Obama: “Be a lighthouse and a crossroads”?

posted at 8:28 am on May 18, 2009 by Pundette
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Yes, it sounds like nonsense, but this awkward metaphor is actually a call to keep faith in its place. But I’ll save that for the end.

First up, the usual pretense. This portion of the president’s Notre Dame commencement speech was vintage Obama:

What bothered the doctor was an entry that my campaign staff had posted on my Web site _ an entry that said I would fight “right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman’s right to choose.” The doctor said he had assumed I was a reasonable person, he supported my policy initiatives to help the poor and to lift up our educational system, but that if I truly believed that every pro-life individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then I was not very reasonable. He wrote, “I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words.” Fair-minded words.

After I read the doctor’s letter, I wrote back to him and I thanked him. And I didn’t change my underlying position, but I did tell my staff to change the words on my Web site.

I understand that this is supposed to be about resisting the temptation to demonize your opponents. But Obama’s actions are to consistently dehumanize human babies and try to disguise that by “changing the words.”

Next, the responses to Obama’s mesmerism. For many, rhetoric and appearance are enough:

“[He] presented a demeanor that contrasted with those who tried to paint him as a demonic, anti-life fanatic.”

“He has to reach out to them in a convincing way that shows he’s sensitive to the same issues they’re concerned about,” he said.

“Others might have avoided this venue for that reason,” Jenkins said. “But President Obama is not someone who stops talking with those who differ with him.”

Pleeze. Snap out of it, Father Jenkins. Your infatuation has overcome your rational faculties. President Obama does not listen to those who differ with him, and in fact has not engaged in the abortion debate at all. He’s just rammed through his anti-life policies to maximize abortions worldwide.

Next, the outright lies. Is there anyone out there who thinks these statements can be taken at face value?

So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions,

Well, he’s off to an awesome start on that one.

let’s reduce unintended pregnancies.

We know how liberals approach that one, with sex-ed for little ones and condoms for all.

Let’s make adoption more available. Let’s provide care and support for women who do carry their children to term.

But in reality, let’s not.

Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause,

What will sensible mean?

and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women.”

His approach to stem cell research has demonstrated that even he knows that ethics are above his pay grade.

Now the weird metaphor. Obama’s remarks about Cardinal Bernadin, “a lighthouse and a crossroads,” were fitting. Bernadin was another Catholic, like Fr. Jenkins, who undermined Catholic teaching on abortion. In his case, it was through his “seamless garment,” which trivialized the abortion issue by equating it with other social issues. Joseph Sobran explains:

The late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, former archbishop of Chicago, endeared himself to liberals, especially liberal Catholic politicians, by adopting the metaphor of life as a “seamless garment.” It isn’t enough to oppose abortion, he insisted; to be consistent, you have to defend life on every front, as for instance by relieving poverty and illness.

This came as welcome news to the liberals, since it turned “life” into a checklist, in which abortion was only one of many items, and not necessarily the most urgent. You could be “pro-life,” according to the Bernardin standard, merely by supporting the welfare state.

If Obama were Catholic he would belong to the bogus Bernadin school. I can well believe that Obama’s “heart and mind were touched by him.” That would explain a lot.

These words from the president’s commencement address put the icing on the cake:

Hold firm to your faith and allow it to guide you on your journey.

Standing alone they radiate irony. But taken with the next two paragraphs, they constitute a mini-lecture on theology:

But remember, too, that you can be a crossroads. Remember, too, that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It’s the belief in things not seen. It’s beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us. And those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.

And this doubt should not push us away our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions, cause us to be wary of too much self-righteousness. It should compel us to remain open and curious and eager to continue the spiritual and moral debate that began for so many of you within the walls of Notre Dame. And within our vast democracy, this doubt should remind us even as we cling to our faith to persuade through reason, through an appeal whenever we can to universal rather than parochial principles, and most of all through an abiding example of good works and charity and kindness and service that moves hearts and minds.

You see, it’s great to have faith, but we can’t ever really know anything, because God and faith are hard to get a handle on, because, they’re like, invisible. So go ahead and cling to that faith, but don’t get all “self-righteous” and actually act on it. Act, instead, on “universal rather than parochial principles.”

It sounds as though he’s telling the Notre Dame grads not to let their Catholic faith get in the way of “service.” He alludes to a conflict between the practice of “charity” and the practice of religion. This only makes sense when charity and service are defined as rightly coming from the state. In other words, “good works” spring from the practice of liberalism. When one’s practice of authentic Christianity conflicts with liberalism, Obama advises us to set the Christianity aside in favor of “the universal.”

Obama doesn’t separate his Christianity from his liberal ideology, and he would have the rest of us join him in his conflation of the two.

Advising Notre Dame grads to be “wary” in the practice of their faith is odd counsel to offer at a Catholic commencement. And disconcerting, perhaps, to students and parents who sacrificed because they believed a Catholic education mattered.

Related: A Hallmark Card from Notre Dame, College commencement, Catholic-style

Cross-posted here.

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