In the article, “Obama Visit to Notre Dame Provokes Debate,” Katherine Seelye examines the controversy surrounding the announcement that President Obama will deliver the commencement address to Notre Dame’s Class of 2009. Many Catholic officials (Notre Dame is a Catholic university) oppose this invitation to Obama, claiming that his support of abortion and embryonic stem cell research defies Catholic teaching. For their support, these officials cite the 2004 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which stated that Catholic institutions should not honor those who act “in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.” Despite these protests and an online petition with over 200,000 signatures that demand the invitation be revoked, Notre Dame president Revered John I. Jenkins has refused to do so.
However I feel that this issue can be looked at more broadly than one solely dealing with Obama and Notre Dame. The large outcry that has arisen from this situation could be largely attributed to the work of the religious right – as shown in Will Martin’s With God on our Side, these kinds of protests have been a hallmark of their success. While these large numbers of protests may seem, then, like a successful showing for the religious right, Seelye mentions something in passing that could be very troubling for its future: “70 percent of alumni opposed the invitation, why 97 percent of the senior class supported it.” This could be seen simply as the seniors wanting a famous figure and dynamic speaker at their commencement, but I believe it is also a sign that the religious right – and more broadly, the Republican Party – is losing its younger constituents. This phenomenon plus the original issue bring up a couple interesting questions: Is Jenkins, as president of a Catholic university, wrong to invite President Obama? And does the overwhelming support of the senior class to have Obama as commencement speaker mean trouble for the future of the religious right?
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As for that 200,000 signature petition- were those signatures exclusively from people affiliated with Notre Dame? If it was just some online petition that just anybody could sign on for, I'm not sure it's relevant; there are probably plenty of people who'd sign on simply to spite the president, Catholic or not. That aside, I find the division between alumni and current seniors intriguing. Surely, some of the seniors' support is pure hype; it's got to be a pretty big deal to have the president at your school. On the other hand, you're right in noting the enthusiasm as a political trend amongst college age voters. Obama carried a solid 66% of voters ages 18-29 (according to CNN exit polls).
I'm not so surprised about the division between alumni and seniors though - because like Andrew said, much of Obama's vote came from 18-29 year-olds, and most of the seniors probably voted for him (not to mention Obama practically has celebrity status in America right now). Furthermore, I think it's important to note that most universities' religious ties are much more slack than they once were (some have even severed completely) and I'm sure Notre Dame is not an exception. In the past, the majority of students at Notre Dame probably were Catholic, but now many college students go to Notre Dame just because it's a really good school. This would make the issue irrelevant to that population. I'm not sure it's fair to conclude that religion is waning in America (especially since a number of other factors could be at play in this particular example), but perhaps the level of commitment to one's religion, or the way people manifest their beliefs is changing.
I think that the Notre Dame seniors’ support for Obama can be seen not as a weakening of the religious right via its younger generations, but rather a younger group of evangelicals realizing that questions of faith might not be as cut and dry as their predecessors perceive them. To me, the support of the seniors represents a more open generation, though not necessarily a less-religious generation. I would argue that younger evangelicals are realizing the need to interact with both sides of controversial issues, rather than violating their own beliefs by supporting Obama’s address at their university. Over the next few decades, I think it will become apparent whether the approach of the younger generations of evangelicals will support or detract from the strength of the religious right.
I agree with Tanya that the gap is mainly because of a younger group of people realizing that they can branch out with their religion. This can be seen with Catholics in the abortion debate. Many have decided that they are pro choice. I think it is interesting that America is becoming more open minded. I do not think that there is a decrease in religion, I think that people are starting to realize that they can support policies of those that they may not agree with religiously. I also think that much of the support for Obama speaking at the graduation is because he is a powerful political figure and this may be a one time chance for them to hear him speak. Obama has such an apparent message of collaborating with those who do not agree with your beliefs, and this is translating to the seniors.
This is a very provocative issue and one that invokes several different aspects of modern American life. Andrew, I agree with your comment that the petition is immaterial. "Online" petitions are normally available for anyone to sign, and there are certainly hundreds of thousands of "traditional Catholics" in this country that would follow the ideas of the Cardinal Newman society.
Obama is in many ways a controversial President. His agendas are classically liberal, but should that come as a surprise? He was pretty clear with his voters that he was pro-choice and pro-stem cell research in his campaign. It's a little ironic that the Notre Dame community is so outraged when Obama carried that county.
I agree that the students support for Obama as a commencement speaker could largely be a reflection of the desire for a famous person to speak at their graduation-- they probably wouldn't turn down the president of the united states as a graduation guest no matter how much they disagreed with them. I think a lot of young people respect the president even if they may not agree with him politically and in that way I agree with Tanya that it may be a reflection of the fact that younger people are more willing to separate religion, politics, and personal respect.
I'm not really appalled by the fact that the Notre Dame alumni community generated much controversy over a radically Liberal speaking at their alma mater. However, it is quite interesting that the college's student community almost had unanimous approval of a Liberal President visiting campus. I think this had to deal with the young Evangelicals entering into mainstream culture. This is a certainly a prevalent sign of a political phenomenon which can redraw the political maps in American culture. My question is why would the younger generations would stray away from the doctrinal beliefs established by the older generations?
It seems like most of the comments agree that the Notre Dame seniors' support is not so much a sign of them - and other young people - becoming less religious, but more a sign of them being more open-minded then their parents; I would agree with this. Also, to follow up on Andrew's and Jake's point, I agree that the online petition in this situation can't be taken very seriously.
Interesting article! I feel like it is very understandable for the students to be excited for Obama to come. They probably are not as invested into the school as the alumni, so they are more concerned of the publicity and meeting Obama than the ideals he represents. The alumni, however invest their money and time into the school because of the ideals that they represent, so the fact that Obama opposes their ideals is more disturbing to them
Leave it to an independent organization to make a political statement about the choice for the 09 Commencement Speaker. You think the entire student and Alumni population would embrace the U.S. President coming to campus regardless of some of his beliefs. Notre Dame maybe embraced with Catholic and Irish traditions with background of being a private and privilege institution. But the student body and Alumni Association is as diverse as they come with varied beliefs and background. This should be an exciting moment for all and not an opportunist's moment to get mentioned in headlines. I'm sure some of us can think of more questionable choices for commencement speaker over the past years at Notre Dame.
The 97% statistic is the proportion of graduating seniors who wrote letters to the editor of the Observer student newspaper supporting the commencement decision (counted a couple weeks after the decision). It would be a particularly grave abuse of statistics to claim that this is a representative sample of all graduating seniors and their opinions, especially since it there was an organized letter-writing campaign among those graduates who supported the decision.
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