Monday, October 3, 2011

From Ken Blackwell: Will Obama Destroy Franciscan University of Steubenville?

I graduated from this traditional Catholic university in 2003, so this article by Ken Blackwell on huffingtonpost.com really hit me hard.  FUS should sue the Obama administration.  This is a clear violation of the First Amendment.



Daniel Webster was the most famous lawyer of his day. In 1819, the "Godlike Daniel" stood before the U.S. Supreme Court and argued passionately for the right of Dartmouth College to govern itself, and not to be brought under the rule of the New Hampshire legislature. Webster appealed to the Constitution, arguing that New Hampshire's actions would violate that provision that forbade states to "impair the obligations of contract." But the emotional power of his argument caught the attention of Chief Justice John Marshall, Justice Joseph Story, and in truth, captured the hearts of the country.
Richard N. Current gives us a gripping description of Daniel Webster's defense of Dartmouth College in a 1963 American Heritagearticle.
Sir, you may destroy this little institution. It is weak. It is in your hands! I know it is one of the lesser lights in the literary horizon of the country. You may put it out. But if you do so, you must carry through your work. You must extinguish, one after another, all those great lights of science which, for more than a century, have thrown their radiance over our land. It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college, and yet, there are those who love it...
The Dartmouth College case became one of the pillars of American jurisprudence. And Webster's powerful appeal propelled him to a brilliant career in the U.S. Senate.
The Supreme Court that year ruled in favor of Dartmouth College. It recognized not only the supremacy of the Constitution, but it showed that it valued the signal role played by colleges and universities in American life.
The Obama administration is showing it values that role not at all. It is attempting to crush The Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. Mr. Obama's HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, is trying to force Steubenville to dispense abortion-producing drugs and pay for sterilizations. This is a Roman Catholic institution. Such things are strictly prohibited by the Catholic faith.
Sec. Sebelius may be aware that Catholic institutions are required by faith and fidelity to their mission to uphold these principles. It is an indispensable part of their mission and their reason for being. To force a Catholic institution to violate the consciences of its faculty, students and alumni in this fashion is like forcing a Yeshiva to serve pork to Orthodox Jewish students.
This attempt to crush The Franciscan University of Steubenville is, tragically, not an isolated example. From the first days of the Obama administration, there has been a kulturkampf (culture clash) against Catholic institutions not seen since the days of the Iron Chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck. It was Bismarck who attempted to put all churches and universities in Prussia under his hobnailed boot.
Writer Charlotte Allen wrote of the "Persecution of Belmont Abbey" by the Obama administration in 2009. There, too, liberal zealots were demanding that the Catholic school, founded in 1876, provide contraception, abortifacients, and sterilizations or face federal sanctions. This, according to the institution's president, could lead to closing down the historic little college.
Chai Feldblum is a tenured professor at Georgetown University Law School. This is the oldest Catholic university in the country. Ironically, Feldblum, is also a homosexual legal activist. She was Barack Obama's choice for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She told a panel at Family Research Council that if it came to a clash between what she calls gay rights and religious liberty, religious liberty must give way. In other words: "Be Amish, or be quiet."
We have already seen this as the most anti-Israel administration in U.S. history. Never before has an American president and secretary of state stooped to counting Jews in Jerusalem.
The Obama administration is also the most anti-Catholic administration in American history. Never before have tens of millions of Catholic Americans been forced to subsidize the killing of unborn children with their taxes -- as they are under ObamaCare. But now they are also forcing Catholic institutions to take part in the destruction of innocent human lives and the maiming of others by paying for abortifacients and sterilizations. As Americans, we must defend our religious liberties -- while we still have them. Steubenville is a little college, but there are those who love it!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't even be Amish they will take your house because it violates building codes.

This is a perfect example of the state trying to create the church of secularism.

http://youtu.be/cZYnNHIpvc8

Ron Russell said...

In reality, Obama and those around him oppose all things "private". They are just a bunch of collectivist, godless goons that would crush individualism.

Most Rev. Gregori said...

This administration is not just anti-catholic, it is anti-Christian. I believe that either all Christians stand up as one and put down not only Obama, but all liberals or we will find ourselves licking the boots of our atheistic masters, and/or see the rise of deadly and bloody persecutions right here in the US.

Doom said...

I am split on this. No, I don't approve of what is being done. However, when the majority of "Catholics" voted for Obama, it is difficult to believe the majority think such institutions should be free to be Papist. That hurts me far more than what some stupid commie does. Or at least, when my co-congregants are for our enemy more than they are for our Pope, I think there is more work to be done in the Church than in the state, or first, or something more like that.

Woodsterman (Odie) said...

The Secretary is trying to create, or modify in this case, a religion. That is STRICTLY forbidden in the First Amendment!

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amanda Borenstadt said...

This is so frustrating. Where are our religious liberties?