I am continuously amazed by the hatefulness of the rhetoric that continues to issue forth from certain parties in the Notre Dame debate. This from Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, in a letter to Bishop John D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend:
“You have the premier political proponent of child killing in the Western hemisphere in Barack Obama speaking at the premier Catholic institution of the Western hemisphere.” A proponent of "child killing," eh? And the "premier" one.
"If they think we're going to lay down and be quiet while they allow the rape of Catholic orthodoxy, they are sadly mistaken.” Rape? Let me repeat: Rape?
As I said of some of Mary Ann Glendon's remarks in a previous post, I think this kind of language is not only counter-productive in the effort to reduce abortion (becuase it makes all pro-life people seem not only uncompromising but rabid as well), it also reflects badly on the Christians who use it. The hallmark of our lives is to be charity: "Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est," as the refrain goes. Yet I fail to see the love here, even the kind you would offer another as brotherly or sisterly correction.
Any more than I see it in this comment directed at me, pasted at the end of my June column on ND: "I wanted to suggest that you insert a needle into your skull and suck your OWN brain out. On reflection, that seems to have been done previously."
I ask you: Is that any way for a Christian to behave?
