VOL. 63, NO. 8 AUGUST, 1980 publication. and reuse for •^ required The Tightening Noose John Gessell Permission Iran: Paul Washington Ramsey Clark DFMS. / Church Episcopal the of Archives 2020. Copyright efforts of all individuals and groups 'Conscience' Abused involved focus on addressing the needs of the whole person. This article would In the May Letters to the Editor, Wendy be helpful in our work with the elderly. Williams of Sewanee, Tenn. has spoken Ella Dash to an issue that can no longer be ignored Jamaica, N.Y. by the body of the church. The abuse of the conscience clause to oppress women instead of to take cognizance of their rights in the canonical system of Praises Washington the Episcopal Church has been going on I am enclosing a copy of a letter I am since 1976. The statement of Oct. 5, sending to the Rev. Paul M. Washington 1977, in Port St. Lucie has given small regarding his recent participation at an comfort to people who believe in the international Conference in Teheran, democratic process in the Episcopal publication. Iran on the "Crimes in America." I urge Church, because some bishops have you to explore, if possible, in one issue allowed conscience a very wide and Aging Need More of your distinguished publication, the interpretation; namely, "I have the right reuse implications of the ministry and witness Although practically every copy of THE to my conscience," and this means in of Father Washington regarding biblical for WITNESS is provocative and en- essence, "I also have a right to see that grossing, the May issue had two articles imperatives and American foreign your conscience is not served." Those of that addressed themselves to where I am policy particularly regarding Iran. I us who have actually seen in practice required now. Although like Peg Ferry I reached continue to delight in your publication what Wendy Williams suspects, know this "state" (as John L. McKnight's Old and wish you and your staff persistence that her point is well taken. This is a Grandma calls it) neither First Class nor in conscience raising in the church. problem for the whole church, and it Steerage, but Tourist, I too have reached Eugene D. Squillace must be addressed nolaterthanthenext Permission the practical conclusion that what the Bristol, Pa. General Convention. aging need is more. Like all the poor— (Editor's Note: See interview with Paul The Rev. Arnold F. Moulton DFMS. and a majority of the aging fall into that Washington in this issue of THE Racine, Wise. / category—the more economically WITNESS.) disadvantaged aging have to pay more God Against Isms Church (not proportionately, but absolutely) for In the May WITNESS, George McClain the essentials, despite the ameliorative Likes WITNESS Values writes on "The Idolatry and Promise of institutions of pensions, Social Security, Thank you for the recent issues. I liked the Church." He beautifully debunks the Episcopal Supplemental Security Income, especially the May issue on the aged (I'll author of the Moffatt Bible Commentary the Medicare, and Medicaid. be 36 in June) and the February issue on who "spiritualizes" Jesus' statement of of Lamentably, now the working poor women. I'm a part-time worker and a full his mission, "the spirit of the Lord is are being pitted against the aging poor, time student and my Sociology of the upon me. .to preach good news to the and such a divided house cannot stand Aging teacher liked the May issue too. poor, release to the captives, recovering Archives against a threatened system which I became an Episcopalian in 1963 in of sight to the blind . liberty to the becomes more merciless in its death Minnesota. I left a few years later, partly 2020. oppressed." throes. You do good work! because of the all-white churches and He rightly, but not in Christian The Rev. Arthur C. Barnhart all-black churches. And if a black man theological terms, speaks of the need for Erie, Pa. got ordained, I was told, he'd have to a "materialistic" approach to human Copyright leave the state to find a job if there was needs. This could have been interpreted no vacancy in one of the two black in incarnational and sacramental Helpful to Elderly churches. theological terms. He chooses, The Jamaica Service Program for Older How ironic! Now many of my gripes as however, to speak of it in terms of a view Adults would like to obtain 10 copies of far as sex and race are no longer true of Marxism that was prevalent in the Margaret Ferry's article, "Retirement: about the Episcopal Church, but I've 1930s. Marx has a whale of a lot to teach First Class or Steerage?" JSPOA is a changed. Now I have a personal us. We ignore him at our peril. He consortium of community agencies relationship with Jesus Christ. I still love certainly cannot be the new working with a Council of Senior your magazine as I do one with similar "absolutism." He was speaking Citizens to identify needs, coordinate values, Sojourners. culturally conditioned by what he saw existing services and to develop new Karen Walling in 19th century England. Tragically his programs as they are needed. The Salt Lake City, Utah Continued on page 19 Robert L. DeWitt, Editor; Mary Lou Suhor, Managing Editor; Kay Atwater, Robert Eckersley. Richard W. Gillett, Ann Hunter. Susan Small. Lisa K. Whelan. Hugh C. White. Jr. Editorial and Business I HE WITNESS Office: P.O. Box 359, Ambler. PA 19002. Telephone (215) 643-7067. Subscription rates: $9.00 per year; $1.00 per copy. The Witness is published monthly by the Episcopal Church Publishing Company. Board of Directors: Wesley Frensdorff. Steven Querra, Barbara Harris, Suzanne Hiatt, John E. Hines, Mattie Hopkins, Joan Howarth, James Lewis. H. Coleman McQehee. Joseph A. Pelham. Robert S. Potter, and Helen Seager. Copyright 1980 by the Episcopal Church Publishing Company. Printed in U.S.A. As the Earth Turns: Revolutions publication. Robert L. DeWitt and The Iranian crisis and the tragic holding of the reality. Consider: reuse hostages has occupied and preoccupied the minds of "Workers of the world, unite; you have nothing to for U.S. citizens for many months. There is at times a lose but your chains." suggestion of simplism in all of us which resists and "This nation cannot continue half slave and half required resents the intrusion of such untoward events into the free." life of human society. "Give me liberty or give me death." Yet such events continue to occur with a stubborn These declarations were each uttered out of a deep Permission tenacity. The pattern is not new. It often issues from and desperate social dilemma, and were reaching out, political revolutions, as in Iran. So it was with the pointing toward a fairer earth, a saner and safer human revolution in North Vietnam, which in the '60s so society. DFMS. / grievously wrenched the soul of America. So, earlier, Consider the alternative. Would we want to live in a the revolution which established the present regime in world in which injustice meets with no resistance, a Church Cuba, and earlier still the revolution encompassing world in which people supinely acquiesce to their own one fourth of the men, women and children of the subjugation and abandon their sense of self-worth? world, which issued in the creation of the People's Would we care, or dare, to live in a world in which the Episcopal Republic of China. Few of us remember, but we know powerful hold undisputed sway, with no threat of revolt the that an earlier event, the Russian Revolution, changed from those they oppress? of the political face of the world. Lest we focus our These questions lead us close to the heart of our attention only on Marxist revolutions, there was the religious heritage. God is just, and requires justice in abortive, fratricidal secession of our own Southern human affairs. An unjust arrangement in human Archives States that caused one of the most tragic wars in society offends God. History is God's rod, and with history. And let us not forget the War of Independence, 2020. that rod, God will smite ever and again the unrighteous which set 13 struggling colonies on an unimaginable pretensions whereby unjust people build their life at trajectory of growth in wealth and power to establish others' expense. What God requires is repentance (the one of the greatest hegemonies history has ever seen. Copyright Greek root of which means "turning around"), and howsoever inadequately, that same thrust, that same What can we say to these soul-wrenching, heart- motion, is seen in "revolution." breaking events? Surely we regret the suffering, the People who find their spiritual roots in the Bible will bloodshed. Certainly we condemn the excesses understand that peace is not to be found by itself. committed in the process, and those which followed in Peace is always gravitating toward the stronger field of their wake. But a deeper question is involved. In each justice. Let us not pray for peace alone, but for peace- instance there was some perceived injustice which the with-righteousness. The Kingdom of the Prince of revolution sought, however imperfectly, to rectify. The Peace is the Kingdom of Righteousness. Let us seek exaggerated rhetoric produced by those social that kingdom first, and all the other blessings will be upheavals had its source, nevertheless, in a deep added. So speaks the Word of God. • The publication. and Tightening reuse i Noose for by John M. Gessell required Permission DFMS. / Church Episcopal the of Archives 2020.