Putting truth aside...let's hear what he has to say.

President Obama at Notre Dame. [the link is the title above]

What I would like to point out is the contrast between two paragraphs that appear in this article. Paragraph number 1...

"Many Catholics are angered by Obama's planned appearance at the May 17 ceremony because of his decisions to provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and international family planning groups that provide abortions or educate about the procedure."

and paragraph number two...

""People are definitely entitled to their outrage, but I think the main thing is to see that it's an honor to have the president of the United States come to speak here whether you agree with him or not," said Katie Woodward, a political science junior from Philadelphia."

The anger that is felt by the Catholics in the first paragraph is based upon their understanding that abortion is wrong and their disagreement with President Obama in signing into law legislation that stands in direct opposition to their held beliefs. These held beliefs are founded upon a Scriptural understanding that life is to be honored by all mankind because we are created in the image of God. That is the baseline "truth" that they are operating from.

The second paragraph is a representation of one student from ND that appears to be shared by others at the University. The article says that it is a consensus that the President should be allowed to come and speak because "it's a honor" for ND to have him come. The point here is that "even if I disagree with you I'm willing to have you honor our institution with your speech." The baseline truth that Katie seems to be operating from is a personal aggrandizement. It's good for ND. The problem Katie is that your toleration is selfish. If you as a Catholic believe that it is wrong to abort babies then how can you tolerate any law that infringes upon that truth? Or associated with that does what you believe make a difference in your decisions as to what is honoring? Maybe you don't believe that abortion is wrong and therefore you have created enough space in your moral toleration to have the very person who has signed legislation to end human life come and honor ND. But then I must ask how that aligns with your Catholicism?

The problem here is one of truth. If abortion is wrong and that is based on truth then any toleration of it is against truth. There can not be any hint of untruth in truth or it isn't truth. Jump through all the ethical hoops you want but at the end of the day we tolerate things because we don't hold the truth behind them as truth.

Ok I'm done ranting but I'll pick this up later