Anti-ROTC Leftists Lobby Marquette

From an (apparently) widely circulated e-mail:

Dear Peacemakers,

Please join us at:

Marquette University Alumni Memorial Union, 2nd Floor at 8:45 am, Wed. Dec. 12, 2007

There is a small group of us who have written the Board of Trustees at Marquette University requesting that they keep Marquette Faithful to the Gospel Values and No Longer Host the Departments of Military Science. Our letter to the board is attached. We will be making a personal plea to the Trustees Wed. Dec. 12th at 8:45 on the 2nd floor of MU Union.

There are nine colleges and universities in the area (including UWM) that allow the military to recruit students and offers military office training. However, only one of them, Marquette University, a Catholic Jesuit University, host on campus departments of military science for students from the nine colleges and universities.

The Military Departments of Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force are using Marquette University to draft and train young men and women in values that are contrary to the Christian faith and conscience.

We are asking the Board of Trustees to enter into a discussion of how Marquette be loyal to its Christian values and still have students and the university benefit from the financial incentives, like the eight other colleges and universities do now.

This might seem like a small issue but it has major implications. Marquette University is one of 28 Jesuit Universities and colleges and one of hundreds of Christian colleges that allow the military to teach on campus values that are in direct contradiction to Christian faith.

You may not have been able to join the thousands, including many Jesuit colleges and high schools, represented to protest the values taught about human life and rights at SOA in Fort Benning, but hopefully you can stand in solidarity with us who oppose the teaching of similar values on our college campuses.

Marquette, Keep Faithful to the Gospel
No Longer Host the Departments of Military Science

Peace,

Bob Graf

“Be the change you wish to see in the world” Gandhi
414 379 4162
http://www.nonviolentworm.org/

There was also an attached letter, which we reprint here in full:

December 4, 2007

Dear Marquette University Board of Trustees,

We are a group of Milwaukee area citizens, including students and alumni, who wish to work with you in upholding MU’s “values-centered curriculum,” which is focused on Gospel values. One of the conflicts and contradictions we specifically would like to discuss with you is Marquette’s hosting and condoning of the military science departments: Navy, Army, Marines and Air Force that teach values in direct conflict with the Christian Gospel values espoused at Marquette. For example, the Army states in its manual:

“Your personal values may and probably do extend beyond the Army values, to include such things as political, cultural, or religious beliefs. However, if you’re to be an Army leader and a person of integrity, these values must reinforce, not contradict, Army values.”

On the other hand, the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” teaches:

“The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community.”

We believe that Marquette students, like the students from the eight other universities and colleges that train at the MU departments of military science, should be allowed to have access to military officer training and scholarships. Also, Marquette should be able to open its campus to military recruiting and make available military training, like the other eight area colleges. Thus, MU would still be available for Federal Grants under the Solomon Act.

We simply would like to talk with you about Marquette, like UWM and the other seven colleges, no longer hosting any department of military science. By hosting this military department whose curriculum is not subject to the moral standards of all other MU departments, Marquette is, in effect, endorsing values contrary to the Gospel and teaching of the Church.

We hope for a discussion with you, the Board of Directors, on ways Marquette can be faithful to the Gospel. Will you share a dialog with us on this issue of morality? We can be reached by mail via Patrick Kennelly at 1131 N. 21st, Milwaukee, WI 5320. If possible we would like to begin this conversation with you before Christmas break.

Peace,

Bob Graf

On behalf of:
Mark Peters, Phil Runkel, Daniel Rosenow, Jeanne DeSimone Sieger, Joyce Ellwanger, Don Timmerman, Roberta Thurstin, Sr. Virgine Lawinger, Patrick T. Kennelly, Timothy M. Prendergast, Barbara Aho and Joseph Radoszewski

Happily, this group is not likely to get very far.

As we have observed before, Marquette didn’t drop ROTC during the anti-war hysteria of the late 60s and early 70s. The current administration is clearly to the left of the administration then, but not nearly so far to the left as to kick ROTC off campus.

Indeed, ROTC has extremely wide support among the student body. Even those who would not personally choose to be in the military respect the choices of those who do.

The most striking thing about this is the arrogant certainty that service in the military is immoral. While the Catholic Church has loudly insisted on opposing the current Iraq War, it has admitted that one’s view on the war is a matter of “prudential judgment.” As Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan put it:

Thoughtful voices can be heard on both sides, one maintaining that American initiatives in Iraq are morally licit and meet the classical requirements of a “just war,” the other holding that our military action there is not only a political disaster but clearly immoral. Both sides agree in expressing high regard for our men and women in uniform, who are most exposed to danger, and who are most desirous of the establishment of peace and a return safely home.

Further, military training isn’t just for the Iraq War. It’s for a generation, which may well involve wars which the current “anti-war” crowd will approve.

Happily, these folks represent a fringe position.