Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Monday, February 6, 2006

Richard Alleva on BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

By Michael Perry

Richard Alleva, who has been reviewing films for COMMONWEAL since 1990, has long been one of my favorite film critics.   I had been wondering if and when he would review Brokeback Mountain.  I discovered today that he has--and although I don't always see eye to eye with Alleva (not that I'm any expert on film), I agree with everything he says about Brokeback in his review.

What does Brokeback or Alleva's review have to do, if anything,  with "Catholic legal theory?" you ask.  Well, just as a film about capital punishment can bear on the moral discourse about capital punishment, and a film about abortion can bear on the moral discourse about abortion, so too can a film about the love between two gay men bear on the moral discourse about same-sex unions.  And Brokeback does indeed bear on the moral discourse about same-sex unions.

Here are some excerpts from the review:

Miraculously, you discover that you can take your heart out of your chest without dying. Well, perhaps you’re not really alive but you walk, talk, get business done, and nobody suspects that you are actually an ambulatory corpse. You keep your still throbbing heart in a little box in the attic. You go up to visit it from time to time. In the attic’s darkness you breathe on your heart, whisper tributes to it, caress it with your eyes. Of course you must keep your visits furtive and few lest anybody suspect how weird you are. Suspicious or not, family and friends come to regard you as dry, ungiving, and...well, rather heartless.

That’s the emotional gist of Brokeback Mountain, adapted from Annie Proulx’s short story by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana and directed by the versatile Ang Lee. Two rootless young men, Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal), dress like cowboys but get summer jobs shepherding near the slopes of a mountain in 1963 Wyoming. Ennis, an emotionally stunted orphan (and probable virgin), doesn’t know what he wants out of life, while Jack Twist, a sly tease with the demurely downcast eyes of a Victorian cherub, knows that he wants Ennis (none of this is in the dialogue, but it is superbly conveyed by Lee’s staging and choice of close-ups). On a freezing night in a tent, Jack gets what he wants and Ennis discovers he wants the same thing. But the next morning Ennis sternly declares that he “ain’t no queer,” and Jack protests, “I ain’t either.” And they both believe what they say. Queers are effeminate, right? And these two know they are real men, so they can’t possibly be queers, right? But their hormones are in command, and for the rest of the summer the youths obey their bodies with ardor. Going their separate ways in the fall, Ennis gets married and ekes out a Spartan existence for a wife (Michelle Williams) and two daughters while Jack does the rodeo circuit in Texas before marrying Lureen (Anne Hathaway) whose rich father is willing to take a son-in-law into the ranch-equipment business, an arrangement that turns Jack into an amusing consort and later into a court jester. Thus concludes the first third of the movie.

Then comes the heartbreaking rest of life as lived under the emotional shadow of Brokeback Mountain. Jack, financially comfortable but sexually and emotionally itchy, begins visiting Ennis a couple of times a year, the two going off to “fish” near their old shepherding grounds. Do these periodic revels bring enough relief to make their quotidian lives less parched? Sadly, the opposite seems to be the case: the vacations bleed work and family life pale. Ennis becomes that proverbial sad drunk in the darkest corner of the bar. Jack, growing a black moustache, comes to resemble a gigolo, which may be an indication of how he feels about himself vis-à-vis his rich wife. The two men have stored their hearts on Brokeback Mountain and are getting, in early middle age, too winded to make the climb.

Alleva concludes his review by emphasizing that Brokeback

is not a gay movie. I say that not because the principal artists involved are all straight. (Ironically, Ledger and Williams are now engaged to be married.) This superb work of art is about the tragedy of emotional apartheid, and none of us, no matter our sexual orientation, is ever safe from the way life conspires to make us put our hearts on ice.

To read Alleva's whole review, click here.
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A Different Perspective on "The Vagina Monologues" ... This One by the Jesuit President of a Jesuit University

By Michael Perry

[The following item was brought to my attention today, after Rick kindly responded (here) to my inquiry (here).]

Letter from the president of Loyola University, New Orleans- Kevin Wildes, S.J.

Dear Members of the Loyola University community, I have had questions from a number of people about the production of “The Vagina Monologues” on the Loyola University campus so I thought that I should write to you about it. While there are some legitimate questions, there are also a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding of the Monologues, so I thought it is important for me to speak to the production at Loyola University. Any university ought to be a place of learning and discussion. I have said before that universities provide protected space in our society for the exploration of diverse ideas. It follows that universities will often be places where very different and sometimes contentious ideas are exchanged passionately yet peacefully.

While academic debate may be intense, it ought to be done in a way that women and men can express different views. Loyola University, like any university, is committed to the free expression of ideas and the rigors of debate. Loyola University, as a Jesuit university, is rooted in a tradition of Christian humanism that seeks to understand the human experience. To understand that experience - and to improve it in the long term - we must first listen to it. For too many centuries "human experience" has been seen through the eyes of a few individuals and small groups of people. Today, we are more conscious of the diverse views of human experience that are present in different races, cultures, ethnic groups, and religions. We are conscious of the voices that have not been heard in the past. Among these voices are the important, and for too long overlooked, voices of women. When it was developed a number of years ago, “The Vagina Monologues” was done as a vehicle to empower women to speak of their experiences as women. The play raises very important issues particularly about sexual violence toward women. The play often makes people uncomfortable. Some of the discomfort may come from the language of the play. And some of the discussions are important to raise issues of violence against women and the exploitation of women in society. There are people who say that the play has no place on a Catholic campus. But this position misses the reality that the play has provoked a good deal of conversation among women and has helped them to name the dehumanizing attitude and behaviors which reduce them to sexual objects. To exclude the play from a Catholic campus is to say, either that these women are wrong, or that their experience has nothing important to say to us. I would argue that these are voices that a Catholic university must listen to if we are to understand human experience and if we are to be faithful to the One who welcomed all men and women. The play affords an opportunity for everyone to think critically about the social issues involved in the treatment of women. I do not think the play alone is the complete answer to these questions. A single play cannot do or say everything. That is why Loyola has been involved in programs to educate people, on our campus and beyond, about the issues of sexual violence. In the Loyola community we have professional services to help women address these issues when they have been victimized. We have an excellent resource in the Women's Center. And, of course, we have a long history of participating in programs like "Take Back the Night." Our Women's Center and the Office of Counseling and Career Services, along with Xavier University and Dillard University, received a grant from the Violence Against Women Program of the United States Department of Justice. The production of the play at Loyola does not mean that we endorse all of the contents of the play. It does mean that as a university we are grappling with very difficult issues. And it means that we are living in our Jesuit heritage by discussing and arguing about aspects of the human experience. These are difficult and tragic aspects of human experience. But, they are dimensions that ought not to be ignored if we are to build a better world.

The Society of Jesus points out the need to be attentive to the experience of women, to achieve solidarity with them, and to work to correct injustices toward women. As a Catholic university we follow a Lord who welcomed all men and women, and it is important for us, in honoring our calling as a university within his Church, to listen to them.
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Sunday, February 5, 2006

A question about "The Vagina Monologues" and Notre Dame

By Michael Perry

I lead a pretty insular life (as befits one raised in Kentucky, less than an hour's drive from the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane).  Would someone please tell me what it is about "The Vagina Monologues" (I know nothing about them) that is problematic from the perspective of the leadership of the University of Notre Dame?  Rick?  Someone?  Anyone?  Thanks in advance.  --Michael

Followup to my "Request for help ..."

By Michael Perry

In response to my request for help (here), I received several  helpful responses (for which I and my student are very grateful).  If anyone out there is interested in having the bibliographic information I've received--about the Doctrine of Double Effect, especially in connection with abortion, and/or about Church statements on abortion--just give a holler:  [email protected]
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BONO IS MORE THAN A ROCK STAR!

By Michael Perry

As a followup to Rob's post below, read this:

Bono Unplugged
February 3, 2006    Episode no. 923
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week923/exclusive.html

by Kim Lawton

After Irish rock star Bono's address to the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday (Feb. 2), I was one of eight journalists invited to sit down with him for a private "on the record" conversation. All cameras and recording devices were prohibited, for reasons that were never made entirely clear. This makes reporting on the conversation particularly challenging for a television reporter.

We sat in a circle while Bono drank coffee and snacked on a makeshift breakfast that he hadn't had a chance to eat at the prayer breakfast head table. He was wearing his trademark rosy-tinted wraparound sunglasses, a half-buttoned black shirt, and purple socks.

The singer was still bemused about being selected as the keynote speaker for the annual gathering of nearly 4,000 politicians, foreign dignitaries, and religious leaders. After all, the breakfast is organized by an evangelical foundation, and Bono is the man who was chastised by the FCC for uttering the F-word during the nationally televised Golden Globe Awards in 2003.

He joked about the incongruities during his speech, suggesting that he must have been invited because of his "messianic complex" -- a digging reference to media headlines about his efforts to "save the world."

But it was his campaign against global poverty and AIDS that brought him to the event, along with the fact that he has made this effort a deeply personal moral and spiritual crusade.

Bono says he sees faith-based groups as "a vital component" to his work. "The church is a much bigger crowd even than the stadiums we play in as U2," he told us. And he's been energized by the religious response, particularly from evangelical churches that he says were initially "slow" to jump on board.

"There's something going on," he said with visible enthusiasm, calling it a movement "with heat." He added, "The church is leading, and it's amazing."

Bono's message to the prayer breakfast was a plea for more aid to fight famine, poverty, and disease, particularly in Africa. He urged support for the One Campaign, whose goal is to see the U.S. allocate an additional one percent of the federal budget to the world's poor.

Bono called it a "tithe," and he couched his call in religious terms that he spoke with an obvious passion. In his speech, and in our meeting afterward, he impressively quoted large passages of Scripture off the top of his head. Throughout our conversation, he spoke about God's concern for the poor and biblical calls for justice. He came across as intelligent and informed, easily reeling off statistics and the details of arcane international trade policy. Earnest, not posturing.

But I was most fascinated by new glimpses of Bono's own spiritual journey. He admitted to us that this week's speech was his most explicitly religious public expression. "I try to keep it to my private life," he said, joking that he would probably reap a "loss of album sales" from his more secular fans.

In his speech, he described growing up in Ireland with a Protestant father and a Catholic mother. Organized religion, he said, too often got "in the way of God." He referred to himself as a "believer," and "an Irish half-Catholic."

In our later meeting, he said in the last 10 years he's really engaged with Scripture. He told us he reads THE MESSAGE, a translation of the Bible popular with evangelicals that was compiled by an American mainline pastor, Eugene Peterson, whom Bono called "a gifted scholar and poet." Bono said lately he's been struck by Isaiah 58, and particularly verse 8, which in several translations says if you help the poor, the Lord will be "your rearguard." Bono told us, "God will watch your back. I love the street aspect of that." Then he quietly added, "And it's really been true in my own life."

He acknowledged his sometimes rocky relationship with conservative Christians, who have been wary of some of his rock star antics, his liberal use of obscenities, and his tolerance of gays. Although many of his lyrics have been laced with Christian imagery and symbolism, he appears stung by some criticism that it's not "Christian" enough.

"I'm asked, 'Why doesn't your music proclaim Christ?'" he said. His answer: "It does." He went on, describing how he believes the Bible's assertions that "creation has its own proclamation" of God. "I'd like to think our music had the same qualities to it," he said.

Asked about his own past criticism of contemporary gospel music, Bono admitted he was referring to what he saw as "happy clappy" songs that lacked "grit." He said such music doesn't mean anything to him "without a truth telling of where you are and where you live in your life." But he was quick to add that he has recently built new friendships with several evangelical musicians who have joined his advocacy campaign.

And he was also quick to draw a distinction between contemporary gospel music and worship music, something he said he loves very much. He said some of his favorite music includes hymns by Charles Wesley, Handel's "Messiah," and Jewish liturgical chanting.

With spontaneous eloquence, he said being a worship leader must be "the highest of all art forms, to worship and call people into the presence of God."

Clearly aware of the ironies of his new faith-based campaign, Bono admitted, "If me 10 years ago would have heard me say what I said today, I wouldn't believe me."

Bono spent nearly 45 minutes with us and loosened up a lot as the conversation went on. He would have kept going, but his handlers cut the session off. He was thoughtful and candid, a performer who didn't appear to be performing. And he was enormously compelling, especially when he described the people he has met in his travels in Africa who put real "flesh and bones" on the purpose of his campaign.

All the more reason it was so frustrating not to have it all on videotape.

Kim Lawton is the managing editor of RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY.
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Saturday, February 4, 2006

Request for help ...

By Michael Perry

A law student (Catholic) has sent me a bibliographic inquiry:

"Do you know of any good articles pertaining to the Doctrine of Double Effect?  I have Aquinas, but I was wondering if you knew any specifically relating to abortion (or even capital punishment).

Do you know where I can find the Catholic Church's position on the "life of the mother" issue in abortion?  I remember reading that they have allowed for exceptions in ectopic pregnancies and cancer, but do you know where I can get an official statement (if any) or any discussion on the Catholic position?"

So:  Can anyone out there help by recommending one or more especially good--and accessible--discussions of the Doctrine of Double Effect?  Or one or more good/accessible discussions of the DDE as it relates to abortion and/or capital punishment?

My e-mail:  [email protected]

Thanks very much.
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JACQUES MARITAIN

By Michael Perry

There is a very interesting book review in the 1/30/06 issue of The New Republic--a book review about Jacques Maritain.  (If anyone reading this post can get and send me an electronic version, I'd appreciate it:  [email protected].)  If you don't know about Maritain--indeed, even if you do--do yourself a favor and read the review.  The scene at the end of the review, which takes place in 1966 at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane (Kentucky), and involves Maritain, Thomas Merton, and Bob Dylan, is precious.

Joseph Frank, Medieval Modernism, TNR, Jan. 30, 2006, pp. 24-29.
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Friday, February 3, 2006

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER AT 100

By Michael Perry

Religion and Ethics Newsweekly  [PBS]
February 3, 2006

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Episode no. 923

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: This weekend will be the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian put to death by the Nazis, whose writings and life made him a modern martyr. In the U.S. and Europe there will be observances in his honor, among them a documentary on Bonhoeffer to run on most PBS stations February 6. We have some images from that program.

Bonhoeffer was raised in a distinguished but not particularly religious family said to have been surprised by his decision to study theology. He was brilliant, getting his doctorate at age 21. Then he spent a year at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He studied ethics under Reinhold Niebuhr and also discovered the fervor and social consciousness of Harlem's Abysssian Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday school.

Christianity, Bonhoeffer came to believe, meant not just professing faith but really putting into practice Jesus' teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. When Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in the early 1930s, his convictions were tested dramatically. Adolph Hitler and the Nazis were just coming to power. What should Bonhoeffer do about them? He spoke out, urging his fellow Lutherans to reject as idolatry the Nazi claim that the Fuehrer and the state deserved allegiance above that owed to God.

Bonhoeffer also condemned Nazi persecution of the Jews, urging the Christian Church to stand with the Jews and all victims. He also helped some Jews escape.

By the late 1930s, Bonhoeffer realized that, for him, even though he respected pacifism and nonviolence in principle, Hitler's war-making and injustice required resistance. A Christian must act, he insisted, so he joined a conspiracy to oppose Hitler. It seemed a lesser evil than doing nothing.

Bonhoeffer became part of a resistance cell inside German military intelligence. On trips abroad, he tried to get Allied support for the German resistance, but he was not successful. In 1943, Bonhoeffer's fellow resisters tried to kill Hitler but failed. The Gestapo identified Bonhoeffer as part of the plot, arrested him, and sent him to prison.

Earlier, in a widely influential book, THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP, Bonhoeffer had condemned what he called cheap grace -- accepting God's love without cost. At the same time, he extolled costly grace -- grace that requires radical obedience, even the willingness to die for one's beliefs, which Bonhoeffer did.

Less than a month before the war in Europe ended, the Nazis moved him from prison to a concentration camp and hanged him on April 9, 1945. He was 39 years old.

Some Christian pacifists say Bonhoeffer was wrong to resist evil with violence, but for millions of other Christians, Bonhoffer became an inspiring symbol of what it can mean, in times of crisis and every day, to practice what you preach.
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Thursday, February 2, 2006

Please don't tease us, Rick!

By Michael Perry

Well, Rick, what then is the correct interpretation of "Justice Alito's first vote" (here)?
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Sunday, January 29, 2006

U.K. Women demand tougher laws to curb abortions

By Michael Perry

[Vince Rougeau, who is in London this semester, saw this article and thought MOJ-readers would be interested.]

The Observer [London]
Sunday January 29, 2006

Women demand tougher laws to curb abortions
Denis Campbell and Gaby Hinsliff

A majority of women in Britain want the abortion laws to be tightened to make it harder, or impossible, for them to terminate a pregnancy.

Evidence of a widespread public demand for the government to further restrict women's right to have an abortion is revealed in a remarkable Observer opinion poll. The findings have reignited the highly-charged debate on abortion, and increased the pressure on Tony Blair to review the current time limits.

The survey by MORI shows that 47 per cent of women believe the legal limit for an abortion should be cut from its present 24 weeks, and another 10 per cent want the practice outlawed altogether. Among the population overall, reducing the upper limit was the preferred option backed by the largest proportion of respondents, 42 per cent, made up of a 36-47 per cent split among men and women.

Only one person in three agreed that 'the current time limit is about right', with slightly fewer women (31 per cent) than men (35 per cent) saying that. Just 2 per cent of women and 5 per cent of men think the last possible date after which a woman can end a pregnancy should be increased from 24 weeks.

The leader of the 4.1 million Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, called on politicians last night to heed the evidence of a growing demand for a rethink on abortion policy, to include The Observer's findings. 'There has been a moral awakening over the last few years about abortion; the British public have been undergoing a reality check,' said his spokesman, Dr Austen Ivereigh. 'The Cardinal sees in this moral awakening a growing unease with, and erosion of, the idea of abortion as simply a woman's right.'

Increased awareness of the realities of abortion, and the impact of ultrasound images of a 23-week-old foetus smiling and grimacing, have made people change their views, said Ivereigh. The latter 'very dramatically showed that what had been depersonalised in many people's minds as a foetus was clearly seen to be a baby, a human being in formation, and that has come as a shock to many people', he added.

Abortion became a key issue in last year's general election campaign when Michael Howard, then the Conservative leader, said he wanted to see the maximum time limit cut to 20 weeks.

Former Liberal leader David Steel, the architect of the pioneering 1967 Abortion Act which made abortions legal for the first time in Britain, wants the upper limit reduced to 22 weeks.

The limit was originally set in 1967 at 28 weeks, because that was then taken to be the age at which a foetus would not be 'viable', but it was reduced to 24 weeks in 1990. Around 200,000 women a year undergo an abortion in Britain, although between 85 and 90 per cent occur within 12 weeks and only about 1.5 per cent after 20 weeks. Abortion is still illegal in Northern Ireland.

David Cameron, Howard's successor, backs a new limit of between 20 and 22 weeks. 'He thinks because of the advances in medical science there's now a case for it being lowered, although not dramatically. He would support it being reduced. That is his personal view,' said his spokesman.

Moves to reduce the time limit are now beginning to win the support of liberal-minded MPs who support the right to abortion. Dr Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP and a former GP, called for an in-depth parliamentary inquiry to examine the scientific evidence about the survival rates of babies born at under 24 weeks, and then recommend any necessary changes to the law. 'The question has been raised about whether we are going to base the limit on viability - that was the basis under the existing law - and if it's on viability then viability is subject to change based on medical advances,' he said.

'The longer we don't debate this, the less confidence the public will have that Parliament is doing its job which is reviewing and keeping in mind how scientific advances impact on public policy.'

Abortion law has always been altered through private members' bills tabled by backbenchers rather than by government in the past, with MPs voting according to their conscience. However the tacit support of the government is vital to get private members' bills through, making the views of the Prime Minister and Health Secretary crucial.

Amid the debate last year, prompted by the images of unborn babies in the womb, Blair indicated that the government could be prepared to review the limits on abortion law. The then Health Secretary, John Reid, personally supports a lower time limit.

However, Patricia Hewitt, the current Health Secretary, seemed yesterday to rule out any reduction: 'I think it is very difficult for a woman contemplating a late termination and they need to be given very clear advice and support.'

Toni Belfield of the Family Planning Association, which opposes any reduction, said: 'The argument about medical advances misses the point. There needs to be access to late abortion after 20 weeks because a woman may not find out she is pregnant until 18 or 19 weeks, or be in a non-consensual relationship, or be told about a foetal abnormality.'

Julia Millington, of the Pro-Life Alliance of anti-abortion groups, said the findings were 'very encouraging'.

Ipsos MORI interviewed 1,790 people aged 16 to 64 by online questionnaire between 6 and 10 January.
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