Politics
Monday May 1, 2006
Catholic League Challenges Oregon U. Over Anti-Christian “Hate Speech”
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Gudrun Schultz
NEW YORK, May 1, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) –The University of Oregon has come under fire from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights over an anti-Christian edition of the campus newspaper the Insurgent.
The March 2006 issue of the Insurgent contained two anti-Catholic “rants” and several sexualized depictions of Jesus Christ, including a full-page colour cartoon of a naked Christ Crucified, with an erection, on the front page.
University president Dave Frohnmayer responded to the issue by stating, “While I am an ardent supporter of free speech, I also have strong beliefs that this freedom should be exercised with maturity and good judgment,” adding that “creating controversy for controversy’s sake” was not wise, nor was making individuals “feel that they or their beliefs are unwelcome and belittled.”
William Donahue, president of the CLRCR, wrote a letter of protest to Oregon lawmakers, bishops, and others over Frohnmayer’s “sorely inadequate” response, saying, “If other segments of the student population had been the subject of the Insurgent’s attack, it is highly unlikely that President Frohnmayer would have offered such a tepid response. At the very least, he could have issued a statement of moral condemnation.”
Donahue said the newspaper content was “flagrantly anti-Catholic” and “gratuitously offensive.”
“The entire issue is replete with the most egregious examples of hate speech targeted at Christians…moreover, the two opinion pieces against Catholicism are patently malicious.”
Mr. Frohnmayer responded to publicity over Donahue’s letter by disclaiming responsibility for the Insurgent, saying the student newspaper was “not owned, controlled or published by the University of Oregon and is funded with student fees,” reported World Net Daily.com.
Donahue issued a press release contradicting that assertion, saying students at the University of Oregon pay a mandatory $191 per term in student fees as a condition of class enrolment. The Insurgent received $18,349 in essential funding from student fees this year, as well as the use of on-campus office space and access to the university’s non-profit bulk-mail permit (access which was withdrawn after the March issue.)
“Given all this, it is so disingenuous for President Frohnmayer to claim that he is impotent to act. He didn’t even have the moral decency to publicly condemn the decision by David Goward, Program Director of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon, who—after meeting with a university attorney—said the Insurgent need not apologize nor refrain from Catholic bashing again.” (His emphasis.)
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.