The previous post in this series is here.
The University of Notre Dame has announced that Pres. Barack Obama will be the principal speaker and will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree at the university’s commencement on Sunday, May 17. The invitation comes after the president has taken several official actions that directly oppose the Catholic Church’s most sacred teachings. National Review Online asked some of our experts on education and Catholicism for their comments.
At the link, an important discussion on what it can mean for Notre Dame to have invited President Obama to receive an honorary degree and deliver a commencement address, to students who will have been taught (we hope) that abortion is deeply immoral, and who will witness the honoring of a president who supports it.
What, exactly, would a president have to do to be found ineligible for such an honor by a putatively Christian institution? Apparently, supporting abortion in the most radical way possible is not enough.
Perhaps if he actually ate the babies after the abortions? An interesting question: is cannibalism a greater sin than aiding, abetting and encouraging unjust killing in the first place? I think not. After all, they’re already dead, right? It’s a shame to waste them. (And besides, for the pro-abortion crowd, they never did have human rights anyway, did they? I mean, being just lumps of tissue and everything. How immoral can it be to eat something that has no civil rights, anyway? Isn’t that the same as cattle ranching, or hunting and eating what you kill?)
So, I think we have conclusively demonstrated that even if Obama ate aborted babies, he would still get an honorary degree from Notre Dame, a Christian university, since abortion is a greater sin than cannibalism (if someone else did the killing), and promoting abortion did not disqualify him.
Ah, but if Obama was well known as an industrial polluter, shooter of wolves from helicopters, corporate raider/downsizer, Pentecostal snake handler, and believer in young-Earth Creationism, and had still managed to get elected, would Notre Dame have invited him to receive an honorary degree and address impressionable undergraduates ?
Probably not. Some sins really do matter.
The next post in this series is here.
April 1st, 2009 10:54 am
Did you mean to title this “A Moral Exemplar” or “A Molar Exemplar”?
April 1st, 2009 12:05 pm
National Dental Insurance is next, for sure. Of course, unlike abortion, that will require parental approval for minors.
April 1st, 2009 12:20 pm
In reference to your last paragraph, remember Ben Stein’s “Expelled”?
A young earth creationist will not only not be invited or honored, once
they are discovered they are ridiculed and destroyed.
April 1st, 2009 12:45 pm
After reading the President’s Letter in a recent issue of a prominent Christian University’s alumni magazine where Obama is celebrated for having his hand on a Bible as he was sworn into office, I think one could confidently predict that Notre Dame’s is only the first of many invitations to address ‘Christian University’ commencement exercises. Apparently, Obama is the first President to choose to keep the Bible closed for his swearing in ceremony. Other Presidents have chosen a particular passage of scripture with special meaning for them.
April 1st, 2009 3:21 pm
He couldn’t find the book of Second Opinions.
October 7th, 2009 7:17 pm
Of course, I am not sure how the leader of the most powerful military in the world could swear to both lead that military and completely follow the Prince of Peace at the same time. I wish he would have had the courage to not use the Bible at all.
August 24th, 2015 6:59 pm
You are right. At this point, discovery that Planned Parenthood is selling baby parts (instead of eating them) is happening. Obama and other Leftist Dems aren’t eating the babies, but they are reaping donations from the organization that they are publicly defending. With all the self-righteousness of Judas criticizing the woman for wasting expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet, they are defending Planned Parenthood and attacking the film makers. Will those film makers be invited to speak at Notre Dame?
August 29th, 2015 10:44 am
David, the film makers exposing Planned Parenthood are about as likely to be invited to speak at Notre Dame as the head of Judicial Watch is to receive an honorary doctorate from Notre Dame for demanding government transparency.