More MPSIMS perhaps, but since it’s live and since it will get a lot of watch over the next few days it’ll end up here.
Since the speech is ongoing as of this writing I’ll just say “Damn”. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud to have voted for Obama. This takes guts and is symbolically a master stroke, and some of the protest cries couldn’t be better timed when he talks about dialogue and working together. And he’s speaking specifically to the issues that caused the protests.
More later.
He actually just gave a shout out to atheists as potentially ethical people (the Ethic of Reciprocity- well, he said Golden Rule, but then he is on camera).
No applause for “55th anniversary of Brown vs. Topeka Bd. of Education”?
Father Hesburgh is 92 for those wondering.
Another fine speech. I’m proud of this President.
The transcript mentions humanists, Sampiro.
I like how the audience shouted down the heckler. I think the guy was yelling “abortion is murder”. The audience began to boo (at the interruption, I suppose) and then chant. I could not tell what they were chanting but think it may have been “Yes we can.”
The line about the conscience clause will piss some liberals off. I wonder how he defines “sensible.”
Incidentally, my only position on this whole mess is that inviting President Obama to speak at the university wouldn’t have been an issue - but having him speak at commencement and giving him the honorary doctorate is. While I don’t think the world turns on this - especially as a Pitt fan, I am Catholic and I appreciate the unique role Catholic universities have played in our history and culture.
Messing with this distinction seems unwise - I think these universities should fully engage the world, but on Catholic terms. Otherwise, what’s the point - Notre Dame keeping Touchdown Jesus and shedding all other aspects of Catholicism? That isn’t what it was built for.
Can you really fully engage if it is done only on your terms?
I suspect the hardcore liberals won’t like this speech along with the hardcore conservatives. Obama did not criticize the pro-life movement at all. He did not try to argue the liberal side of the issue. He basically said that we should focus more on the things we can agree on (lower teen pregnancies) and nothing about making changes on abortion law.
So he’s just keeping the status quo and telling everyone to chill out about it. I don’t think people will chill out.
If anything good will come from this speech is that religious moderates might deflect from the Republican party. Obama did not come across as a liberal who demonizes religion and has shown that he has respect for religious views. That will certainly help win over moderates who don’t like the religious extremism of the GOP.
Is there a link to the video or transcript yet?
Why? Should universities only honor politicians with whom they wholly agree? Heck, the Church is officially against the death penalty, yet George Bush received an honorary degree when he spoke there in 2001 (or around then).
I’m happy you enjoyed voting for the third term of George Bush just so you can say you voted for a black man.
So…your thoughts on Notre Dame inviting George W. Bush, he who never saw an execution authorization he wouldn’t sign? The Church is quite definitely anti-death-penalty. All part of their consistent pro-life philosophy. Didn’t hear a peep from American Catholics when they invited HIM…
Paraphrasing from my husband, a Notre Dame grad (class of '88), “Notre Dame has always been about debate, conversation, and the free-flow of ideas. It’s never been a one sided shill of the Church. Why should that change now?”
(My cynical response: “Because nowadays it isn’t enough to respectfully disagree, you have to hate and defame the other guy to show you’re really sure that you disagree.”)
Having a commencement speaker who is not a Catholic, even one who disagrees with Catholic doctrine, is absolutely in line with the Notre Dame he went to, and he’s damn proud of them for sticking to their guns and sticking with Obama.
Who are you talking to, and why?
Let it starve.
Did you bother reading the OP?
Gah sorry, '92. And you know what happened when Bush spoke as his commencement, as someone my husband disagreed with religiously and politically? They wore black armbands. That’s it, aside from some vigorous, uh, discourse, that stayed fairly privately within the bounds of Notre Dame.
Not as consistent as you think there - the Church believes that the death penalty is an outdated relic but it does not explicitly ban the practice. See Catechism paragraph 2267.
The teaching as regards abortion is far more absolute.
As I said, not that big a deal to me - these universities should debate all sides. But commencement and the honorary doctorate are different than the normal campus speech, and if we aren’t going to treat the decision to grant the honorary degree seriously then maybe we should ditch it altogether - it doesn’t serve much purpose anyway.
So what? It condemns both strongly.
I don’t think there is a substantive difference as far as debate goes.
[quote=Mr. Moto]
and if we aren’t going to treat the decision to grant the honorary degree seriously then maybe we should ditch it altogether - it doesn’t serve much purpose anyway.[/QUOTE
Obviously this decision is taken very seriously. The controversy wasn’t just over him speaking.
It’s like “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.” All the words are in English and in correct grammatical order, but in combination convey no semantic meaning.
:eek: I can’t believe the Catechism even has that many paragraphs! What’s Latin for, “Enough already!”?