Last month, Bush's wranglers committed him to deliver a commencement speech at Michigan's Calvin College, a Christian institution. Sadly for the pResident, many of Calvin's students and faculty are thinking people as well as Christians.
Reaction was swift and pointed as diaried here by Magorn and here by Addison (as well as by others). Today it went down. Pithy, incisive and revealing contrast between Bush's Christian supporters and Bush's Christian detractors below...
From
Yahoo's coverage:
"We believe your administration has launched an unjust and unjustified war in
Iraq," said a letter signed by about one-third the college's 300 faculty members and published in Saturday's Grand Rapids Press.
"As Christians, we are called to be peacemakers and to initiate war only as a last resort," it said.
The letter criticized economic policies that it said favored the wealthy over the poor, and faulted Bush for mixing religion and politics and exhibiting and "intolerance" for others' views.
It cited "conflicts between our understanding of what Christians are called to do and many of the policies of your administration."
Nicely put and apt, I think most of us would agree. But here's the contrast I mentioned above.
The protestors:
Some graduating students wore buttons that said
"God is not a Democrat or a Republican."
A few dozen protesters gathered outside, carrying signs that read, "Conservatives and moderates reject extremism" and "Thou shalt not torture."
Reasoned, moral, critical positions, no?
The Bushies:
But there were also many Bush supporters, with placards that said, "We love Bush" and "Cutie pie."
Presumably some of those students will graduate with degrees. This makes me sad.
Bush will be giving another commencement address on Friday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. I'm not sure, given the venue, if I'd rather see signs there that say "Though shalt not torture" or "Cuuuuuutie Pie."