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Obama at BC: Why?
By adamg on Tue, 09/20/2005 - 11:40pm
Domenico wonders why Boston College, which is a Catholic institution, let pro-choice Senator Barack Obama address freshmen the other day.
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Comments
duh...
Because if it wants to be considered a world-class college, it has to allow debate, it has to encourage discussion of many ideas. This includes the repressive, backwards, ideas of the traditional Catholic Church, as well as more modern, rational positions taken by people whose entire moral calculus wasn't laid out in the Dark Ages.
Gosh, did my answer betray my own inclinations? I hope not. I try so hard to be neutral.
Obama at BC: Why?
Why? So the students could hear both sides of the story...
Because that's what a university is for?
(what else is there to say?)
Bigotry
Ah the UniversalHub echo chamber where all the voices reflect each other. Do you realize what bigots you all sound like?
Once again, bloviating commenters type before reading. If you'd read what I wrote you'd see that the Church has rules that people who advocate the murder of innocents should not be given honors, awards, or platforms to speak.
But then I suppose you think Jewish universities should allow anti-Semites to speak to allow both sides of the issue be heard. And that black colleges should allow members of the Klan to speak their bile from their stages. Maybe the high school for gay teens in New York should allow the fundamentalist wacko from Kansas, Fred Phelps, to speak there too.
Or are you imposing a double standard?
The Catholic Church has the right to hold its institutions to a particular standard, whether you agree with that standard or not.
You Miss the Point
If Boston College wants to become the Catholic equivalent of Liberty University, then it should ban away. However, if it wants to be regarded as a top-rank educational institution, it should allow diversity of opinion.
Being pro-choice is not equivalent to being anti-Semitic. Pro-choicers don't by definition hate Catholics.
Should Yeshiva University let Louis Farrakhan speak? No, but neither should Boston College. Should Howard University let David Duke speak? No, but neither should Boston College.
The difference? Farrakhan and Duke represent and profess hatred, racism, and bigotry. No one should give them a forum. Obama, by contrast, has views on an important social issue and is willing to discuss them with others. He is not condemning a class of people.
Yes, the Church can do what it wants with its institutions. But it would be a shame if your medieval views held sway and turned Boston College into an Opus Dei training camp.
isn't BC independently chartered?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Boston College an independently chartered non-profit educational institution, not owned or controlled in any way by the Archdiocese? Just as Brandeis is Jewish, but not formally affiliated with any other Jewish institution?
When the Archdiocese got into financial trouble because of the misdeeds of some of its not-so-celibate priests, it sold some of its real estate to Boston College. That indicates to me that the institutions are separate from each other, each having their own decision-making processes.
Senator Obama came to BC to
Senator Obama came to BC to talk not about abortion, but about social justice. The Church I grew up in used to care about that. He did not use the podium to convince anyone to become pro-choice or to demonize those who are pro-life. He talked about the problems of poverty and the lack of empathy. That is a very important message, and BC would have been poorer itself if it denied students to hear it because of the Senator's views on another topic.
Why is it so impossible these days to find common ground?
It's not hard to find common ground
I think it's actually pretty easy to find common ground.
Unless, of course, you're a religious extremist.
Then it's impossible.