"As Kingfishers Catch Fire" - Anti-Religion Bigots and PC Nitwits in Academia

Be the Difference?

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves - goes itself myself it speaks and spell,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

Gerard Manely Hopkins S.J.

Marquette University is embroiled in a controversy over the hiring of wildly Gay feminist and edgy polemicist Jodi O'Brien -

In less than a week, sociologist Jodi O’Brien has become a household name in Milwaukee.
O’Brien, currently the chair of the Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Social Work at Seattle University, was offered the position of dean of the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences at Marquette University. O’Brien accepted. Then the offer was withdrawn.
O’Brien just happens to be an out lesbian and feminist who studies gender, sexuality and religion, among other subjects.
Many faculty members, students and alumni are defending O’Brien and questioning whether Marquette is truly a top-notch academic institution that takes seriously its Jesuit mission to “search for truth.”

Marquette University like almost every other nominally Catholic college ( Loyola, DePaul & etc.) twists into a pretzel to be media friendly and 'intellectually free.'

No less a Jesuit than poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was wildly orthodox. Hopkins is one of the greatest late 19th Century poets and its best imagist.

Hopkins is a dead white man.

Jodi O'Brien is a lively lesbian and a loud Abortion advocate. So the Marquette University hires this edgy loudmouth and expects absolutely no blowback from donors who were educated in a Catholic Marquette and might be a tad uneasy about paying someone to deconstruct the foundations of faith.

Get this there was blowback and instead of poop-can-ing the contract with O'Brien, Marquette's amoeba spined Dr. Danny Maguire spouts this -the controversy has made Marquette look like a “cult school.” over the University deciding to rescind the offer to make the O'Brien the Dean of Arts and Sciences.

A Cult School, Danny Boy?

Really?

Here's a different thought - A Catholic University has a Right and an Obligation to be Catholic.

This is exactly what is occurring with the recent case of Marquette University rescinding its dean job offer to Jodi O'Brien. She made use of her rights to be a lesbian and to promote the lesbian lifestyle. She has written about this way of life and has no problems admitting who she is and is willing to stand up for her rights.

Marquette University has the right to its identity, to its system of beliefs and to promote its Catholic way of life. Both the professor and the university have the right to be who they are, to promote who they are and to have acceptance for what they choose to be.

It was decided that O'Brien's personal choices and her way of life and subsequent teachings would cause conflict with the original intent and mission of Marquette. Marquette has the right to provide its students with professors, deans and classes that fall into the particular mission statement or goals of the university.

O'Brien may feel that her rights were violated and that the university's actions were discriminator, which is where the problem comes in. An institution has the right to decide who teaches and leads and who does not; it's a basic freedom.

Now if Marquette had said no women or no Jewish teachers or no African-Americans, that would be wrong and the proper actions should be taken to correct the problem. But that is not the case here.

Ask yourself, if someone openly denied the Holocaust and spoke out about it but then wanted to join a Jewish committee and was denied, would anyone raise an eyebrow? If someone was openly racist, wrote books about it and then wanted to join the NAACP but was denied, would it be an issue?

What we can learn from this episode is this: We in America have rights and freedoms and privileges, which most of the rest of the world does not have. With these rights and freedoms come responsibilities and consequences.

If you are a known alcoholic, which you can choose to be if you want to drink your health away, you might not be given that school bus driving job. If you are a known racist and you promote it openly, you might not get that NAACP position. If you are a lesbian and openly promote it, you might not get that position at Marquette University. Just as O'Brien has the right to be a lesbian and to promote it, so does Marquette have the right to promote a Catholic lifestyle and way of life.

Freedom works both ways.

Brian Brehmer of Milwaukee in an Op Ed piece - Click my post title.

Religion is not a bad thing, unless of course you begin and end your day without a thought of your own and get your ideas only from NPR, Bill Maher, Sex in the City, Will and Grace ( that still on?), Sir Elton John, the subtext of Billy Elliot, and Wildebeests of the View.

Our music, architecture, literature, science, philosophy and diets are rooted in religion . . .until we got too comfortable to really care.