[ConservativeWarrior]

For God’s sake, people, focus your anger at the board, at the faculty of Notre Dame, at the donors who won’t pull their donations (because most of them are themselves only CINOS). That’s where the problem is. Jenkins is small potatoes in all of this. He’s the messenger boy. The message is created by the huge reservoir of CINOism out there in the culture.

So what's the solution? Cino's have no shame. I was shocked to see 2 cars leaving the church parking lot this weekend with Obama bumper stickers. If I had been closer I would have knocked on their windows and asked why they bothered coming to mass.

My point is - how do you deal with people with such blatant disdain for church doctrine? Or is it even we who should be dealing with it? Why aren't our priests more vocal? I don't want to hear about jeopardizing tax-free status, the baptists practically registered Obama voters in the pews and delivered campaign speeches from the pulpit.

[MrB]

I know this might incite a Holy War of sorts, but...

According to Sowell’s “Conflict of Visions”, there are basically two camps of thought on the capabilities of humans.

In the constrained view, no single human is that much more capable than any other, and therefore, the dispersed knowledge of individuals who are experts in their own spheres take precedent over some central planning authority.

In the unconstrained view, some humans are so much more capable than others that they not only have the ability, they have the duty to seek power and make decisions for the masses. The masses have to go to these elite individuals for their sustenance and protection.

Now... Aren’t Catholics of the opinion that only the priests can talk to God, and that all the parishioners must go through them to have access to God?

Seems to me that Catholic doctrine fits well with the unconstrained vision of the left.

[Houghton M.]

You asked “So what’s the solution?”

The same techniques used in gassroots political organizing. But they are labor intensive. Research the members of the board of trustees to find out who might be most amenable to a protest. More importantly, research the publicly available donor information. Find out which major donors might be affected by a boycott or a letter campaign. Pressure those donors to pressure the board.

The board has the ultimate say over the granting of honorary degrees. Jenkins merely executes their decision in this regard.

If it could be shown that enough donors care about Zero receiving an honorary degree, enough to make a difference to Notre Dame’s future, the board might rescind.

But that’s a long, long, long, long shot. Marketing research would show, I fear, that we’ve lost this battle years ago.

But you asked what the solution would be. Targeted pressure is the only possible solution. But it requires a lot of research and then efforts based on the research to be effective.

I suppose if a petition drive that collected millions upon millions of signatures could be mounted, that sort of massive campaign rather than targeted pressure might be effective. But are there even hundreds of thousands of “Catholics” who care about this left? I doubt it.

Sure, the bishops could crack the whip. But Notre Dame would yawn and the media would whip public opnion for Notre Dame and against the bishops into a frenzy.