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tv   Religion Ethics Newsweekly  PBS  August 7, 2011 10:00am-10:30am PDT

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coming up -- the taxes we pay, are they fair and effective? >> it's a matter of sharing the burdens of a free society and a good society. that's morally speaking, what taxes are about. and the king james version of the bible. it's 400 years of influence on language, culture and faith. >> it's the edition of the book. >> major funding is provided by the lily endowment, an indianapolis based private family foundation dedicated to his founders interest in relign, community develop and
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education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america, customizing group and retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. the estate of william j. carter and the corporation for public broadcasting. welcome. i'm kim lawton, sitting in for bob abernethy. thank you for joining us. this week, the world's more than 1 billion muslims began observing their holy month of ramadan. during the month, muslims are expected to fast every day from dawn to sunset and to offer special prayers and give to the poor. they break their fast with the traditional iftar meal. a new survey out this week says american muslims are very optimistic about their lives in the us. and, according to the gallup organization's middle east center, american muslims' perceptions of their overall well-being increased more in the past three years than those of any other religious group. but circumstances are not as optimistic for muslims in several other parts of the world. there was an international
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outcry about syria's intensified crackdown this week against anti-government protestors. the u.n. security council condemned what is being called "the ramadan massacre." the u.s.-based muslim public affairs council called on international leaders, especially those in the arab world, to do more to help civilians there. the group said the syrian government is violating the sanctity of ramadan by quote "shedding the blood of its people who seek the basic rights of freedom and democracy." muslims in east africa say there is little, if any food, to break their ramadan fast. the situation is especially dire in somalia, where the relief group oxfam said the famine crisis is "spiraling out of control." according to usaid, more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 have died in somalia. humanitarian groups say donations are not keeping pace with the severe food needs across the horn of africa.
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in this country, protestant and catholic leaders in alabama filed a federal lawsuit to stop enforcement of a tough new immigration law scheduled to go into effect next month. the leaders said the law could hinder their ability to exercise their religious beliefs. many alabama churches work actively in immigrant communities. they say the law would put them in the untenable position of having to verify individuals' immigration status before providing social services. the u.s. justice department has also challenged the law. here in washington, this week's debt limit compromise may have averted a government default, but many in the religious community are disappointed by its provisis. a broad interfaith coalition said the spending cuts will hurt the poor while protecting the rich. the coalition promised to continue its lobbying efforts as the special congressional committee debates more deficit reduction measures. meanwhile, a new group called christians for a sustainable economy said the president and
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congress have a moral obligation to take even stronger steps to erase the debt. they said the poor would be best helped by getting the economy back on track. this week's budget deal did not raise taxes. buincreases will be on the table in the days ahead. what is a just tax system? how should the government raise revenue to provide the basic services our society needs? and how should the tax burden be shared? tim o'brien reports. >> reporter: there are some things the government must do, and the first reason for tax is to pay for them. beyond that there is wide debate over how taxes can be efficient and fair and what kind of society they should promote. >> people on the left think that the tax code is not nearly redistributive enough, that the rich are really getting away with murder. people on the right think that it's not the job of government to be redistributing income and that the tax code we have is too progressive. >> reporter: greg mankiw was chairman of the council of
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economic advisers in the second bush administration. >> it's a difference of values, of what you think government should be, in coming to any sort of tax reform. those different values are going to collide, and there's no easy way to sort of reconcile these very different philosophical positions about what the scope of government should be. >> how should income and wealth and opportunities and the good things of life be be distributed? >> reporter: the collision of the competing views of the role of government is the gist for a very popular course at harvard taught by michael sandel, a professor and political philosopher. >> the main purpose of a tax system is to raise revenue for the common good, for the public good. that's its purpose. but it has to do so in a way that is fair, that involves shared sacrifice, because really it's a matter of sharing the burdens of a free society and a good society. that's, morally speaking, what taxes are about. so unless a tax system meets the
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test of fairness, none of its other advantages really matter. >> reporter: for peter wehner, a former deputy assistant to president george w. bush, the issue is freedom. >> this country was founded on liberty. it wasn't founded on income equality. and there is a certain view, which i subscribe to, which says that people ought to be able to keep much or most of what they earn and to have the government in the business of taking it and deciding how it, the government, will spend it rather than you as an individual i think is flawed, and i think it's contrary to much of the american tradition, and i happen not to think that's consistent with ethical or moral or religious traditions as we. >> reporter: but according to michael sandel, fairness -- "sharing the burdens of a free and good society" -- may compel a significant redistribution of wealth. >> some people do work harder
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than others, but what's reflected in the vast income inequalities that we've seen in recent years is not hard work primarily. school teachers work hard, bus drivers work hard, kindergarten teachers, daycare workers, they work hard. do they work less hard than hedge fund managers and wall street bankers who reap hundreds and thousands of times what they do in the market economy? most of the wage differences, most of the income differences have very little to do with differences in effort. most of them have to do with supply and demand and with the qualities that our society happens to value, and a lot of this is no doing of the people who are lucky enough to have those talents and those abilities to wind up on top.
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and if that's true, then it seems to me there is an obligation for those who are affluent, those who succeed under this system, to share their bounty with those who through no fault of their own are less well off. >> reporter: in alabama, which has its share of "less well-off," families falling below the poverty level still pay income taxes and a hefty 9% tax on groceries, while many wealthy property owners pay next to nothing in property taxes. schools suffer, and some families find it even harder, because of taxes, to even put food on the table. the alabama legislature is composed of almost all christians. to one critic the state's tax system stand the christian principles on its head. >> the moral principles of judeo-christian ethics demand that our taxes raise a level of revenue embracing the reasonable
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opportunity of all and that the burden be allocated in a moderately progressive way. >> reporter: susan hamill is seminary trained, a united methodist, a tax attorney, and a law professor at the university of alabama, and she's made a name for herself crusading for tax reform in alabama based on judeo-christian ethics, the bible. >> the bible, first and foremost, absolutely forbids oppression -- this is where i got started with this -- forbids oppression. what is oppression? oppression is taking a person who's already down, who is struggling, who is vulnerable and making their situation worse, actively doing so. >> reporter: the idea that those who write our tax laws should be in any way guided by religious beliefs has been greeted with a degree of skepticism by some leading economists, like greg mankiw. >> i don't think one can go straight from any sort of religious view to what an optimal tax system looks like,
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but in terms of fairness and what's the role for government, sure, i think all of our values come into play. >> reporter: there's no debate that tax laws should be fair, but how in a pluralistic society such as ours do we even define the word "fair"? and assuming we can define it, how far should the government go using tax dollars to promote fairness? >> the aim of tax policy is to generate economic growth. a rising tide lifts all boats. i don't think that, as a general proposition, using tax policy to create fairness or equality works. to take money from the rich, money that they have earned because they have worked hard, is not by itself just, and again, if you take money from the rich beyond a certain point you're going to create disincentives for wealth creators, and that's going to have a huge effect on the poor as well. >> reporter: one remedy
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championed by steve forbes in his run for the presidencyn 1996 is a flat tax -- 17% across the board, scrapping the current complicated and loophole-laden irs code. the flat tax may have antecedents in the religious tradition of tithing, where each person gives the same percentage regardless of income. >> well, i think a flat tax would for sure be more efficient, and i think the strongest argument in favor of a flat tax is the efficiency. >> reporter: many economists, like harvard's greg mankiw, say the government should rely less on taxing income and more on a value-added tax on consumer goods, a form of flat tax found in much of europe. >> a consumption tax rather than an income tax. it doesn't tax savings. if i earn money and put it in the bank it doesn't get taxed until i take it out and spend it on something i buy.
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consumption is you're enjoying and also saving is a part of economic growth. if we exempt saving until later consumed it will promote economic growth. there's a strong case to be made for using consumption for the basis of consun shom. >> reporter: if, however, sacrifices are to be shared equally, some adjustment would have to be made for those who have little money at all and are hard pressed to cover even the most basic necessities. our tax code may be the best measure of what kind of a people we are and what kind of a country we have created. the late harvard philosopher john rawls defined a just society as one you would want to live in, even if you did not know in advance what your place in it would be -- whether you'd be rich or poor, male or female, or what your race or i.q. would be. in his course at harvard, professor sandel also questions whether a country committed to equal opportunity should allow the wealthy to pass on their vast fortunes to their children and grandchildren.
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>> if we believe that everyone should have an equal chance to work hard and aspire and succeed, then it's very difficult to justify that children of wealthy parents should have a huge advantage even before they start. the estate tax, quite apart from raising revenue, is a way a society says we want to give everyone equal opportunity as far as we can, and we don't want to give a huge advantage to people, to let them start way before everyone else simply because they had the good luck, or the good judgment, to be born to affluent parents. >> if your parents, upon dying, want to give their children the money rather than going to the government, that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do. is it fair to the children who
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by birth might get that money that it's taken from them and given to the government? i don't think that there is an ethical or moral imperative to do that. >> reporter: even if political philosophers and economists could agree on the fairest and most efficient method of taxation, that surely doesn't mean it will ever happen because of the power of special interests, such as homeowners. >> so why shod the tax code subsidize home ownership, which is eventually at the expense of renters? on the other hand, trying to get rid of that is very hard, because homeowners think they've become entitled to it, so there's no question that that's going to be a hard one to get rid of, but it's also the right thing to do. it's easy for me to talk about tax reform. i have tenure. the typical congressman has to get re-elected every two years, and that makes their set of constraints much more troublesome and difficult to navigate than mine. >> reporter: what the tax debate makes clear is just how divided the country is over how to deine the role of government and the values it should promote. for "religion and ethics newsweekly," i'm tim o'brien in washington, d.c.
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this year marks the 400th anniversary of the first publication of the king james version of the bible, and there have been a host of special activities around the world marking the occasion. i looked at the kjv's profound influence on language, culture and faith. ♪ >> in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god. >> the lord is my shepherd, i shall not want. >> for i know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. >> reporter: the familiar rhythms and cadences have echoed over four centuries. and believers and nonbelievers alike say it's impossible to overstate the impact of the king james version of the bible. >> it is the edition of the
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book, essentially. more, more than any other book in the world, the bible has influenced us, but this is the edition of the bible that has influenced us the most. >> reporter: jon sweeney is author of a new book, verily, verily, which examines that influence. he says the king james version, the kjv, has been particularly important in american culture and history. >> it's the bible of the speeches of lincoln. it's the bible of, the bible of herman melville's "moby dick." it's the bible of the speeches of martin luther king. it's the basis of cultural identity in the united states more than any other book. >> reporter: sweeney's book is one of many being released for the kjv's 400th anniversary. all year long, groups around the world are organizing celebrations, from symposia and exhibitions to special projects online. based in nashville, tennessee, thomas nelson publishers is the leading commercial publisher of king james bibles. and they're still rolling off the presses.
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in this factory, workers add thumb indexes to help readers more easily find the various books of the bibl for the 400th anniversary, thomas nelson has released a special limited edition king jam bible. >> reporter: today, more copies of contemporary translations may be sold such as the new international version or niv. but the king james version is still near the top of the list. in just the last 12 months, thomas nelson sold more than a million copies of the kjv. the bible is the best-selling book in history and the king james version of the bible is the best-selling translation of all time. no one knows exactly how many king james bibles have been published ov the centuries, but experts say it's likely in the billions. >> the king james is the most printed book in the history of man. it is an amazing thing. >> reporter: the king james bible emerged out of a tumultuous religious period in english history. for nearly a millennium, the latin vulgate bible had been considered the only sacred text.
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as latin became less used, ordinary people couldn't understand what they heard when priests read the bible in church. there were calls for an english vernacular bible, but scholars who did the translations were branded heretics in 1401, the english parliament made it a crime punishable by death. enter william tyndale, a renegade 16th century scholar who made the first english translation from hebrew and greek texts. in 1536, even as king henry the eighth was separating from the roman catholic church, he had tyndale arrested and executed. but just a year later, it was henry who authorized the first legal english translation. baylor university professor scott carroll directs the green collection, one of the world's largest private collections of rare biblical texts and artifacts. he says 80% of tyndale's work ended up in the kjv. >> i think he's an unsung hero in the whole story.
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>> reporter: after henry xviii came a series of english bibles, all intertwined in the often bloody battles between catholics and protestants. when king james i came to the throne, he wanted a version of the bible that wasn't tied to a particular movement. he formed a translation committee of scholars. >> they were commissioned in 1604 to find the best translations out there and then match them up with the greek and hebrew and if they matched up, to take them. when you think about the king james, i think generally, people think about, they think it's a protestant commodity. but in fact, it really was a result, a culmination, of jewish, catholic, even greek orthodox scholarship that led to this publication. >> reporter: what has been called the "masterpiece by committee" was first published in 1611. and thanks to moveable type printing, the king james bible was widely distributed. >> the success of the king james bible is directly tied to the success of the introduction of
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the gutenberg printing press and advancements made beyond that, absolutely. >> reporter: it wasn't always a smooth process. >> 1631, the wicked bible, where a typesetter forgot to put the word "not" in, and it says, "thou shalt commit adultery." and the poor printer was fined. he had to pull all the books off the market, so he lost his investment in that and he ended up dying in debtor's prison. >> reporr: the king james bible caught on, and for the next three centuries, it was virtually the only bible used in the english-speaking world. ♪ its literary beauty inspired writers and artists, who incorporated the language into their work, from the most beloved classics to the world of pop culture. ♪ >> the king james bible is meant to be read aloud more than any other translation.
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and i believe that the translators themselves knew that. there were poets in those rooms in the jerusalem chamber in westminster abbey and they wanted, they wanted the bible to sing. for instance, first kings 19:12, "and after the earthquake a fire. but the lord was not in the fire. and after the fire a still small voice." >> reporter: the kjv has had a significant impact on spoken english as well. >> many of those phrases that we hear today everyday, over 350 that have been identified that are used in modern english came right out of the king james and most people don't have a clue that they're quoting the king james bible. the powers that be, a man after his own heart, signs of the times, eat, drink and be merry, the apple of his eye, can a leopard change his spots, am i my brother's keeper, seek and ye shall find, the lord is my shepherd, let my people go, and on and on and on.
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>> reporter: the kjv's poetic rhythms made it easy for people to remember. >> for i know the plans i have for you saith the lord. >> thy word have i hid in my heart that i might not sin against god. >> i lyndon be baines johnson do solemnly swear -- >> reporter: almost every american president has been sworn in with his hand on a king james bible. kjv language has been the source of some of the most important speeches in america's history, including lincoln's gettysburg address and martin luther king jr.'s most beloved remarks. >> i've seen the promised land. >> reporter: politicians to this day make king james references. >> that i am my brothers' keeper, i am my sister'seeper. >> reporter: for a long time, many christians considered the kjv the only version authorized by god himself. >> our lord jesus christ, the great shepherd of the sheep. >> with the advent of more modern translations, the number
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of "king james only" churches has decreased dramatically. but the kjv has never disappeared from regular use. >> there used to be, maybe 30, 40, 50 years ago, a single translation might be the preferred translation of choice for a church. i think those days are gone. where a pastor, if he's smart, will use multiple translations, the king james will likely be one of them. >> reporter: even congregations which may think they don't use the king james might be surprised to learn the language of the "lord's prayer" recited in most churches is indeed kjv. >> our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. >> reporter: recognition of the kjv's influence crosses theological lines. the vatican embassy in washington hosted a reception in honor of the 400th anniversary. guests got a first look at a traveling exhibition that will be on display in rome later this year. and at the christian science headquarters in boston, the mary baker eddy library also has a special kjv display.
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there, visitors can hand-copy verses from the king james bible in the same way monks and scholars copied scripture before the invention of the printing press. still, many modern christians say they find the kjv frustrating for personal use. the sometimes arcane words can be difficult to understand, and many trip over all the thees and thous. jon sweeney believes this is unfortunate. >> contemporary translations are good, they're great, they make the bible relevant, but at the same time i think it makes it kind of ordinary. so reading theible is kind of like reading a popular novel. >> reporter: sweeney says the kjv can bring a sense of wonder and majesty that is spiritually meaningful if people take the time to experience it. >> it's interesting to read a bible and have thees and thous, different ways that might actually change how you think about the god that you're praying to, about the god that you're reading about, about the activity of that god, because you're using language that feels more reverential.
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i find that it puts my heart in the right place. >> reporter: and, 400 years later, millions around the world still agree. i'm kim lawton reporting. finally, on our calendar, as we noted, muslims are observing the holy month of ramadan. also this coming week, jews mark the solemn holiday of tisha b'av. it is a day of fasting and lament for the destruction of the fit and second temples in jerusalem, and for other tragedies in jewish history. that's our program for now. i'm kim lawton. you can follow us on twitter and facebook, where i have a fan page too. find us on youtube, and watch us anytime, anywhere on srt phones and iphones. there's also much more on our web site. you can comment on all of our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, more from holy spirit catholic church in tuscaloosa, alabama.
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♪ >> major funding for religion and "newsweek"ly is provided by the lily endowment an indianapolis based private family foundation devoted to christian religion, education and community development. also provided by mutual of america designing customized group and individual retirement products. we're your retirement company. the estate of william j. carter and the corporation for public broadcasting.
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