After weeks of contentious rhetoric as to whether it was not only proper for Notre Dame to invite President Obama to deliver the 2009 commencement speech, but to receive an honorary law degree from the university, the moment had arrived. The students and faculty inside the auditorium emphatically answered that question with resounding affirmation. They rose to their feet in thunderous applause as Obama received his degree and again as he strode toward the pulpit …er podium, to deliver his speech after an eloquent introduction by Father Jenkins.

At the same time these individuals were exposing the spiritual deadness within them with their adoration of a radically pro-death President, pro-life martyrs – including Norma McCorvey, the Roe of the infamous Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in America – were being arrested on Notre Dame’s campus for having the courage to give a voice to the unborn, a voice the spiritually dead are deaf to.

Notre Dame, like many other institutions of higher learning – Harvard, Yale, etc. – that were founded upon Christian values and principles has exchanged the Truth for a lie. The spirit now energizing Notre Dame has been exposed. It is an evil spirit.

Obama is radically pro-death. As an Illinois’ state legislator he actively fought against laws that would require medical personnel to administer life-saving measures to babies that had survived a botched abortion. The hardness of a heart that is capable of such an atrocity is difficult to overstate. But it is also difficult to overstate the deception resident within the hearts of those who bear the name “Christian” and simultaneously applaud and honor a man so clearly in favor of premeditated prenatal murder.

Obama did not back away from his pro-death values in his commencement speech. But he had no need to. Why distance himself from his barbaric beliefs when his election to the Presidency of the United States had already proven some Christians would vote for him knowing he favored the murder of the unborn? But Obama is no fool. If he could convince Christians that the killing of the unborn is actually a noble endeavor, so much the better.

Listen to his words: “Those who speak out against stem cell research may be rooted in admirable conviction about the sacredness of life, but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son’s or daughter’s hardships can be relieved.” Notice the deception. As a Christian I am not against stem cell research in general. Adult stem cell research is perfectly acceptable because it does not involve the destruction of human life and has shown the potential to alleviate or cure diseases that plague mankind. What I am against is embryonic stem cell research because life begins at conception. Therefore, no matter how small the embryo is it is human and to destroy it for the purpose of relieving the hardship of another is absolutely wrong. It is sin. But since the embryo does not look human some are willing to sacrifice him for one who does look human. It makes me wonder how human we look to God when we make decisions as to who will live or die based upon appearance!

Obama also said: “How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?” There is no need for those who fight for the life of the unborn or newly born or the elderly or the handicapped to demonize those who only value life that benefits them. Their very actions demonize them for they become like that which they worship and when a human being is sacrificed upon the altar of abortion or euthanasia it is not the heavenly Father that the sacrifice is offered to.

Again, Obama uses smooth words to lull to sleep the conscience of those who should know better. “Maybe we won’t agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and spiritual dimensions.” Think for a moment. These words only make sense if the unborn is human. If the unborn is only a fetus and not a baby, if the unborn is at best only a potential human life and not an actual human life, why is the decision to abort him so heart-wrenching? What moral or spiritual dimensions is Obama talking about? If the unborn is not human it is no more moral or immoral to remove him than to remove a wart. Nor does a wart’s removal heighten or lessen one’s spiritual well being. The fact that there is a struggle at all within the heart of one contemplating abortion testifies to the humanness of the unborn. But it is a testimony that is too painful to face truthfully so willful self-deception as to the lack of humanness of the unborn is used to justify murder.

Near the end of Obama’s speech he plays the role of theologian. “It is beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us, and those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.” This statement like much of what he says has both truth and lies within it.

It is true that the finite mind within man cannot know all that an infinite God knows. But it is equally true that there are some things we can know with certainty. One of those is whether abortion is right or wrong, good or evil. We know that the willful taking of an innocent human life is murder. We know that Psalm 139, Jeremiah 1:5, and Luke 1:44 speak of the unborn as human. Therefore, we know that abortion is the willful taking of an innocent human life which is murder, which is wrong, which is evil, which is sin.

Obama made mention that he prayed. But if the prayers of a man who mistreats his wife are hindered (1 Peter 3:7) how much more are the prayers of someone who claims to be Christian, but advocates the murder of the most innocent of humans hindered?

It was a mistake for Notre Dame to honor Obama. Christians or Christian institutions do the world no favor when their admiration for someone claiming to be a Christian, but whose actions, words, and beliefs are clearly opposed to the truth, is given the right hand of fellowship and elevated to celebrity status.

The world is in need of courageous, non-compromising Christians who will stand up in public and tell a President that he has sold out his faith for a murderous lie, that his Christianity legitimizes beliefs that are both sinful and monstrous, that his Christianity is not only worthless, but dangerous because of the prestige and power that accompany his political office. The world needs Christians who are unafraid to speak the truth and wise enough to speak it in love.

What the world got when President Obama was honored by Notre Dame was a Christianity that has lost her way, a Christianity that compromises with evil, a Christianity that worships worldly pleasure, a Christianity that has committed spiritual adultery against her divine Husband, Jesus Christ, but refuses to give up her married name: Christian.

Notre Dame has shown herself to be an adulterous, but is blind to this truth. “This is the way of an adulteress: she eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done no wrong’” (Proverbs 30:20 ESV). Notre Dame feasted upon the words of Obama, but when true Christians pointed out that what she was consuming were lies, for the evidence was clear for all to see, she tried to hide the truth from herself and others and said, “I have done no wrong.”

But Notre Dame has done something wrong. She has prepared her bed and invited the world to join her.