President Obama has agreed to serve as commencement speaker at Notre Dame's graduation in the Spring, where he will also receive an honorary degree (as is customary). The President's notable support of abortion rights has caused quite an uproar, with many in the Catholic community calling for Notre Dame to rescind its invitation.
President Obama is quite clearly pro-abortion, and that places him squarely on the other side of the question from the teaching of the Catholic Church. Notre Dame is ostensibly a Catholic University, and many see his speaking at graduation as a ceremonial "thumbing of the nose" at the church's pro-life teachings.
I disagree. While Notre Dame is a Catholic University, it is also an American University...and as such, it is a place where freedom of speech should be particularly well-protected (although conservatives on modern campuses sometimes don't receive this benefit). Mr. Obama is the freely elected leader of this nation, and while his views on abortion are inconsistent with the church's teachings, his obvious concern for social justice and human rights place him squarely in the mainstream of modern, liberal Catholic theology.
It is an honor for any University to have the President deliver the commencement address, even one with whom many might disagree.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
As a Notre Dame undergrad alum and a conservative, I agree. I doubt that anybody is seriously in danger of interpreting this move as some sort of endorsement of the President's views on abortion. Further, I think that if a conservative president spoke at a liberal university and the liberal bloggers reacted so strenuously to the president's views on abortion, conservatives would rightly criticize the insistence on shutting out an obviously good man with a different point of view.
I like Notre Dame as much as I like Barack Obama.
This is no different than having pro-choice Democrats featured at the Dioceses of New York's Al Smith dinner. The church constantly pounds away that "abortion is murder", yet they allow an accomplice to murder as a featured speaker?
I don't get it.
who cares?
"...modern, liberal Catholic theology."
Frankly, it's just Catholic theology. If it needs further characterization, it might not pass for Catholicism.
This happens on both "right" (are there really any?) and "left" universities all of the time (90% on the left)...
I love how institutions of higher learning who espouse the love of diversity in thought and body, yet clearly do not demonstrate such when it comes to invited guests, commencement speakers, etc...
So it would have been okay for Hitler to speak and receive an honorary degree from the University of Frankfurt because, well, he just had different views on the Jewish question? Give me a break guys...Obama is the most abortion minded president we have ever had and Notre Dame is a Catholic university. Argue and discuss all you want in poli sci class, but to let someone with such despicable views on human life speak at commencement is to honor him and the man deserves no such thing. And, frankly, any man who would vote against a bill protecting the lives of children who survive an abortion (as Obama did 3 times) cannot possibly truly understand "social justice and human rights." He is the classic liberal whose version of compassion "leads to the gas chambers". In reality, Notre Dame can hardly call itself a catholic university at this point, so if the issue of Obama speaking there is irrelevant this is the only reason why. But if ND is truly Catholic then it does matter. This is not simply a matter of "opinion", this is an issue of one's fundamental view of the worth and dignity of all human beings. Obama clearly falls into the camp of those who think that man can decide which human lives have value and which don't and which deserve protection and which don't - just like every other totalitarian dictator and mass murderer before him. Many of them seemed reasonable until they started plastering their picture at every bus stop and bare wall in the country and sending citizens to the gulag.
Post a Comment