Pornograpy? The United States Post Office intends to issue a commemorative stamp in honor of the bicentennial of the French Revolution, which occurred in July 1889. "Liberty Leading the People," the famous painting by Eugene Delacroix, will be depicted on the stamp—but with one slight change that has produced considerable ridicule in the French press: Lady Liberty's breasts will be air-brushed to remove those pesky nipples.

defect in serial killers. Others maintain that environment is the primary factor in the lack of moral development. Whatever the causes, it is clear that some individuals have greatly underdeveloped moral consciences—and though pornography has only recently be-come an issue, history is dotted with the exploits of such individuals. Some, such as Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot, have used their oddly paradoxical charisma to seize political power and then spill the blood of millions.

We might postulate a moral quotient, or M.Q., as a general scale of moral sensibility. People brought up in repressive social spheres often consider obedience and fear to be the bases of moral obligation. It ap-pears that such individuals sometimes lack moral compassion and have little remorse for their actions that harm others.

I must confess that my lifelong opposition to capital punishment is sorely strained by cases like Bundy's. Society surely needs to be protected from these moral monsters, and if anyone "deserves" to die for his wicked crimes, one might say that surely it is Ted Bundy.

But what is the purpose of punishment? Is it retribution? Can capital punishment be considered a deterrent to crime? Or should we be concerned with the rehabilitation of

criminals? The chances of rehabilitation are often slim, particularly in extreme cases. If the goal of punishment is the protection of society, then why should not a civilized com-munity instead sentence murderers to life imprisonment with no chance of parole? Some believe that heinous crimes need to be punished simply for themselves, without consideration for the social benefit that may be derived from the punishment. But can justice be served only by Bundy's death? Bundy escaped from prison twice to go on to other murders, so perhaps the danger that he might have again escaped is sufficient justification for his execution.

Some maintain that Bundy's death fulfills our sense of accountability. 1 surely have no sympathy for Bundy, but his execution did not bring back the innocent lives of those he murdered, or restore them to their fami-lies. Most countries today have abandoned the death penalty; clearly there is a moral case to be made against it. There is no clear-cut answer for humanists, and honest men and women will differ about the moral-ity of capital punishment. But the simple injunction "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" cannot be applied as the basic principle of justice, as many of those who cheer the return of the death penalty insist.•

Books r

Abortion and the Law

Mary Beth Gehrman Abortion and the Constitution: Reversing Roe v. Wade Through the Courts, edited by Dennis J. Horan, Edward R. Grant, and Paige C. Cunningham (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1987), 374 pp., $22.95 cloth, $12.95 paper.

While Randall Terry and his growing legion of Operation Rescue groupies

continue to grab headlines, mainstream abortion foes are implementing a quieter—but perhaps more effective—plan.

Until quite recently, those who support a woman's right to choose have remained largely passive, perhaps hoping that the anti-abortion movement would fade of its own accord. But now that prochoicers appear more willing to enter into the fray, they should see to it that they are well-armed. Abortion and the Constitution: Reversing Roe v. Wade Through the Courts should be required reading for anyone who maintains an active prochoice stance.

The editors of this volume, members of the Americans United for Life (AUL) Legal Defense Fund, present just about every con-ceivable argument against abortion: allowing it is merely the first step on the slippery slope toward utter moral turpitude; women who submit to abortions are simply the deluded victims of money-grubbing gyn-ecologists; the liberties of a few must be curtailed to protect the rights of many; and so on. In addition to general defenses, these essays attempt to expose weaknesses in the Roe decision—including its "distorted" historical precedents, its questionable asser-tion of the right to privacy, and the supposed flaws of its trimester approach.

Essays of note include Joseph W. Della-penna's "Abortion and the Law: Blackmun's Distortion of the Historical Record"; Victor G. Rosenblum and Thomas J. Marzen's "Strategies for Reversing Roe v. Wade Through the Courts"; John M. Finnis's "Natural Law and the Rights of the Unborn"; and "The Ancients and the Medievals on Abortion: The Consensus the Court Ignored," by John R. Connery, S.J.

Several of these essays maintain that the

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most effective court strategy will both "chip away at the props now thought to uphold Roe and ... forthrightly destroy the entire artifice." In "Prolife Litigation and the Civil Liberties Tradition," for instance, Richard S. Myers attempts to draw a parallel between the antichoice movement and the civil rights movement, claiming that both offer "protec-tion for individuals and groups who are without a voice in American political soci-ety." This, of course, is not a new argument. It is, however, interesting to see precisely how the AUL intends to fit what many con-sider to be the square pegs of today's anti-choice principles into the round holes bored into the status quo by the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

If the state referendums approved during the recent elections are any indication, it would appear that the strategy of advancing incrementally offers some hope to antichoice forces. Last year, voters in Michigan, Colorado, and Arkansas enacted or upheld measures barring state financing for abor-tions; most significant among these anti-choice victories is that Arkansas, after an emotional campaign laden with religious overtones, added to its State Constitution an "Unborn Child Amendment," which de-fines life as beginning at conception. In January the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal defending the constitutionality of laws regulating and restricting abortion in Missouri; similar appeals from Ohio and Illinois also await hearings. Roe may be headed for serious trouble.

The religious tone of Abortion and the Constitution should also cause concern for anyone who supports the principle of separation of church and state. In "Case Tactics and Court Strategies for Reversing Roe v. Wade," for example, William Bentley Ball writes:

Theistic religion and its derivative morality have been widely abandoned in individual lives. Arising in their stead have been a materialistic and hedonistic culture and a profound tendency to restrict liberties associated with a belief in God. This cul-ture has acquired power and established its own legal regime, resulting in the gradual erosion of fundamental human rights.

Clearly, the larger issue is not abortion, but dogmatic control. Unless they are willing to submit to that control, those who believe in personal autonomy and free choice must become more vocal in expressing their be-liefs. For if they do not, the authors repre-sented in Abortion and the Constitution may succeed in their goal of "total erasure of legal access to abortion on demand" and all that it implies. •

A Lifetime of Dissent by Corliss Lamont. Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y. 1989. 414 pages. $21.95 cloth. Corliss Lamont, long an activist in the humanist movement, has never been afraid to advocate an unpopular position. In this collection of provocative essays, written over the span of six decades, he details his clashes with the U.S. govern-ment over its policies toward Cuba, Vietnam, nuclear weapons, and relations with the Soviet Union. His desire to see closer ties between the United States and the Soviet Union led to his appearance before the in-famous McCarthy Senate Investigating Committee in 1953. Age has not slowed Lamont down, as he demonstrates in his essay "Militant Activist at 84." While his controversial political views will no doubt infuriate even many humanists, there can be no doubt that Lamont has devoted his life to championing the causes of freethought, personal autonomy, and government accountability. (T. M.) •

Don't Call Me Brother: A Ringmaster's Escape from the Pentecostal Church, by Austin Miles. Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 1989. 280 pages. $19.95. Nontheists are an independent lot, and many have trouble understanding the intensity of the born-again experience. In Don't Call Me Brother, Austin Miles shows us what triggers the conversion and grips the converted with such unswaying conviction. The rejection Miles felt growing up was assuaged some-what when he became a clown in the circus; but the prominence and acceptance he found in show business were nothing compared with what he later discovered in the appar-ently sincere fellowship of "God's people." Ignoring the blatant hypocrisy of his "brothers and sisters in the Lord" and the growing estrangement of his beloved wife, Rose Marie, Miles became ever more in-volved in Pentecostalism, and was on the inside as the PTL scandal unfolded. He managed to rationalize away the "sexual perversion rampant among the ministers," the shady financial dealings, and the lust for power he saw all around him; in the process he lost his wife, his daughter, his life savings, and his health. This eminently readable and fast-paced personal account of a bewilder-ingly paradoxical world gives us a fasci-nating glimpse into the manipulated mind of the fundamentalist Christian. (M. B.G.)

John Cardinal O'Connor: At the Storm Center of a Changing American Catholic Church, by Nat Hentoff. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1988. 290 pages. $19.95 cloth. Nat Hentoff, the noted jazz writer, social critic, and columnist for The Village Voice, is an unlikely chronicler of the life of New York City's Roman Catholic Cardinal John J. O'Connor. As he states early in this entertaining and informative biography, "When I first interviewed Cardinal O'Con-nor, I made a point of telling him that I am a member of the Proud and Ancient Order of Stiff-Necked Jewish Atheists." Still, Hentoff was willing to limber up his neck enough to write a fair, balanced examination of the influence that the cardinal has had on the life of New York. He details O'Con-nor's often controversial forays into politics, including his clashes with Mario Cuomo and Geraldine Ferraro over the issue of Catholics and abortion, and his 1986 visit to Lebanon, during which he called for a homeland for the Palestinians. The O'Connor who emerges is a strong-willed yet charming figure. All those with an interest in the state of the American Catholic church owe it to them-selves to read this well-written, fair-minded biography. Hentoff quotes the late author Flannery O'Connor (no relation) as saying "A Catholic has to have nerves to write about Catholics," then puckishly adds "A non-Catholic, and indeed a Jewish atheist, has to muster considerable chutzpah to write not only about Catholics but also about the `Cardinal of the Capital of the World.' " Lack of nerves has never been a Hentoff trait. (TM.)

Monkey on a Stick, by John Hubner and Lindsey Gruson. Harcourt Brace Jovano-vich, New York, 1988. 414 pages, $19.95 cloth. The Hare Krishna movement came to the United States in 1965 and quickly gained thousands of shaven-headed, saffron-robed, chanting devotees who spread the message of Krishna consciousness, universal brother-hood, and personal salvation. This book provides a grim glimpse behind the scenes of this supposedly peaceful movement. In it, John Hubner and Lindsey Gruson (re-porters for the San Jose Mercury News and the New York Times, respectively) reveal the cult's dark side, which, they maintain, in-cludes several cases of child molestation, financial swindles, illegal drug sales, and even premeditated murder. According to

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