Letter to the Editor: Gwen Moore

The following came to us via e-mail:

I just read your response to Charlie Young’s message, and while I think you hit some good points, some blatently ridiculous statements were untouched.

Young writes: “Like most individuals and institutions, MU is able to take a balanced view of issues and public people instead of via their positions on one or two wedge issues and condemning or hailing them for it.”

As a matter of fact, MU is not “like most individuals and institutions,” and by definition is not able to “take a balanced view” of anything . . . . MU is obligated to take a distinctly “unbalanced” view. . . . MU, if it is to define itself as a Catholic institution, must view everything in the light of the Holy Scriptures, of Christianity in general and of the Catholic Church in particular.

Young writes: “People of faith disagree on abortion and gay rights.” While this is certainly true, even within the Catholic Church itself, this statement is nonsense and irrelevant. The Church teaching is clear on these issues, and if the university is to be considered an extension of The Church, Marquette is constrained to Church teachings on these subjects. An extension to this is that the people MU honors are to be held up to the higher standards of the teachings of The Church, not the secular standards of the godless society . . . .

Finally, Young cannot help but to attempt to marginalize the messenger: “Extremists on both sides of every issue - left and right - distract the mainstream from the work of man. You spill venom and hate, create apathy and disgust. Ever heard the adage ‘seek first to understand, then to be understood?’”

Obviously Young views himself as some sort of objective, open minded centrist, however in the context of a Catholic institution it is Young’s view that is the extreme.

If Mr. Young wants a clear picture of “venom and hate, apathy and disgust” . . . let him hang out at an abortion clinic for a few days and observe the cold, hard butchering of children. Let him watch as a doctor plunges a knife in the neck of a partially born child, and suck the brains out as the baby writhes in agony. Sit in the room where the nurse, doctor or other worker is being terminated because they refuse to participate in the slaughter. Then come to me and talk about “hate, apathy and disgust.”

Respectfully submitted,

Reinhard M. Weiss

It has not escaped our attention that when liberals call for “moderation” and “balance” they are usually directing that rhetoric toward conservatives. They seldom tell their fellow liberals to be “moderate” and “balanced.” That advice is saved for people with whom they disagree.