In the interest of full disclosure, let me point out that John Jenkins is a personal friend, though one I have seen only a couple of times in the last twenty-five years. Not only do I like him a lot, but because of what I know of him, I am fully convinced of his faithfulness to the Lord and to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Calvin College is the “dear mother” of my undergraduate education, and in 2005 Calvin College hosted then President George W. Bush at its commencement. People disagreed with Calvin’s choice. Students, faculty, alumni, and friends joined in what the Calvin administration characterizes as a “discussion” and not a “protest.” And, writes Calvin President Gaylen Byker, “that kind of event and dialogue is exactly what an engaged Christian college should be doing — challenging one another to think carefully and Biblically about important issues….”

To me, there are two entirely different kinds of issues brought up by these presidential appearances. One is about truthfulness, and the other is about appropriateness.

The lack of truth is a real problem in the Notre Dame debate. Consider, for example, the cartoon on a blog called “ The American Catholic” (here's the link—you’ll need to scroll down quite a ways) in which the John Jenkins caricature says to President Obama, “Welcome to Notre Dame, where baby killing ain’t no big deal!” President Obama, handing over a bag labeled “30 pieces of silver,” says, “Thanks, Padre. Here’s a small token of appreciation, from the culture of death.”

I find it hard to imagine that this is anything other than a willful misunderstanding or downright lie. Father Jenkins has repeatedly affirmed his acceptance of the Catholic Church’s position on abortion. Notre Dame is, of course, more than Father Jenkins alone, but there is also no evidence that the University of Notre Dame has somehow said that it disagrees with the teaching on abortion. So to say “baby killing ain’t no big deal” is very wrong.

Similarly, President Obama’s position on abortion has repeatedly been mis-characterized. In some mail I received from one side of this controversy, for example, there is a picture of child carrying a sign that says “Obama calls Babies ‘Garbage.’” President Obama, however, says, “What I know is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we’re having these debates.”

To say that President Obama approves of abortion is like saying that God approves of evil. More accurately, one would say that President Obama accepts the current existence of abortion because forcing an end to it right now would produce more evil than good.

Notre Dame has not advocated killing people. What it has done is invite Barack Obama to commencement, where it plans to give him an honorary degree. Has President Obama done anything that might merit this treatment? Has he, for example, broken racial barriers that some people thought might not be broken for another century? Has he brought to the table a public concern for the poor and disadvantaged that has been missing at the Presidential level for years? Has he, one might put it, tried to bring love for his neighbor to the political arena rather than trying to settle for assuming that everyone can love only himself?

My rhetorical questions are asking, isn’t there some appropriateness in honoring President Obama at a university committed to the Catholic understanding of Christian principles?

The appropriateness of having President Obama speak is my second area of interest.

A university is dedicated to an exchange of ideas and a thoughtful and reasoned consideration of ideas, even if you disagree with them. It is quite appropriate to host a person with whom one disagrees.

But note the nature of a commencement ceremony. Its primary purpose is to mark the completion of a stage of one’s formal education in a public, joyful, and celebratory way. It is not a forum that can itself promote a rational exchange of ideas and thoughtful consideration of their merits.

In fact, having a prominent person speak at a commencement ceremony is typically a sort of exchange between the university and the speaker. In the Notre Dame case, Notre Dame is happy to be seen as a university important enough to host the President of the United States. It is the only Catholic college or university to be doing so this year, and many ND supporters are as happy to see President Obama honor Notre Dame in this way as they would be if ND were to beat the University of Southern California in football.

President Obama, for his part, is trying to create good will with a constituency who supported him, but whose support was a bit tenuous. The Catholic community in the U.S. is huge—and generally anti-abortion—and President Obama would like to get something like an endorsement from the university, something more like a show of comfort or an acceptance of his good will on the abortion issue.

Similarly, President Bush went to Calvin because he was trying to shore up the good will of evangelicals, people who had been attracted by his public profession of his Christian belief but whose support wavered because of his conduct of a war widely seen to be unjustified when evaluated on the basis of the traditional Christian just war theory.

And Calvin wanted to show itself to be so important as to attract the President of the United States.

In each case the President is “using” the relative prominence of these schools to try to shore up his support.

The appearance of the President on campus may occasion a debate before and after his appearance, but you cannot say that the Commencement itself is a helpful exchange of ideas.

If my alma maters, my dear mothers, are not to have their hearts broken by having the President as a guest in their homes, then they should treat their guests with grace and compassion. The children in the home should not bear false witness — that is, they should not put up with lying about what their guest actually says and has said — they should listen closely to their guests, and they should go on discussing the merits thoughtfully and rationally after the guest has gone.

Let’s see what will happen at Notre Dame.