Living in the World
Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame

We in the Protestant world have experienced this for a long time. Our institutions of higher learning going the way of the secular world…think Harvard, Yale and Princeton. So, it is not a surprise to see a flagship university of the Roman Catholic world slipping away from its heretofore sacred principles. The fuming and agitating about an avowed baby killer speaking and being awarded an honorary degree by Notre Dame University recognizes the new world. It is more of an honor to have the POTUS speak at your institution than have your institution stand by virtues and principles of the church that sponsors the institution. If shows the enlightened stance of NEW Notre Dame.

At Lucas’ wedding I had an interesting discussion with one of his classmates at Catholic University of America, a Papal school, and another premier Roman Catholic university. Danny and his wife were quite perturbed at the invitation extended to President Obama by ND as well as the covering of the symbols of Catholic Christianity when BO spoke at Georgetown. Yet, they also recognized that BO was also helping to delineate true religion from the cultural Catholicity that is becoming prevalent in the United States.

Again, I believe the Protestants are ahead of the game here. For a long, long time, folks have realized there is a bright line of difference separating orthodox Reformed belief and practice and what much of the contemporary evangelical church believes and practices. Man driven worship because there is no God centered doctrine; discipleship in the Word missing because the Word is no longer central to life; discipline of the saints non-existent because there are no Biblical standards accepted as normative; a desire to be accepted by the world because we have no concept of what is pleasing and acceptable to a holy God. It is easy to see the difference between content less Christianity and true Biblical faith; the former adapted to the culture, the latter not so.

I told Danny it’s a good thing the Roman Church is stating to see their own bright line. BO is doing the church a big favor. He is clearly showing that there is a difference between what James calls “religion that is pure and undefiled before God” and what passes as Christian religion in the modern world. The President in his commencement speech said there are irreconcilable differences between the pro-life and pro-abortion positions. Yet, he called for mutual understanding and dialogue between the positions. Obviously, Jeremiah Wright and his other pastors through the years have not preached much from James. For the Lord’s brother goes on to define pure and undefiled religion as:

…to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world [Ja 1:27].

We live in the world, but we are not to be taken in by the world’s views, even when those views are held by one who professes to be a Christian and is a popular POTUS. Is dialog possible between means of life and death? Can good seek compromise with evil? If differences are irreconcilable, who is going to change their mind? It seems it was old Notre Dame.

As a kid, I remember the chorus from the ND “fight song”. ND has, and probably will continue to have, the largest following of college football fans in the land. We all used to joke that all the priests and nuns were praying for an Irish victory on every football Saturday. Success has been rare for the Fighting Irish in recent years. Maybe we are getting a glimpse of why…it is no longer OLD Notre Dame. The only thunder to be shaken down from the sky in the future may be the thunder of displeasure or wrath for the NEW Notre Dame. The NEW Notre Dame now stained by the world and the blood of millions of innocent children.