Hi, Bret,
First let me welcome you as a convert - and then applaud your action and interest by joining the KofC! I must confess, however, that I found your positions a bit puzzeling as a Catholic - at least for me. Let me go over them and tell you where I was having a problem.
I support bringing Obama to Notre Dame University (I do not support him getting an honorary degree).
What is the basis for being in agreement for President Obama to be the commencement speaker - but, in disagreement with him receiving an honorary doctorate of law degree? Both actions are clearly condemned by the US Catholic Bishops. Please understand, this was not an open debate where the President was being invited to publicly defend his positions on not only pro-abortion - but, as an IL Senator, on infantacide (the murdering of a living infant that somehow escaped the death in the womb planned for it!) Make no mistake about it, President Obama has a truly unique view of when life is to be protected.
He is strongly pro-choice, and who knows what he might say. However, I think it is important to note that he is the president, and while he is wrong in his beliefs he still deserves respect and love. We are called to love everyone, including Barack Obama.
I realize this is not Politically Correct - but, I think ‘Pro-Choice’ is simply part of the abortion industry’s spin through its marketing department. If it were really ‘Pro-Choice’ then they would be having some wanted births actually taking place - these guys need to accurately identified by their simple intended outcome ; they are ‘Pro-Death’. Actually, this part about not knowing what this President would say is really quite wrong - only because this President is so predictable. This is a very intelligent man - but, honestly, did you really think he would say something that would be worse then endorsing the murdering of those who survived their own botched abortion? Do you think he would betray one of his core support groups? What else is left? When to blow away his smoke screen, we find that he honestly recognizes that there is no ‘middle ground’ between life and death - his position, however, is to dismiss those who favor life as extreem and un-compromising. Not much dialogue there.
My third concern is…
However, I think it is important to note that he is the president, and while he is wrong in his beliefs he still deserves respect and love. We are called to love everyone, including Barack Obama. Again, I am not an Obama Catholic, my facebook notes that attack his policies prove that, and I am definatly pro-life (a true pro-lifer, meaning I am against capital punishment and abortion).
This issue is not to hate the President, or in any way not love him as we are called to do as Christians. What we are called to do is NOT ENDORSE his policies that there is no unborn life that can not be snuffed out, that there is no place for someone from abstaing from sex until they are married and that even if born - there is no right to you not being snuffed out if your Mother wanted it that way, but the doctor failed in his effort to murder her child. President Obama’s positions in these matter were endorsed by ND University when they called him out to give the commencement address. The President’s por-death policies were further endorsed when this so-called Catholic University defied the US Catholic Bishops and awarded him an honorary degree - in law of all things!
And finally…
The point is that both sides have their valid arguments. Obama, who has beliefs that are opposite of the Roman Catholic Church, spoke at a Catholic university’s graduation ceremony. On the other side, too, is the fact that he is a great man (in the sense of his position in society). I think that when Fr. Jenkins invited Pres. Obama, he invited him not because of the president’s beliefs, but because of who the man is. When people got upset over Obama coming to the university it was because they were upset with the man’s beliefs.
If you honestly think that President Obama has a valid argument about the inconvenient life being a life that can be snuffed out, then in my opinion you have stepped outside of the formal teachings of the Catholic Church. Honest: not everyone who takes the opposite point of view has a valid point of view. There are those who say that God exists - does it make sense to say that someone else has a valid point of view that there is no God? If someone stated that, “The building is on fire!” would it be a valid point of view to say, “No, the building is not on fire!” Either life is the most important item that Christ addressed to His followers, or Christ did not understand what life is all about. The only thing that can be said about those who take an opposite opinion is that this is where they want to be - it does not mean that they are right, have a valid point, or even believe it themselves.
Not to be too outrageous, but I am think that there were people in the early days of Nazi Germany who thought that Hitler was a great man who had risen by his own efforts to lead Germany out of the oppressive shackles of WW I punishments by the victors. If we just concentrate on these qualities of character, we come to the realization that this is simply not enogh if we are going to thoroughly understand this man and his impact on history.
God bless.
