Of lions and justice

The institutional church has few LIONS left! What I see out there are parishes and missions celebrating personal birthdays and trying to entertain -- all noise that blocks and muffles the cries for Justice and Mercy. You all continue to be a LION!!!

Dennis Serdahl
Mountain Home AR

 

Misery pornography

I found the article "Bashra Diary" (May 2000) an example of misery pornography. Evocative images are presented to us without context, without relationships, and without any way for the reader to interact. It is a kind of voyeurism, and it is wearing in the end. We hear so much about despair and pain in the world that without some indication of why we are presented with it, or how we might get involved, we just begin to tune it out. I need to know what the writer wants to do about this, why he wants me to know about this, what is the purpose of his sharing this horror with me. Otherwise it is just titillation.

Sydney Hall
Hope, ME

 

Not a perfect world

I like your magazine very much and want to send the April 2000 issue (No easy answers: Gender and sexual ethics for a new age) to a friend, Jim Forest, who is mentioned in Marianne Arbogast's piece on "The pro-life, pro-choice debate: Confronting real differences with respect -- and hope."

I've been a friend of Jim's for a long time, but this issue has really, I guess, put a dent in our correspondence. Hopefully it will not go out altogether. I remember very well the incident when Jim resigned from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. I, of course, stayed in, but with a very sad heart that he felt he and the FOR could not remain together.

What he says is true, I guess, and in a perfect world all babies would be born; but it is not a perfect world. I have never had an abortion, but I do know others who have. It is a hard thing. But sometimes it must be done.

Anyway, thank you, and keep up the good work!

Roberta M. Stewart
Washington, D.C.

 

Shaken trust

I will try to say this as gently but firmly as possible. I was saddened and angered that you included Marianne Arbogast's essay supporting the anti-abortion movement in your uniquely beautiful magazine. No one, not Marianne Arbogast, nor The Witness, nor the government, nor anyone else has the right to tell me that I cannot terminate an unwanted pregnancy within my own body.

Marianne's position is one of judgment, not compassion. She says she wants to communicate -- that she wants a voice -- but she wants to use that voice to control my entire life. She distances herself from the target of Marge Piercy's righteous, affirmative poem, yet in this respect is no different than those targets. Seeing such lack of compassion and disregard for human rights within the pages of The Witness was a slap in the face from a dear friend. My trust has been deeply shaken.

You may respond that you wished to discuss "both sides." But I don't remember The Witness ever publishing an article supporting nuclear weapons, or denouncing the rights of women on welfare, or calling for more prisons. No doubt someone in the nuclear weapons or prison industries has been kind, good, or committed to their idea of justice, as Arbogast would like us to understand about her fellow anti-abortionists.

Despite "quiet, prayerful vigils" and other unmentioned, not-so-quiet actions, the anti-abortionists' battle is one they can never win. Abortion will always be with us. No matter how bloody it gets, women always have and always will assert their rights over their own bodies by aborting unwanted pregnancies.

Susan Daniels
Pembroke, VA

 

Hilltop renewal

Thanks for sending reminders that my subscription is about to expire. I certainly don't want that to happen!!

I need your thoughtful, courageous, challenging reflections as well as all the information that keeps me in touch with the larger world beyond our secluded hilltop.

Please renew my subscription immediately and keep your wonderful journal coming.

Rita Rouner
Center Sandwich, NH

 

Speaking the truth of incest

I am writing to publicly thank Mary Eldridge of Milford, Mich., for her letter in the April 2000 Witness, with reference to your December 1999 issue on recovering from human evil.

I am a fellow incest survivor. I spent much of my seminary career learning how to speak this truth and preparing to preach it. I have mentioned child sexual abuse in sermons before as one of the many crimes against persons. I used Eldridge's letter as the basis for a sermon on April 9, preached at the Cathedral Church of Saint John in Wilmington. This is my first sermon since seminary which has dealt soley with child sexual abuse and incest.

I want Mary to know that usually when I speak up on this subject I experience some measure of "feeling" flashbacks -- an uncontrollable return to feelings from the time of the abuse. Over the years these have gotten less and less. This time, the only remnants of flashback came between the services, when I was waiting to preach the same sermon a second time. I had to gently remind myself that I am no longer 10 years old and I can talk about incest and still stand without shame. There is a great deal of hope for abundant life in breaking silence and learning how to do it safely.

Thank you, Mary, for your courage and thank you, Witness, for publishing her full letter.

Lois B. T. Keen
Wilmington, DE

 

Valuable recent issues

The last three issues of The Witness have been OUTSTANDING! Bill Countryman's article in the March issue on authority in Anglicanism and the whole April issue on gender and sexual ethics have been particularly valuable to me as I try to develop some helpful theological reflections on Vermont's new Civil Union Law and the opportunities it offers the Episcopal Church.

Thank you!

Anne Clarke Brown
Plymouth, VT