“Social justice” Catholicism hits bottom

by Laura Hollis
http://www.townhall.com/
March 26, 2009

I have been plenty ashamed of my alma mater in recent years. Allowing performances of the artistically meritless and gratuitously vulgar play, “The Vagina Monologues” on a campus named for the woman whose body Catholics believe bore the Son of God was a new low.

But now the University of Notre Dame has sunk even lower, by inviting President Barack Obama to give the commencement address at this year’s graduation ceremonies in May, conferring upon him a doctor of laws honoris causa.

Obama’s enthusiasm for the deliberate destruction of human life is well-known by now. He does not merely tolerate it; he has consistently used his political power to advance it. And to advance the careers of others who support it.

For the benefit of the pro-Obama Catholics out there, let’s review, shall we?

When in the state legislature in Illinois, Obama voted against the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act,” proposed legislation which would have required medical assistance for babies who survived botched abortions. His reasoning, as always, was specious and false. Obama protested that Illinois already “had a law on the books” that provided for medical assistance to children surviving abortions, and so BAIPA was unnecessary. This lie was particularly heinous, since the law had been introduced in the Illinois State Legislature as a result of the botched abortions at Christ Hospital in Chicago. Nurse and pro-life activist Jill Stanek brought these despicable practices to the Illinois legislature’s - and the public’s - attention. The outcry against this infanticide was immediate, and the support for the BAIPA was strongly bipartisan. Except for Barack Obama.

When running for President, Obama promised Planned Parenthood that his first act as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, an abysmal piece of proposed legislation that would destroy virtually every shred of legal protection states have enacted, including parental notification for minors, licensing requirements for physicians, health and safety regulations for facilities, and informed consent laws.

Shortly after being elected President, Obama named Ellen Moran as White House Communications Director. Moran’s earlier position was Executive Director of EMILY’s List, an advocacy group for pro-choice female political candidates.

Three days after his inauguration, President Obama signed an Executive Order reversing the “Mexico City Policy,” authorizing the expenditure of federal funds for organizations overseas that provide abortions.

Earlier this month, Obama nominated pro-choice Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius for Secretary of Health and Human Service. Despite being Catholic, Sebelius has provided support and political cover to notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller (now on trial).

Obama also nominated Dawn Johnson to be head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel; she who equates unplanned pregnancy with “involuntary servitude.”

The White House also announced a move to eliminate the Bush administration’s “conscience rules,” protecting health care providers who do not wish to participate in abortions or refer patients to abortion providers.

Most recently, Obama signed another executive order, this one authorizing federal funding for embryonic stem cell research – a move which even unreligious observers like Charles Krauthammer characterized as an “outrage.”

What part of this don’t Catholics get? Do they think it’s all a series of wild coincidences? What about the fact that it’s just about all Obama has done? In the two months since Obama was inaugurated, we have watched him bumble and fumble every possible way on the economy – which was, allegedly, what he was elected to “change.” And he has been equally hapless in matters of international diplomacy. But when it comes to human life, he has been chillingly consistent and tragically effective.

My brother (also a graduate) wrote a letter voicing his objection to Notre Dame Alumni Association Executive Director Chuck Lennon. In response, Mr. Lennon said, “The invitation to President Obama to be the Commencement speaker shouldn’t be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions that contradict the teachings of the Catholic Church. Rather, the University has invited the President to campus for what he’s done for racial equality, and for his stands on poverty, immigration, education, infectious disease, and seeking peace.”
This is predictable. But as with all of Obama’s religious posturing, it is false.

"Racial equality"? Obama was a 20-year member of a race-baiting, white-hating, Marxist, black supremacist church. His economic policies are grounded firmly in class envy and racial division. And that is in the New Testament where?

As for poverty, all decent persons would love to eliminate it. But most of us are not willing to dismantle the entire free-market economic system in order to achieve the equality of misery. Yet those whose writings inspired Obama, do, and say so. More coincidence? Furthermore, morally serious people can and do question the efficacy – not to mention the morality – of subsidizing the very bad choices that create and perpetuate poverty in this country. Where is Obama’s moral courage there?

Obama’s attitude about immigration? That those who defy and disobey our laws should be allowed to stay in the country, and those who have abided by the laws can take a flying leap. Why? Because Obama knows that many of the illegal immigrants will vote for the candidate who promises the most government-provided goodies. [Here's a question for you: name ONE other country that someone can illegally walk into, expect to live in, and demand health care, education and housing - for free. (Michael Moore in Cuba doesn’t count) Here's the answer: NONE.]

Education? How about cancelling the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Fund? So HIS children can attend Sidwell Friends, because he's rich, but the two children in Sasha and Malia's class who are there on the Opportunity Scholarship will be forced back into D.C.'s failing public schools. And why? Because Obama is in bed with the teacher's unions. Oh, yes - he's wonderful on education.

Infectious disease. Hmmm. Would this be among the things for which we can find cures by destroying tiny human beings? If so, then that's ok, right?

And as for "seeking peace," that must mean Obama’s obsequious outreach to oppressive regimes, and provision of nearly a billion dollars for a terrorist organization whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel. A reminder for the Catholic Obamaniacs out there: Christ was a JEW. His Mother was a JEW. His earthly father was a JEW. His apostles were JEWS, as were most of his earliest followers. When did "seeking peace" mean sucking up to those who want to destroy not only the Chosen People, but the rest of us infidels?

And none of this even addresses his economic “policies,” which consist of oppressive and confiscatory taxation, irresponsible borrowing, unsustainable spending, calls for the nationalization of banks and other financial institutions, unconstitutional ex post facto laws and bills of attainder.

Obama gets away with this, in part, because he couches his views in religious platitudes. This effrontery should make his violation of Christian beliefs and American principles all the more offensive. Instead, lefty religious types embrace his WORDS and ignore the DEEDS (Matthew 7:15-23, anyone?), and in so doing provide exactly the kind of cover and sanction that he desperately needs to prop him up while he undermines our political, economic and religious liberties. Notre Dame is doing precisely this by awarding Obama an honorary doctorate.

That a Catholic (and some say, the premier Catholic) university would overlook Obama’s appalling record on human life, disregard the inconsistencies in his positions, and bestow an honor of this magnitude upon him is more than disturbing. It is a travesty. It is a lie. And it is the culmination of the lies that Catholics commit and endorse when they hide behind the leftist rubric of “social justice,” which is nothing more than a pious euphemism for wealth confiscation and redistribution. There is nothing religious about it (indeed, some religious writers point to the 10th Commandment as proof). But anti-life, and anti-American activists and politicians like Obama have been using “social justice” for decades to deceive decent, unsuspecting, well-meaning Catholics (and others) into supporting policies and organizations that undermine everything they stand for. Saul Alinsky was quite straightforward about the need to use established organizations like the Catholic Church to convey respectability. So it should not come as any surprise that Obama uses the same tactics. It is surprising, however, that after 40-plus years of this deception, any Catholics still fall for it.

This kind of ignorant complicity might be excusable in an uninformed, uneducated individual. But Notre Dame has no excuse.