Obama gives commencement speech

Grumpy · #1 05-18-2009, 08:17 AM

What are your thoughts on a pro life prez giving the commencement speech at a Catholic college ?

Grumpy

noonereal · #2 05-18-2009, 08:25 AM

His stance on one issue does not change the fact that he is the President of the United Sates.

I think there are to many one issue votes in the US, weather it be guns abortion, creationaism........

If ND choose to invite him, great.
If they chose not to, great.

OvenMaster · #3 05-18-2009, 09:47 AM

As a Catholic, I can say that all the pro-lifers that rant over this one single part of Obama's beliefs are forgetting the big picture. A person -- be they president or pauper -- is made up of far more than one belief. To obsess over just one facet of a president's set of beliefs is incredibly narrow-minded.

Grumpy · #4 05-18-2009, 11:32 AM

I was just curious if Catholics were easing up on this stance or is ND bucking their own faith.

OvenMaster · #5 05-18-2009, 12:33 PM

Heh. I buck mine quite often. I'll probably fry for it later

But there are a lot of hardline Catholics still out there. I'm just not one of 'em.
ND is the largest Catholic university in America, so it rather stands out as an example of being expected to follow all the Church's teachings. By extension, all Catholics are as well, even down to which candidate to vote for. So much for voting one's conscience... it's technically decided for the faithful already by higher-ups: we are not supposed to vote for pro-choice candidates.
Some of us respectfully thumb our noses at this and other doctrines, dogmas, and outright commands.

merrylander · #6 05-18-2009, 01:15 PM

Not being of that faith (I am the friendly neighborjood WASP) but being married to one we both reached the same conclusion and waved goodbye to organized religions. They all invariably wind up at the point where the 'organization' becomes more important than the faith. I think the Framers got it right.

Twodogs · #7 05-18-2009, 01:33 PM

Yeh, the Catholic religion still sees life beginning at conception, and abortion as the taking of an innocent life. There are a few politicians who have us believe otherwise (Pelosi comes to mind), but the Vatican is quite clear, and always has been. I don't (personally) think it's so much that Obama is pro choice, as much as the fact of "how" pro choice he is. His record is very clear on the subject. I think it was twice, or maybe three times that he voted against a bill that would have required medical attention be given to babies born as a result of "botched" abortions. That means if the baby survives the abortion, they can't do anything to help it, they just let it lay there and die. He said that rendering aid to the child, would go against the mother's primary decision to abort. I'm Catholic, but the abortion issue has never really been a huge tipping point in my voting, but man, letting a child lay on a table and die rather than helping it? That's too much for me, and I think his voting record on that bill (in the IL Senate), was what really had some of the Priests and others stirred up. My take on the whole ND mess is this; That day is for the kids who worked their butts off for 4 or more years to get there. If me speaking there was going to cause lots of those chairs to be empty, I would hope that I would have the understanding to gracefully bow out. I mean come on, they were arresting Priests for trespassing on the campus (while protesting). Giving him the honorary degree, was just salt in the wound. An interesting aside, is the money that ND will lose in donations, etc.. The last figure I heard yesterday evening was just over 8 mill.

Charles · #8 05-18-2009, 03:59 PM

Well, I didn't vote for him, and I would imagine that pro choice is about the only issue that we would agree on.

But let him have his say. Only fair to hear the other side, and they may have a point you've never considered.

Chas

Twodogs · #9 05-18-2009, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles

Well, I didn't vote for him, and I would imagine that pro choice is about the only issue that we would agree on.

But let him have his say. Only fair to hear the other side, and they may have a point you've never considered.

Chas

True enough

wajobu · #10 05-18-2009, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by merrylander

Not being of that faith (I am the friendly neighborjood WASP) but being married to one we both reached the same conclusion and waved goodbye to organized religions. They all invariably wind up at the point where the 'organization' becomes more important than the faith. I think the Framers got it right.

Sounds about right, to me.