our predictive capabilities in the earth those who are directly affected by sciences, with mathematical oversimpli- repository site choices. Technical Radioactive Wastes in Geologic fication of complex processes ... a Repositories: Status of Scientific and Episcopal information upon which decisions are precise risk assessment of radioactive Technological Knowledge" Final report the being based should be made available to (March, 1979). of waste disposal in deep geologic forma- them. Even if WIPP appears to be tions may never be possible." successful, future repository site John Abbotts, "Radioactive Waste: A In fact, some of the recent research selections in other areas must be made Technical Solution?", Bulletin of the Archives that has been done shows that earlier with great care. Atomic Scientists (October, 1979). confidence in technical understanding 3. The necessity of nuclear weapons Richard Kerr, "Geologic Disposal of 2020. was not justified. As examples: 1) new development and the use of nuclear Nuclear Wastes: Salt's Lead is mechanisms for changes in salt power can be called into question. We Challenged," Science Vol. 604 (May 11, formations have been discovered; 2) should make sure that cost estimates for 1979). Copyright seismic predictions in particular nuclear power, in comparison with B. L. Cohen, "A Tale of Two Wastes," geologic sites rest on data for no more alternative sources, include the expense Commentary Vol. 66 (November, than 300 years and in some cases only a of researching methods of radwaste 1978). few decades; and 3) theories of long- disposal and the costs of storage and Ronnie D. Lipschutz, Radioactive term climatic trends indicate that, on guardianship that will go far beyond the Waste: Politics, Technology, and Risk, the time scale of concern for waste life of the power plant. Those costs Cambridge Press (1980). management, dramatic changes in should also include the management of A Matter of Faith, Study Guide for climate could occur. The materials for wastes at the beginning when the fuels churches and Christian groups on the waste packages may last only a are produced and at the end when plants nuclear arms race, published by thousand years, so the geologic barrier are decommissioned. Sojourners. $3.50 each, bulk orders must be planned as though it were the The licensing of new power plants, available. Write Sojourners, 1309 L St. principal containment. Also, reliable completion of plants under NW, Washington, D.C. 20005. • Case Study: Nuclear Waste Disposal Holding the Future In Our Hands

he developments of recent months The long delay and coverup of the isolated — is less than certain, publication. T on the issue of nuclear waste dis- report by the DOE outraged the state's considering that as "recently" as 15,000 and posal in Wisconsin have been typical of citizens and politicians. The Milwaukee years ago much of Wisconsin was the way the government operates in the Journal, the state's largest newspaper, covered by glaciers. reuse nuclear energy and weapons area. said it had "serious doubts that DOE is The Progressive Foundation in for First came the secrecy. The the right agency to handle the waste Madison, Wise, has begun to assemble Department of Energy was considering disposal problem for the federal information for a public education Wisconsin's granite formations as a government," and suggested an campaign on the issues of nuclear waste required possible nuclear waste dump site, but independent national commission be disposal and nuclear waste somehow neglected to tell anyone until established to deal with the problem. (A transportation. Although the focus so a newspaper account leaked the few weeks before, the paper had accused far has been on the potential dumping Permission information. Wisconsin Gov. Lee opponents of nuclear waste disposal of sites in Wisconsin, many other regions Dreyfus, having heard nothing from the demagoguery.) are also under consideration, and what the Foundation learns can be applied DFMS. DOE, demanded an explanation. The

/ Dreyfus again demanded an result was a public "briefing" of the explanation, and Colin Heath of the elsewhere as well. governor by DOE officials last July, Division of Waste Isolation — the The DOE report listed 36 areas which Church when they assured him Wisconsin was same person who had given Dreyfus his might be suitable for high-level waste just one of dozens of states being looked briefing — assured the governor no repositories. Two of them, including the at, and that a decision was years away. decision had been made, said the DOE one designated as Number 1, are in Episcopal Dreyfus, who has said repeatedly that had no plans for Wisconsin, and said Wisconsin. Twelve are in Minnesota, the Wisconsin's use of nuclear power the newly-released report did not reflect which offers similar types of geological of carries with it a "moral responsibility" official DOE policy. formations. The list also includes two in to accept nuclear waste, apparently was Idaho, one on the Idaho-Montana Somehow, that was not too border, one in Upper Michigan, four in

Archives satisfied. He promised his cooperation, and the DOE promised to keep the state reassuring. Since the Reagan North Carolina, two each in Colorado administration has taken office, the and Wyoming, one joint Colorado- 2020. informed of its plans. It came as a surprise to the governor situation is even more uncertain. Wyoming site, two each in Georgia and when the DOE, in response to a Free- Energy Secretary James Edwards has Oklahoma, and single sites in New called already for the country to move Hampshire, Missouri, Texas, Arizona, Copyright dom of Information Act request from Wisconsin's Environmental Decade, quickly in finding disposal sites for and Nevada. We would like to hear released in October a report that listed nuclear waste, even if the sites are what's happening in those areas. • 16 Wisconsin counties as among the "temporary." Wisconsin is at the top of the DOE's most favorable areas for a geological The article above is reprinted with permission waste disposal site, and said a seven- list of potential sites because it has from The Progressive Foundation, Inc. county area in the Lake Superior region granite formations now considered the Newsletter Update. Those who would like to was the Number 1 choice. Dreyfus was most likely place to put high-level order the Dept. of Energy's complete report especially distressed because the report nuclear garbage. Whether such sites on waste disposal referred to above may do so by sending $11 to The Progressive in question had been completed in would remain geologically stable for Foundation, Inc., 315 W. Gorham St., December 1979, seven months before 250,000 years — the period of time the Madison, Wise. 53703, attention Bill his "briefing." waste remains deadly and must be kept Christofferson. Solution for Storing Nuclear Waste Abbie Jane Wells Plutonium Is My solution to the problem of storing nuclear waste is to give little lead boxes of it to the users of nuclear power — A Religious Issue sort of an extra "dividend." They could bury it in their own backyards or store it in their houses or apartments — a by Albert Blackwell family heirloom — a legacy to be handed down to their children and to ts uses are matters of life and repositories and deployed in the publication. their children's children and on and on, death. Its disposal propels our current arsenal of nuclear weapons. to be cared for and monitored forleaks i and And it is bound up with other for 10,000 years or more. imagination toward eternity. Thus Plutonium gives rise to issues of radioactive elements in spent fuel I would ask the pro-nuclear power reuse people: if you received a little of the religious dimensions. And I believe assemblies being held in cooling pools for nuclear wastes to store on your that religious categories, in particular at nuclear power reactors . . . the categories of sin and evil, are premises as well as a little of the Government records released under nuclear power electricity to use, would appropriate to our national debate

required the Freedom of Information Act you still want a nuclear power plant in over the production, handling, uses, disclose that as of the end of 1976, your area? and disposal of this beguiling element. Let each user and builder and profit- 8,000 pounds of plutonium and bomb- Plutonium is something new under grade uranium were unaccounted for maker of nuclear power store their the sun. Until 1941 this element Permission share of the nuclear wastes on their in the United States, enough for the existed only in traces associated with construction of hundreds of own property rather than dump it in natural uranium deposits. Quantities storage sites in someone else's clandestine nuclear weapons. Primitive DFMS. of plutonium first came from the / backyard — in mass dumps. nuclear bombs are not difficult to And on nuclear arms, each taxpayer nuclear piles of World War ll's build. Thus the mere claim of a could be given an Income Tax rebate of Manhattan Project. At the beginning terrorist group to have a nuclear Church their share of the National Stockpile of the amounts were small. Physicist weapon, supported by a small sample nuclear waste generated from the Enrico Fermi is quoted as saying that of plutonium, would probably suffice building of nuclear arms, a share to in 1941 the world's supply of to blackmail any governmental match the amount of taxes paid into Episcopal plutonium reposed in a matchbox in authority that received it. the National Budget for nuclear his desk drawer. It is no longer so. the hardware. A sample of plutonium could suffice of Today hundreds of tons of plutonium The builders of nuclear weaponry or have accumulated from nuclear as a blackmail threat even if no nuclear power plants would get their weapons programs and nuclear power explosive device were claimed, in fact, quota to distribute among employees for plutonium is a radiological poison Archives according to their contribution to the generation. It is dispersed throughout the biosphere as a consequence of of pernicious toxicity. By weight building of nuclear arms or power. plutonium is 20,000 times more deadly 2020. So there's my solution: A share of the fallout from nuclear weapons testing and the two nuclear detonations over than cobra venom or potassium national heritage of nuclear waste to cyanide. Microgram quantities can each who contributed to the building Japan. It is stockpiled in government of it to be passed on down to their induce lung cancer. In theory, eight Copyright children as family heritage, to be kilograms (eight billion micrograms) added to by grandchildren and their Albert L. Blackwell is Associate Professor would suffice to kill every person on children ad infinitum, as they of Religion at Furman University. He our planet. contribute to the national heritage of received his B.S. in Physics from M.I.T. and Most poisons can be rendered nuclear waste. his Ph.D. in the study of religion from harmless by chemical processes. As Harvard. Dr. Blackwell has been active in every home canner knows, for debates over alternatives to nuclear power Abbie Jane Wells is a WITNESS with officials of the Duke Power Company example, deadly botulism is rendered subscriber who from time to time and the Westinghouse Corporation. completely harmless by 15 minutes of provides us with insights and Excerpted with permission from the boiling in the presence of air. The reflections written in her kitchen in Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Vol. X, No. 4, radiological toxicity of plutonium, Juneau, Alaska. copyright the President and Fellows of however, persists through all chemical Harvard College. alterations. If I die of plutonium- Indeed, since plutonium is a genetic mutagen as well as a radiological poison, our sour grapes of plutonium may set our children's teeth on edge Polly Bond Award Plutonium is spilled by fools like me, for as long as the human species But only God can make a nuclear reactor endures . . . To DeWitt Editorial ninety-three million miles from the In the interest of a "national nearest elementary school. security" teetering in an international The 1981 Polly Bond Award for the balance of terror, and in the interest of category of best Interpretive editorial satisfying our energy appetite for the was presented to THE WITNESS for next two or three decades, we are Robert L. DeWitt's "Married Clergy, Separated Churches" at the annual producing comprehensively Episcopal Communicators meeting in threatening substances, of which Sierra Madre, Cal. recently. induced cancer and my body is plutonium is the most lethal and long- The award, for excellence in church publication. cremated, I yield up my plutonium lived. Our nation and our generation, communications, is presented and through the smokestack into the it seems to me, are asserting self- annually in several categories: best biosphere where it may kill again, and interest without regard to the welfare news story, feature, editorial, etc. and reuse this toxicity persists for 250,000 years. of the whole, conceived as the entire is named for a noted Episcopalian for human community including its future woman who was director of communi- When we are told, therefore, that generations. If the darkness of our cations for the Diocese of Ohio. Ms. radioactive wastes are to be buried in self-assertion is to be enlightened, we Bond died of cancer In 1979.

required areas where security can be must seek to bring self-interest under Judges for the event this year were guaranteed, we shall do well to realize Jack Langguth and Ed Cray, faculty the discipline of a more universal that if plutonium had been stored in members of the USC School of good. In practical terms, this means to the Great Pyramid of Egypt, it would Journalism, and Eric Bailey and Beau me that the movement for nuclear Permission remain 90% as lethal today as on the Riffenburg, teaching assistants. disarmament and the disciplines of day when Pharaoh Cheops In the prize-winning editorial, which conservation and increased energy proclaimed, "They'll never find it appeared in the October issue of the

DFMS. efficiency challenge our generation magazine, Editor DeWitt analyzes the / there." When we are told that with the urgency of religious Roman Catholic Church's reception of radioactive wastes are to be disposed obligations . . . a group of married clergy who left the of in areas that are sparsely

Church Episcopal church in protest over the populated, we shall do well to realize Genesis 3 roots individual sin in our ordination of women and the new that plutonium will remain lethal for 50 desire to "be like God." Genesis 11 prayer book. times longer than any civilization has roots corporate sin in our attempt to "Rome has sent a message — Episcopal yet endured on the earth. When we construct a tower "with its top in the indistinct but discernible — that the are told that wastes are to be stored in heavens." Our generation is Anglicans who object to the ordination of geological formations that are stable presuming to construct, not an of women are to be commended, and and dry, we shall do well to realize astronomical tower with its top in the received (albeit with less than open that plutonium will remain lethal for 20 heavens, but geological waste disposal arms)," DeWitt wrote. "How should the Archives times the epoch since the last ice age. caverns with their futures in eternity. Episcopal Church react to this And when we are told that these We forget that before that stretch of message?"

2020. "No doubt the ordination of women radioactive wastes are simply part of time is far advanced, our civilization, like Babel of old, may well be by the Anglican church casts a shadow the cost of our energy appetite over across relations with Rome and the next few decades, we shall do well "scattered abroad over the face of the Orthodoxy. But issues which touch on Copyright to realize that the plutonium excreta earth." Or to alternate once more from justice and pastoral concern are not from our generation's energy diet will geological to astronomical imagery, let negotiable, neither in the most earnest remain lethal for five times longer than me conclude with a poem making its concern for comprehensiveness within our species homo sapiens has yet rounds in the national debate over a particular church, nor in the roamed the planet. energy policy: desirable effort to seek a deeper unity Plutonium is spilled by fools like me, within Christendom," he said. A quarter of a million years, then, is But only God can make a nuclear reactor Readers who would like a copy of the not time on human scale. It is time on ninety-three million miles from the issue containing the complete editorial God's scale. Our sour grapes of nearest elementary school. can send 50C to cover postage to THE plutonium will set our children's teeth The poem may not scan particularly WITNESS, Box 359, Ambler, PA 19002. on edge, not merely to "the third and well. But in my judgment both its the fourth generation" of Biblical anthropology and its theology are prophecy, but to 10,000 generations. irreproachable. • The Rev. Jeannette Piccard, who at age 79 was one of the first women to be ordained to the Episcopal priesthood, died of cancer in Minneapolis May 17. A noted scientist, stratosphere balloonist and space consultant, she was 86 years old. THE WITNESS invited three persons to share their reflections on the death of this valiant woman: The Rt. Rev. Daniel Corrigan, longtime friend and one of the three bishops who ordained the Philadelphia 11; the Rev. Alia Bozarth-Campbell, the youngest ordained in that group, and the Rev. Chester Talton, former pastor of St. Philip's, St. Paul where Jeannette Piccard publication. served as assistant. and reuse for

required Holy Dying by Daniel Corrigan

(,(, Teannette Piccard is to undergo dialogue and animated conversation. was inspired to ask, "How many of you %J surgery tomorrow morning. Here While trying to instruct a confirmation

Permission have ever noticed the look of the is the phone number in her hospital class on the meaning or quality of Piccards as they kneel quietly in the room." reverence but getting nowhere at all, I front pew before service?" OH THA T! DFMS.

/ When Jim Diamond, our minister to the University of Minnesota, called with Of Babies, Balloons, Bishops that message, it was a pastoral gift — an

Church On May 17, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, we subsided. Already the third and fourth opportunity for us to carry on some heard from the Gospel the words of Jesus, "I generations appearing to receive the mantle, conversations from Feb. 16 to May 14, go to prepare a place for you," and so it was already crying out praises, prayers for food 1981. that on that morning, Jeannette Piccard, our and recognition. Episcopal As she approached dying, Jeannette sister and friend, died and went home to the Bishop Corrigan celebrated the Eucharist the moved quickly into mature and faithful Holy One. wearing Jeannette's bright red stole with of Three vital images stand out in my mind multi-colored balloons. He wore her mantle acceptance. Our conversation on the from the celebration of the life of the Rev. for all of us, bold with the rainbow promise of evening before her surgery was little Canon Jeannette Piccard: babies, balloons, a new covenant. At the Peace, Bishop and bishops. Two days before her death, she Anderson spoke the most simple, startling Archives concerned with the operation but filled with projects: Ideas to get out and onto had been made an honorary Canon of the words, quietly to me. I repeat them here, with Cathedral Church of St. Mark in Minneapolis. gratitude. I began to leave the chancel steps 2020. paper, maybe publish; places to visit, It was in this church that Jeannette's and my from where I led the Prayers of the People, to etc. When we talked two days after her ordination to the priesthood in 1974 were return to my place. As he came out to surgery which revealed inoperable finally recognized by our bishop in 1977. It proclaim the Greeting of Peace, Bishop was in this same chancel that Bishop Daniel Anderson said softly, "Don't go. Stay by my Copyright cancer, she had already surrendered those projects and characteristically Corrigan who ordained us and Bishop Robert side and hold my hand." Dear Bishop, you do Anderson who cared for us led Jeannette's not know how much your words meant to me, moved on to the business at hand — community in the final Happy-Birthday-into- and would have meant to Jeannette, for what Holy Dying . . . Paradise-Party for her final soaring toward you asked just then is all we ever meant to do. The Piccards — we shared the same God. As Jeannette Piccard's holy death turns a parish from 1948 to 1958 — embodied The stately Cathedral resounded with page in history, I pray that Bishop Anderson's sounds and reflected sights of life: colors simple, modest request can be uttered in time intelligence, reverence and utter flying in banners flanking the nave for the by all of God's sons to all of God's daughters, courage. They always gathered eager spring Arts Festival, and babies singing and vice versa. boys and girls around the breakfast lustily in their parents' arms. One young Do not rest in peace, Jeannette, but pray table after early Eucharist to lead them mother fed her newborn as the singing and work on with us: live in glory. into the depths beneath and up into the began; and one young father sang to his starlit heavens with breathtaking story, newborn in the narthex as the larger song — Alia Bozarth-Campbell

10 they exclaimed. Yes, that! That's it! We all know what that is. Teaching like Kierkegaard's Birds. There were many pictures around the East River Road house. It was fun to look at those which were hung and to page through the albums. We often had time to do this for they made their home available to young people struggling to put their family life together. They were very good to two of our boys as they embarked. Several shots commemorated the historic Lake publication. Erie ascent. In one of these Jeannette is

and well out of the gondola, into the shrouds, way up in the air, to reactivate reuse the valve which controlled the hydrogen for gas. Courage! And the picture was pure courage, too; taken by John in the gondola, unable to help. They always required brought concern, intelligence, reverence and courage with them to such a degree that the earthbound were lifted up.

Permission Her entrance into the stratosphere has been often noted and recounted.

DFMS. Indeed, I have an invitation and / program for the dedication of "The Piccard Balloon Collection" at the

Church University of Minnesota, Jan. 28, 1981. Probably her "Fa/e"was made there in response to the tributes. Its title? "The

Episcopal Wind Bloweth Where it Listeth." Her

the going up from the pew to ordination of and the altar has also been mentioned, a subject of conversation, dialogue and monologue. Archives Who can do these things and not be destroyed? Who has what it takes to live 2020. with controversy? Who can ride out the storm? Who can survive rejection, misuse, no use? Because of the way Copyright things work nowadays I have some of the abusive communications which were addressed to her. You know, "Copies to the P.B., the press, the President, the Bishops of X, Bishop Corrigan, etc." While it is easy to imagine the pain, resentment and frustration which fathered the letters, communications, prohibitions, whatever, we owe her an understanding of her prior acceptance of the barbs, Jeannette Piccard: 1895-1981

11 thrusts and shoves. several manuscripts upon which she was you," she said. The few times the Philadelphia- working. We will all be losers if her So next call — "Right away, come Washington ordinands met before the revealing comments on Genesis, the dance — and the Bishop and the Dean ordination of women to the priesthood Pauline Epistles, the Pastoral Epistles and Fr. Diamond have all come this was recognized were occasions which and some of the Church Fathers are not afternoon and made me a Canon of the revealed the need of much healing. published and circulated. Cathedral." Jeannette's eyes saw the wounds, her And then Jim Diamond again with a I couldn't resist. "Another first, ears heard the loud or muttered cries, new hospital phone number. Jeannette! I never heard of anyone saw the outer symptoms of the inner Jeannette's voice was tired but clear being canonized until long after their wounds. The Wounded Healer reached when I asked, "Would you like it better wedding!" And she laughed. "Vale!" out and in to restore and sustain; keep for me to come now to be with you or We did feel sad during and after the alive until better times. A priest forever for me to come dance at your wedding?" intimate family requiem at St. Philip's, after the order of Melchisedek then and "Call in a couple of days and I'll tell St. Paul Wednesday morning. The publication. when she broke the Bread and poured people there were doubly bereaved. and the Wine at our dining room table to They had taken Jeannette to their hearts celebrate the mystery of God's life- Blacks Understood when she was in some sense a person cut reuse giving presence. I looked at the ancient Jeannette's Suffering adrift. She had been nourished by them for Tarquinian plate last night. It will eannette Piccard was a balloonist, and had served them for many years. Fr. always have a discernible aura not only Jan adventurer, a mother, a Talton was there as host and master of because skillful and loving hands courageous fighter, a priest and ceremonies but had ceased to be their required contrived it — but also because her pastor. The role she preferred was that parish priest the Sunday before and was priestly hands have lifted it and offered of pastor, and it was that role she ful- on his way to Trinity, Wall Street. He it. filled at St. Philip's Church. Her only regret was that because of preached a remarkable sermon that Permission Then the Day! Thursday, Sept. 16, her advanced age, she could not drive, evening in the Cathedral. The Good 1976, Minneapolis. Women may serve and was therefore not able to make Shepherd in Jeannette had arranged all hospital and parish calls on her own. things however — the order of service, DFMS. as Christian priests, no innate obstacle. / How great the joy for many. How great However, she was always available to the cast and even the evening hour so those in crisis and it was not unusual that men and women, both clergy and the pain and sense of utter loss for for her to be found in long vigils at the Church many! Shall we raise a glad cry? Shall bedside of a dying parishioner, and lay, could come from anywhere; that we celebrate? Now is a moment of offering counsel to the family. her beloved Phillipians might not only testing. And "the Lord of all gentleness, Jeannette loved to celebrate the swell the throng but serve and lead as

Episcopal Lord of all calm, Whose voice is Eucharist at St. Philip's. She wanted ushers, crucifers — and oblation her last service to be very much a the contentment, Whose presence is balm" bearers. Oblation bearers — Holy joyous occasion, like a party. She of was present, evoked. Jeannette's offerings rich and rare. didn't want her people to be sad, to feel reaction was, "Let compassion mark so much a sense of loss as to celebrate You knew they had kept her alive and our response — no vaunting, no cries of a life which she had tried to live well sweet in hard times and now not only Archives triumph. Let us go in the morning to and for a long time. given her to the Cathedral but to the whatever altars have been provided to Historically, Jeannette had been a

2020. whole church and that the whole church give thanks; to pray for the wounded, member of St. Philip's for 10 years. The had accepted her. My grandson Daniel maybe even the dead." Rev. Denzil Carty was originally responsible for welcoming her into the drove me home from the great wake in

Copyright Jeannette Piccard had a rare gift of parish, and he also presented her for the Woman's Club of Minneapolis. We looking at things from several angles at ordination in Philadelphia. For the past talked about the celebration. He once. This wide but many-angled view five years, she was a regular part of the summed it up "There was a lot of power emerged in her polemics as surprising ministry at St. Philip's. in that place tonight. I never felt power To me, it is significant that a parish like that before." and startling comments. You were like St. Philip's, predominantly Black, likely to say to yourself "How come I could particularly understand some of And the Good Shepherd knew I never noticed that before?" She showed Jeannette's suffering at not being able might need a lift. Her magnificent up at the special General Convention of to exercise herself fully in what she was balloon stole was there for me to wear 1969 in South Bend with a paper she called to do. Blacks familiar with that — so I could be up and away — maybe feeling could reach out to her in a way with the young Magee, "Touch the Face had written DEFENDING St. Paul's others could not. of God." The wind bloweth where it general opinion of women. — Chester Talton In the last years she shared with me listeth and tends toward the Source. •

12 Bring a Torch, Jeannette by Alia Bozarth-Campbell

The importance of names in the years between flights. where I did not want to Jane and Jeannette: How competently you helped pilot and turned myself around. "God has been gracious" your sons into humane manhood. And now your bridge. "Left Lane Must Exit" You pass on the m The deep hibiscus has paled u go that way. to your granddaughter. in your room, thirsting for light publication. I see your tall robust by the window into the soft pink Rachmaninoff's Concerto in D Minor and stature thin and small of your fading bones. soars out the windows. In the hospital bed You ask for a blessing: A news Interruption shocks me

reuse as Jane helps you take off Dear Woman, bathed in love, awake: "The Pope has been shot your gold ordination cross, how tenderly tight you are for but will probably live." your wedding rings. in this communion of saints Fulfilling the violent predictions. we share. Joy, you say, to May 13 resumes with music. in such The music conjures mountains, required How gracefully you strip yourself of this life. Canadian Rockies, forbidding, Your son and great-grandson sit May the snowhigh In summer. to my left looking on, eating chocolataH gently as a mother takes her baby home. Permission I am all eyes, I who shared Your son said he might send Then I give you the blesslnj history with you. your ashes up In a balloon of the bee and the bear and give you back to

DFMS. and the butterfly, as our bishop

/ We were ordained together, the stratosphere. But that is does quoting me, and I blush you the oldest at 79, too lonely. You belong here. as your son John says "He follows I the youngest at 27, Give you back to Mother Earth you." It remains that what we did Church womenpriests. and us. took. I'm glad we shar "I'm glad we shared that day," I say, the Feast of Mary and Martha it is I who cross the Great River, You are clear today as "You know I love you," you say. signal my turn, take the right lane, Episcopal when both of us again and Yes, How many meetings like this: look your way to see rows of lilacs tell the story on television; the Mary and Elizabeth — you now come in bloom to usher you where you must go. of as when you stood by me in hard tlm to term with life, I only a little stood by us all. pregnant — Elijah and Elisha — you ow all the dreams Home, where I live, where I habltate, In a chariot of fire In the sky, •II deeds done. a huge bouquet of spring flowers waits Archives going up for the last time I ask you to whisper tips In my ear at the door for me. A woman brings In a balloon no one else can see. from your broader vision, two loaves of fresh bread for my birthday. 2020. and the deathbed advice from you In a box In the mail I find a crystal heart I did not share that early victory Is truer "Don't believe from the California mountains. with you, the dream you made history everything you hear."

Copyright before I was born: the first woman I think for a moment I want to give to ascend into the stratosphere. Driving away from you these things to you for your great I've heard you say the day we shared I enter the Freeway Ascension Day. "Don't believe everything," you rose still higher. and think of your Journey you say. I'll keep them, then, and Your High Years were 1934 and 1974. past and future; of all the dreams dance to the rainbows and remember Your children came and grew in which I was pushed onto bridg you while I wait my turn.

13 Parti Theology of Pro-Choice: A Feminist Perspective publication. by Beverly Wildung Harrison and reuse for uch discussion of abortion be- life." We have a long way to go before law thinking on the subject of sexuality, Mtrays the heavy hand of misogyny the sanctity of human life will include procreation, and women's power of required or the hatred of women. We all have a genuine regard and concern for every rational choice that objection must be responsibility to recognize this bias, female already born, and no social registered. sometimes subtle, when ancient policy which obscures that fact deserves Any treatment of a moral problem is negative attitudes toward women to be called "moral." inadequate if it fails to question the Permission intrude into the abortion debate. It is I believe the human wisdom which morality of the act in a way which morally incumbent upon us to convert informs our ethics about abortion represents the concrete experience of

DFMS. the Christian position to a teaching

/ comes from what earlier Catholic moral the agent who faces a decision with more respectful of women's history and theologians meant by "natural law" respect to that act. Misogyny in experience. more than from quoting the Bible alone. Christian discussions of abortion is Church My professional peers who are my Unfortunately, however, natural law evidenced in that the decision is never opponents on this question feel that reflection in a Roman Catholic context treated as an integral part of the female they own the Christian tradition in this has been every bit as awful as Protestant agent's life process. Abortion is treated Episcopal matter and recognize no need to rethink Biblicism on any subject that involves as an abstractable act, rather than as the their positions in the light of this claim. human sexuality, including discussion what it always is — a possible way to of As a feminist, I cannot sit in silence of women's "nature" and women's deal with a pregnancy. when women's right to determine how "divine vocation" in relation to Those who uphold the immorality of

Archives procreative power is to be used is under procreative power. abortion are wise to obscure the fact challenge. That right is being Protestants who oppose procreative that it is a fully living human female

2020. withdrawn by the State even before its choice either tend to follow Roman who is the moral agent in the decision. moral basis has been fully elaborated. Catholic moral theology or ground In the case of pregnancy, the woman's Those who deny that women deserve to their positions in Biblicist anti- life is deeply, irrevocably affected.

Copyright control procreative power claim the intellectualism, claiming that "God's Where the question of abortion might right to do so out of "moral sensibility," word" requires no justification other arise, a woman finds herself facing an in the name of the "sanctity of human than their claim that it (God's word) unwanted pregnancy. Consider the says what it says. Against such actual circumstances which may Dr. Beverly Wildung Harrison is Professor of irrationalism, no rational objections precipitate this. One is the situation in Christian Ethics, Union Theological have a chance. If Protestant which a woman did not intend to be Seminary, New York City. The above is fundamentalists do give reasons why sexually active or did not enter into the adapted from a lecture to the Symposium on they believe that abortion is evil, they act voluntarily. Since women are the Theology of Pro-Choice in the Abortion frequently victims of sexual violence, Decision, sponsored by Religious Leaders for too revert to traditional natural law Free Choice and Religious Coalition on assumptions about women, sex and numerous cases of this type arise Abortion Rights, Stephen Wise Synagogue, procreation. Therefore, it is against the because of rape, incest, or forced New York. claims of traditional Catholic natural marital coitus. Many morally sensitive

14 opponents of abortion will concede that planning is a moral good, rule out of men, and later of male-dominated in such cases it may be morally abortion altogether. Such a split political insitutions such as tribes and justifiable. I would insist that in such consciousness ignores the fact that there states, to control women's procreative cases it is a moral good, because it is not is no inexorable biological line between power. We must assume, then, that rational to treat a newly fertilized ovum prevention of conception and abortion. many of the efforts at social control — as though it had the same value as the More important, this ignores the including church teaching on con- existent, pregnant, female person, and genuine risks involved in female traception and abortion — were part of because it is morally wrong to make the contraceptive methods. The reason we an overall system. The perpetuation victim of sexual violence suffer the do not have more concern for finding of patriarchal control itself depended further agonies of unwanted pregnancy. safer contraceptive methods for men on wresting the power of procreation from women. Another critical point is Another more frequent case results and women is that matters relating to that in the last four centuries, the entire when a woman — or usually a young women's health and well-being are Christian story has had to undergo girl — participates in heterosexual never urgent in this society. Moreover, publication. dramatic accommodation to new and activity without clear knowledge of how many failures are due to the emergent world conditions grounded in and pregnancy occurs and without intention irresponsibility of the producers of the scientific revolution. As the older to conceive. A girl who became contraceptives rather than to "bad

reuse theological metaphors for creation pregnant in this manner would, by luck." Given these facts, should a

for encountered a new human self- traditional natural law morality, be held understanding, Christian theology had to be in a state of "invincible ignorance" "When one stops to consider either to incorporate this new reality in and therefore not morally culpable. I required the awesome power over its story or to become obscurantist. once met a scholarly Roman Catholic nature which males take for nun who argued, quite seriously, that The range of human freedom to her church should not consider the granted, including the power to shape and enhance creation is now

Permission abortions of young Catholic girls as alter conditions of human life celebrated theologically up to the point morally culpable since the church was in myriad ways, the suspicion of changes in sexuality or ways of seeing "overprotective" of them, which pre- dawns that the near hysteria women's nature. Around these issues a DFMS. / vented them from understanding that prevails about the barrier has been drawn which declares: procreation and the sexual pressures immorality of women's right to No Freedom Here! The only difference

Church which contemporary society puts on choose abortion derives its between mainline Protestant and Catholic theologians is on the question girls. force from misogyny rather of contraception. That Protestant male A related type of pregnancy happens than from any passion for the

Episcopal clergy are usually married does have a when a woman runs risks by not using sacredness of human life." positive experiential effect on their the contraceptives, perhaps because taking of dealing with this issue; generally they precaution is not "ladylike" or requires have accepted the moral appropriate- her to be too "unspontaneous" about woman who actively attempts to avoid pregnancy be punished for ness of contraception. Most Protestants Archives sex. However, when pregnancies occur and nearly all Catholics, however, draw because women are skirting the edges of contraceptive failure when it occurs? Theological Context back from recognizing abortion as a

2020. knowledge and running risks, is In the history of Christian theology, the defensible excercise of human freedom enforced motherhood a desirable or self-determination. solution? Such pregnancies could be central metaphor for understanding life, including human life, is as a gift of The problem, then, is that Christian

Copyright minimized by eradicating childish myths, embedded in natural law God. Creation itself is seen primarily theology everywhere else celebrates the teaching, about female sexuality. under this metaphor. In this context, it power of human freedom to shape and follows that procreation itself takes on determine the quality of human life In likelihood, the largest number of special meaning when expressed within except when the issue of abortion arises. abortions arise because mature women a patriarchal society in which it is the The power of man to shape creation who are sexually active with men and male's power which is enhanced by this radically is never rejected. When one who understand the consequences, "divine gift." stops to consider the awesome power experience contraceptive failure. Throughout history, women's power over nature which males take for Schizophrenia in this area is exhibited of procreation stands in definite tension granted and celebrate, including the in that many who believe that women with male control. In fact, ancient power to alter the conditions of human have more responsibility than men to historical evidence suggests that what life in myriad ways, the suspicion dawns practice contraception, and that family we call patriarchy derives from the need that the near hysteria that prevails

15 about the immorality of women's right Alternative Reading of History to choose abortion derives its force Between persons who oppose all "The reason we do not have from misogyny rather than from any abortions on moral grounds and those more concern for finding safer passion for the sacredness of human who believe that abortion is sometimes contraceptive methods for men life. The refusal of male theologians to or frequently morally justifiable, there incorporate the full range of human and women is that matters is no difference of moral principle. Pro- relating to women's health and power to shape creation into their choice advocates and anti-abortion well-being are never urgent in theological worldview when that power advocates share the ethical principle of relates to the quality of women's lives respect for human life, which is this society. Moreover, many and women's freedom and women's role probably why the debate is so failures are due to the irrespon- as full moral agents, is an index of the acrimonious. I have already indicated sibility of the producers of continuing misogyny in Christian that one major source of disagreement contraceptives rather than to tradition. publication. is the way in which theological story is 'bad luck.' " By contrast, a feminist theological appropriated in relation to the changing and approach recognizes that nothing is circumstances of history. In addition, more urgent, in light of the changing

reuse we should recognize that whenever circumstances of human beings on By contrast, my thesis is that there is a for strong moral disagreement is relative disinterest in the question of planet Earth, than to recognize that the encountered, we simultaneously entire natural-historical context of abortion overall in Christian history. confront a different reading of history. Occasionally, Christian theologians required human procreative power has shifted. The way we interpret the past is already We desperately need a "desacralization" picked up the issue, especially when laden with a sense of what the "moral those theologians were "state-related of our biological power to reproduce, problem" is. and, at the same time, a real concern for theologians"; i.e., articulating policy Permission human dignity and the social conditions For example, professional male not only for the church but for the for personhood and the values of Christian ethicists tend to assume that political authority. Demographer Jean the history of the morality of abortion Meyer, himself a Catholic, insists that

DFMS. human relationship. And note that / "desacralization" does not mean can best be traced by studying the the Christian tradition took over complete devaluation of the worth of teaching of the now best remembered "expansion by population growth"

Church procreation. It means that we must shift theologians. Looking at the matter this from the Roman empire. Christians away from the notion that the central way, one can find plenty of proof-texts only opposed abortion strongly when metaphors for divine blessing are to show that some of the church fathers Christianity was closely identified with (as we call them) condemned abortion the State or when theologians Episcopal expressed at the biological level to the and some even equated abortion with repudiated sexuality except in the the recognition that social values bear the of image of what is most holy. The best either homocide or murder. However, reluctant service of procreation. statement I know on this point comes when a "leading" churchman equated The "Holy Crusade" quality of from a Roman Catholic feminist who is abortion with homocide or murder, he present teaching on abortion is quite Archives also a distinguished sociologist of also and simultaneously equated new and related to cultural shifts which religion, Marie Augusta Neal: contraception with homocide or are requiring the Christian tradition to 2020. murder as well. This reflects the then choose sides in ideological struggle and As long as the central human need called almost hysterical anti-sexual bias of the to rethink its entire attitude to women for was continued motivation to propagate Christian tradition. the race, it was essential that religious and sexuality. No Protestant clergy or Copyright symbols idealize that process above all However, this anti-sexual tradition is theologian gave early support for others. Given the vicissitudes of life in a not universal, even among theologians proposed 19th century laws banning hostile environment, women had to be and canon lawyers. On the subject of abortion in the United States. It is my encouraged to bear children and men to sexuality and its abuse, many well- support them; child-bearing was central to impression that Protestant clergy, the struggle for existence. Today, however, known theologians had nothing to say usually married and often poor, were the size of the base population, together and abortion was not even mentioned. aware that romanticizing "nature's with knowledge already accumulated An important, untold chapter in bounty" with respect to procreation about artificial insemination, sperm Christian history is the great struggle resulted in a great deal of human banking, cloning, make more certain a that took place in what we call the peopled world. suffering. The Protestant clergy who medieval period, when clerical celibacy finally did join the anti-abortion The more serious human problems now are who will live, who will die and who will came to be imposed, and the rules of crusade were racist, classist, white decide. . . sexual behavior rigidified. clergy, who feared that America's

16 strength was being threatened because reconstruct the all but desperate has made this struggle to control white, middle class, "respectable" struggle by sexually active women to procreation a life-bending, often life- women had a lower birthrate than black gain some proximate control over destroying one. and ethnic women. Sound familiar? nature's profligacy in conception. So women have had to do whatever One other point must be stressed. Under the most adverse conditions, they could to avoid too numerous Until the late 19th century, the natural women have had to try to control their pregnancies. In most societies and law tradition, and Biblicism following fertility — everywhere, always. Even cultures, procreation has been in the it, always tended to define the act of when women are infertile, their hands of women's culture. Some abortion as interruption of pregnancy relationship to procreation irrevocably primitive birth control techniques have after ensoulment, or the coming of the marks and shapes their lives. Those who proven rather effective. Increasingly, breath of God to the fetus. The point at have sought to avoid sexual contact anthropologists are gaining hints of which ensoulment was said to take place with males, through celibacy or through how procreative control occurred in varied, but most typically it was at lesbian love, have been potential, even some pre-modern societies. A woman

publication. quickening. Quickening was important probable, victims of male sexual often has chosen to risk her life in order because knowledge about embryology violence or have had to bear heavy not to have that extra child that would and was terribly primitive until the last half social stigma for refusing the centrality destroy the family's ability to cope or century. As a result, where abortion was of dependence on men and of that would bring about a crisis reuse condemned, it was understood to refer procreation in their lives. Women's lack unmanageable within her life. for to the termination of pregnancy well of social power, in all recorded history, We have to concede that modern into the process of that pregnancy after medicine, for all its misogyny, has required ensoulment. Until the late 19th century, replaced some rather ghastly practices then, abortion in ecclesiastical teaching Communi / / cation still widely used where surgical abortion applied only to termination of prenatal I rode the train again today is unavailable. In light of these gains, life in more advanced stages of enjoying my privacy until a

Permission more privileged Western women must pregnancy. dark-haired girl sat down beside me — not lose the ability to imagine the real- a student Another distortion in the male- but I kept on writing. life pressures which lead women in DFMS.

/ generated history of this issue derives other cultures to submit to ground-glass from failure to note that, until the We entered a tunnel douches, reeds inserted in the uterus, development of safe, surgical, elective with the rumbling and rushing of etc. to induce labor. The radical nature Church abortion, the "act of abortion" wind — darkening my of methods women resort to bespeaks frequently referred to something done reflection in the window. the desperation involved in unwanted to the woman, with or without her pregnancy. Episcopal Then the feeling took me: consent (See Exodus 22), as an act of I had to cough; Nor should we suppress the fact that a the

of violence. Now, in recent discussion it is I had to ask her If she minded major means of birth control now is as it the woman who does the "wrongful" if I smoked; was in earlier times, infanticide. And let act. When "to do an abortion" meant I had to tell her I was scared no one imagine that women made of growing even a minute older, Archives terminating a pregnancy against the but I couldn't and kept on decisions to expose or kill new-born woman's wishes, grounds for moral writing. infants casually. Women understand 2020. objections were clear. what many men cannot seem to grasp — Furthermore, whether the act was She coughed that the birth of a child requires that done with or without the woman's She cleared her throat — some person must be prepared to care, Copyright consent, until recent decades abortion many times, without interruption, for that infant, as If waiting for me to say always endangered the woman as much how dry the weather was. provide material resources and energy- as it did the prenatal life in her womb. I kept on writing. draining amounts of time and attention. No one has a right to discuss the It seems to me that men, especially morality of abortion today without Sometimes I think humanity is celibate men, romanticize the total and recognizing that one of the traditional sitting beside me, waiting for me to uncompromising dependency of the moral reasons for objection to abortion clear my throat. newly born infant upon the already was concern for women's well-being. But still I keep on writing while the darkness roars outside ... existing human community. This Beyond all this, however, the deepest dependency is even greater in a Gall E. Atwater, 18 fragmented, centralized urban- moral flaw in the pro-life position's St. Thomas' Church historical view is that none of its Whitemarsh, Pa. industrial modern culture than in a proponents have attempted to rural culture, where another pair of

17 hands often increased an extended economic activity go unrestrained. pressures against some women's use of family unit's productive power. No What their agenda signifies for the their power of procreation, I know of no historical interpretation of abortion as a personal lives of women is quite another woman who would choose to return to a moral issue which ignores these matters matter. state of lesser knowledge about these deserves moral standing in the present An adequate historical perspective on matters. debate. abortion recognizes the long struggle There has been an objective gain in In drawing this section to a close, I women have waged for some degree of the quality of women's lives for those want to stress that if present efforts to control over fertility and of their efforts fortunate enough to possess procreative criminalize abortion succeed, we will to regain control of procreative power choice. That millions of women do not need a State apparatus of massive from patriarchal and state-imperial possess even the rudimentary proportions to enforce compulsory culture and institutions. Such a conditions for such choice is obvious. childbearing. In addition, withdrawal perspective also takes into account that Our moral goal should be to struggle of legal abortion will create one more more nearly adequate contraceptive against those real barriers — poverty, publication. massively profitable underworld methods and the existence of safe, racism and cultural oppression — and economy in which the Mafia and other surgical, elective abortion represent which prevent authentic choice from sections of quasi-legal capitalism may positive historic steps toward full being a reality for every woman. reuse human freedom and dignity for women. and will profitably invest. The radical Next: The Moral Status of the Fetus, for Right promises to get the State out of While the same gains in medical Body-Right as a Moral Claim, the regulation of people's lives, but what knowledge also open the way to Moral Quality of Pro-Choice Political they really mean is that they will let sterilization abuse and to social

required Strategy.

Editorial. .. Continued from page 3 the U.S. Congress and fired shots, wounding several

Permission Congressmen. This act was understandably accelerating sharply with the Reagan administration, denounced at the time as the act of extremist terrorists. to apply the words "terrorist" and "terrorism" to one However, few noted that on the day before, the United DFMS.

/ side of the political spectrum — the Left. Thus, as Mark States detonated the first "deliverable" megaton-class Harris indicated in the June WITNESS, members of the hydrogen bomb on Bikini atoll in the Pacific. This was Palestine Liberation Organization are called a far greater act of terrorism by the only nation ever to Church "terrorists," a word not usually applied to Israeli use an atomic weapon on a people, at Hiroshima. "commandos" raiding Palestinian settlements. Similarly, our government calls terrorists and How might concerned Christians pondering such Episcopal extremists those who resist the ruling junta of El considerations respond? the Salvador, but furnishes with arms the soldiers and of First, the world's greatest terrorism, the threat of guardsmen of that government. global nuclear war, must be denounced and the de- It must be said in strong rebuttal that, if one insists escalation of the arms race (sometimes called the

Archives on using the word "terrorism" to describe irrational balance of terror) pursued with unrelenting vigor. acts that are an affront and threat to all humanity, the Second, those people held hostage both at home

2020. greatest terrorism of all is the increasingly pervasive and abroad by the shackles of injustice and oppression fear, shared by the whole human race, that the insane must be given full voice before a world that needs to nuclear arms race will end in nuclear holocaust. hear from them directly. The world's press literally and

Copyright Viewed in this light, we might then speak of the new figuratively held out a microphone to the wounded "terrorist budget" of Reagan and Haig, which holds the John Paul II. Cannot the churches "carry the poor of our own country hostage to poverty while microphone" to the poor and dispossessed and allow terrorizing the world with its unprecedented nuclear them to tell their story? arms buildup. Third, we must be serious about programs which Indeed, the poor are doubly terrorized: They are give the poor access to the essentials of life. besieged by the daily terror of being deprived of food, If we begin to address these major illnesses of the jobs and health programs, and they are increasingly body politic — the massive impoverishment and aware that nuclear holocaust daily moves closer to oppression and the madness of the arms race — the reality with the arms buildup. aberrational acts of a demented few, expressing the Twenty-seven years ago a band of Puerto Ricans deep frustration of the many, might begin to decrease proclaiming independence for Puerto Rico invaded dramatically. •

18 Letters . . . Continued from page 2 raw nerve of anti-Semitism at the heart of Christian theology and practice. I Sparks Two Programs but it does help to try to raise all the sometimes think it may be best that we I am enclosing the Sunday bulletin from issues and to acknowledge that hard Christian Gentiles admit that we are St. Mary's Church to inform you that we moral choices are involved either way. what we are, "alienated from the are having two programs on El Salvador The Rev. Carter Heyward commonwealth of Israel, and strangers with the Rev. Richard Gillett and Blase The Rev. Suzanne Hiatt to the covenants of promise." Bonpane. This is partly in response to Cambridge, Mass. {Ephesians 2:12) the influence of THE WITNESS. I have Perhaps we should allow the spiritual been a subscriber since 1937. My thanks Christ of Greek metaphysics to fade into and appreciation to you for following the pages of history and at last permit faithfully in the steps of Bill Spofford. Where Place the Jews? the Galilean hasid Yeshua to return to Mary B. G. Zava I am disturbed that, 36 years after the his own people. Then we might come to Laguna Beach, Cal. liberation of the death camps, William share in the messianic expectation of publication. Stringfellow, an intelligent theologian Israel, the hope for that day when "all flesh shall come to worship" on the holy Speak to Social Issues and and courageous activist, can offer us an Easter message in the April WITNESS mountain Jerusalem (Isaiah 66:18-23). Magazines such as yours are going to be We may even learn to await the needed even more in the very near reuse that puts forward the career of Jesus as the "disposition of Israel's vocation." I resurrection from the sleep of death, future. Please continue to research, for may lack the strong theological which Yeshua shares with his righteous review, analyze and speak to the social constitution of the neo-orthodox, but I brothers and sisters. And, just perhaps, and ethical issues of our day. We have too much superficial churchy propa- required am not able to survey the 1,400 years after enough prayer and fasting we during which Christendom's "foot of might begin to do theology again. ganda and we need more evidence that pride" rested upon Israel, and then John J. Klopacz God is alive and active at the root of reaffirm any notion that Jesus in some New York, N.Y. His/Her world. Keep up the good work.

Permission sense replaced or fulfilled Israel's Fred Ansell mission. Where in this theological Kansas Baptist Convention construct do we place the Jews who Plttsburg, Kans. DFMS. / faced Christian fires, gallows and gas Stringfellow Responds chambers sanctifying the Name of the I appreciate the opportunity to comment Holy One? Forming Study Groups Church on the serious and moving letter of John Please rush me Which Side Are We On Can we Gentile Christians maintain Klopacz and I would welcome an as advertised on your back cover. I that the minds of the Ghetto Jews "were occasion to talk face-to-face with him already have Must We Choose Sides and hardened" or that "a veil lies over the about these matters.

Episcopal what I assume to be the prelude to both minds" (2 Corinthians 3:13-14) of the I think his letter interpolates far too volumes, Struggling With The System: the Brooklyn hasidim because they believed much in reference to my article. I am

of Probing Alternatives. in the messiah and even today await aware of roots of anti-Semitism in him? Can we hold up the cross as a Having struggled with these issues for Scripture and in the abuse of Scripture, over three years now, these volumes and "stumbling block" (1 Corinthians 1:23) as well as in arrogant pretensions of Archives to the Jews who perished in the your magazine have been very useful. In what Klopacz calls "the Gentile fact, a group of us is about to contract to Holocaust, believing that God would not Church," but I do not see how that is 2020. abandon his people? The only cross go through these study/action volumes. connected with the affirmation in the Such commitment brings both toward which I would point Israel is the article that Jesus on the Cross becomes cross of Yeshua of Nazareth which excitement and fear. Thanks for your Israel. On the contrary, Jesus on the own efforts which have been

Copyright stands in the midst of and level with all Cross exemplifies the reconciliation of encouraging. the other crosses raised by Rome in the whole of humanity in the Word of Raymond J. Fancher occupied Palestine. God. In that context, the Jews who Denton, Tex. Thirty-six years after Auschwitz, and perished in the Holocaust, theologically all that our best theologians and speaking, are participants in the Cross. preachers can offer us is some new In my view, furthermore, the article CREDITS version of the ideology of replacement exposes the apostacy of the professed of Israel by Jesus, who at least was a Cover, Beth Seka; graphics p. 5, 8, "new Israel" quite as much as that of the Deborah Bright, courtesy The Jew, or by the Gentile Church, the self- "old Israel." Some of the implications of Progressive Foundation, Inc.; p. 13, styled "New Israel." All this after Jules that are discussed in an early book of adapted from Jeannette Plccard's Isaac, James Parkes and Malcolm Hay, mine entitled Count It All Joy. chasuble by Beth Seka; p. 11, Plccard and closer to home Rosemary Ruether William Stringfellow photo by Minneapolis Tribune. and Franklin Littell, have exposed the Block Island, R.I. --•*------"* - -

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