{"id":835,"date":"2009-05-15T09:39:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T16:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/15\/conflicted-christians\/"},"modified":"2009-05-14T21:37:53","modified_gmt":"2009-05-15T04:37:53","slug":"conflicted-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/15\/conflicted-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Conflicted Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"

As previously observed<\/a>, President Obama will receive an honorary doctorate from Notre Dame in a few days, and address a commencement exercise. And although there is a considerable amount of Outrage Over Obama Speaking at Notre Dame<\/a>, the plain fact is that 53% of Catholics voted for him, in direct contravention of their bishops’ advice and admonition.<\/p>\n

One graduating senior, Matt Degnan, is selling T-shirts he designed that say “Obama? Fine By Me.” When I asked him whether the shirts represented enthusiastic support of the president or merely tacit ambivalence, he simply responded, “I think that the shirts speak for themselves.”<\/p>\n

But he told the paper that faculty members have been the most frequent buyers, which comes as no surprise to anyone who’s ever met a college professor.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Catholics themselves helped put Obama in office, after voting for him 53 percent. Obama secured the largest advantage among Catholics for a Democrat since Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n

So although I’m empathetic toward the outrage, and a Catholic school honoring a pro-choice activist like Obama is nothing short of outrageous, the numbers tell a different picture. The state of Indiana, St. Joseph’s County, South Bend, and the University of Notre Dame all supported candidate Obama, with alacrity, as did Catholic America.<\/p>\n

Right-to-life issues are important, but this supposed scandal is muddied by the inconvenient underlying facts: Obama has huge support here, and some of the groups that are railing against his visit are the very groups that helped put him in office, in a position to then be invited.<\/p>\n

But voting him into office was apparently one thing, and allowing him to speak at a college commencement, another. Catholics should get their message straight if they want to regain the kind of influence that makes them a credible voice of reason, compassion, clarity, and morality. Right now they just seem tongue-tied.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Christians should not be tongue tied. \u00a0 Ever. \u00a0 They should be willing to speak out on straight-up moral issues, especially those involving life and death of the most innocent.\u00a0 Shame on us.\u00a0 And count me as one evangelical who feels more in common with the other 47% of Roman Catholics<\/a> than with all too many protestants.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, here’s a protestant to admire, for his conviction, and his willingness to tell simple, unobstructed, unconflicted truth:<\/p>\n

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