Friday, April 17, 2009

Hiding That Religion

When Obama recently spoke at Georgetown University, an historic Roman Catholic school, he had the religious symbols of the institution hidden such that they could not be seen while he was giving his speech.

Here is more evidence that he wants to present a very secular image to the nation and the world. He will even censor the religious identity of institutions at which he speaks. Why did Georgetown invite him (the most pro-abortion president ever, and thus in fundamental violation of the Catholic religion)? Why did it hide their distinctive religious symbolism at his request?

5 comments:

Peter Malik said...

This is repelling and arrogant. Good job, America, you voted "right!"

Kyl Schalk said...

As a Catholic, I find many of Obama’s views very, very disturbing. It is as if some people don’t know that there is official Catholic teaching. Moral and epistemological relativism have contributed to a society that can’t even understand the possibility of official Catholic teaching.

Luke said...

It's a shame Obama did that...but the bigger shock is that this "Catholic" institution is willing to hide their symbols in order to appease someone speaking at their school.

Krave said...

I could be mistaken, but wasn't Georgetown the school a few years ago that kicked evangelical Christian ministries such as IVCF off their campus?

I think IVCF is allowed back on campus now though.

Brian said...

The now-ubiquitous complaints about Obama's actions at Georgetown appear inaccurate and the explanations given for his motives unconvincing.

Inaccurate: Obama did not request that the religious symbols/images be covered; rather he requested his "standard" backdrop for speeches of this kind, which means a background of American flags and drapes, and covering over any other "noisy" or "distracting" images/symbols. Some of those covered were religious; some (about 26) religious symbols/images were not covered and left in the background (presumably, since they weren't a distraction from the "simple" standard backdrop).

That might explain why Georgetown felt fine about complying with the request, because they perceived that it was not at all motivated by animus against "religious identity."

The explanations about his motives - e.g. that he wants to "censor religious identity" or "present a secular image to the world" - I find unconvincing:
- They don't explain why Obama chose Georgetown, a university well-known for its Catholic character, in the first place. If Obama wanted to emphasize "secularity," it makes no sense to pick Georgetown.
- They don't explain why Obama explicitly mentioned the Sermon on the Mount in his speech at Georgetown. If Obama wanted to present a "secular image" and "censor religious identity," then why on earth would he make open reference to Scripture? Did he forget to "censor" his own speech?

Of course, it's possible that Obama's actions were indeed motivated by anti-religious bias, despite what he says and did. But I don't (yet) see how the events at Georgetown go much distance toward showing this. Indeed, his actions strike me as plainly at odds with such a theory. Is there any other evidence for his motives here? For instance, patterns of covering up (only) religious symbols elsewhere?