Posted by
Rich from NW Indiana on Monday, May 18, 2009 4:11:00 AM
Some thoughts on this Obama at Notre Dame University thing. I'm not Catholic, but a Protestant that knows quite a bit about Catholicism. This mess may be more about how this university is run more then the circus that comes with B.O. The current trustees seem to have endorsed Obama coming to the graduation. Many are from Chicago and or at least run in the same circles as the Obama's (as in left wing elite world).
I would guess that all of these trustees aren't Catholic, or at least practicing Catholics. Its likely that choosing "outsiders" is the reason for the lack of Catholic identity at Notre Dame and other big Catholic universities nowadays. The idea of the powerful and elite running your school may seem like a good idea, but it leads to problems like this. They think little of Christian and Catholic ideas, and push hard at kicking them to the curb. Their vision is one just like a secular university where Christian voices are minimized.
Notre Dame may be better off with less "well known" (maybe known to the Catholic community) trustees that are practicing Catholics, then these well known people who aren't Catholic. If you aren't part of a community you aren't as likely to be committed to its core values. Or in some cases down right hostile to them.
However its not likely anymore since the current trustees aren't going to vote themselves out. I guess the religious order that owns the school will have to retake control of it somehow, likely using the court system to unseat the current trustees, so not a good choice either. It may be to the point where it isn't possible to regain control anymore.
Like the universities now known as the "ivy league schools", when the churches that founded them lost control of them. Most don't know that various Christian denominations once ran those now very anti-Christian like schools.
If someone wants a Catholic education today, a large "Catholic" university may not be that place anymore. It seems that you would have to go to a smaller or newer Catholic school to get that education today. Notre Dame really isn't a "Catholic" school anymore just like a "Ivy League" education isn't a Protestant Christian one anymore.
It seems that most universities creep left over time. That's likely why most schools have that nasty left wing bent nowadays. I guess part of that problem would be solved by not allowing these people to take over.
A few years ago, my brother graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The school is owned and operated by the Christian Reformed Church and is a mostly Christian school. His graduation speaker turned out to be President Bush. The few left wing types at Calvin were horrified, and tried to stop Bush from coming. However between Bush at Calvin vs. Obama at Notre Dame is not the same like many would think. Bush was compatible with the beliefs of the founders of Calvin unlike Obama who isn't compatible with the founders of Notre Dame.
The idea of showing both sides of a issues of life is nonsense. Notre Dame (or Calvin) has no responsibility to show the other side of an issue. Its not likely that secular university would show the pro-life side of an issue so why should a school promote something that most of its founders would find incompatible with the core values of the school? The other side promotes itself just fine, it doesn't need the support of the Christian school to show its ideas.
Calvin has been slowly moving to the left as well over the last couple of decades, like the rest of the CRC demomination as a whole. At one time you had to be a CRC member to work or be on the board at Calvin. Its been opened up a little to other denominations (which in itself not a bad thing) but will there be the day when non-Christians are on the board and teaching (not that there aren't professors that lean left already) at Calvin? If that happens will it follow the road of the ivy leagues and Notre Dame in losing its original identity? Or are we doomed to continue to have to create new schools to replace the ones that lost the way?
Time will tell.
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