Last weekend, the President of the United States was bestowed with an honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame as he spoke at the school's commencement exercises. In a related story, former presidential candidate Dr. Alan Keyes spent the evening in a South Bend jail for prayerfully protesting the university's invitation to the most pro-abortion president the country has ever elected.
Let me get this straight. The country's premier Catholic institution - one that proudly touts itself as a friend and advocate of biblical truth and moral principle - jails a man for standing against the slaughter of innocent children in the womb as it simultaneously honors and exalts a man whose policy preferences facilitate such slaughter? There's no denying it: it's a world turned upside down.
Only in an upside down world could a man with such a flagrant anti-human rights record attain the highest office in a country founded upon the protection of those rights.
Only in an upside down world could a man be elected to preserve, protect, and defend a people's most basic entitlements after having acknowledged during the campaign that he believes determining who should have them and who shouldn't is, "above [his] pay grade."
Only in an upside down world could "hope" be embodied in a man who votes to allow half-delivered babies to be murdered, while one who believes every human being is worthy of protection is termed a "radical."
Obama's defenders, including the president of Notre Dame, have suggested this invitation shows the great commitment the university has to open debate, differing viewpoints, and the free exchange of ideas. Oh brother. Having done my undergraduate studies at a private Christian university, I find such a proposition insulting.
Open discussion, arguments, and the free exchange of ideas happen in the classroom; and if Notre Dame had invited President Obama or a like minded pro-abortionist into an ethics class for a rousing debate, that would be a legitimate position. Indeed, my favorite college course was one entitled "Western-American Intellectual and Social History," where we were presented with an eclectic array of viewpoints, belief systems, and thought streams that dominate our world. I am a firm believer that it is enlightening, challenging, and useful to expand our understanding of viewpoints with which we disagree. But that's not what happened in South Bend.
The University of Notre Dame invited President Obama to deliver the commencement address to its graduates, presenting him as a model to emulate, a man deserving of the students' admiration. To further ingrain this point in their minds, the graduates watched the institution award Mr. Obama with the prestige of an honorary degree. Some have asked, "Who better for these students to hold in high esteem and seek to imitate than the President of the United States of America?" I have a simple answer: anyone with a respect for human rights, whether that's a grocery store clerk, a missionary, a stay-at-home mom, a gas station attendant, or even a man sitting in jail for speaking out against evil. Take the lowliest person among us by earthly standards who believes in the unalienable right to life - that the protection of the law should extend to more than just those who are convenient - and you'll have someone more honorable than the President of the United States.
Since taking office, the one issue that President Obama has appeared to be least concerned with is human rights. He is seemingly disinterested in the mass starvation of North Koreans, the violent oppression in Zimbabwe, the suppression of freedom by Russia, the horrendous practices of forced abortion and political subjugation in China, and the savage treatment of the innocent Burmese. He has exchanged polite messages with the madman of Iran, shook hands, shared laughs, and officially recognized the corrupt and fraudulent radical Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and has hinted at easing sanctions on perhaps the worst human rights abusing regime of them all in Sudan.
As this evidence amasses, it is becoming painfully clear that the question of when a human being gets human rights is not at all above Obama's pay grade. That pathetic response simply sought to cover the alarming reality that to our new president, human rights are determined by political winds and are pliable to partisan convenience.
Simply put, Barack Obama is not a man to be honored. He is a man to be pitied.
The fabled Notre Dame Victory March sung at every football game calls to "shake down the thunder from the sky." Those words take on all new meaning when considering what a just and holy God must think of Notre Dame's decision to honor a man whose policies encourage the slaughter of His innocent creations.
