12 May 2006 @ 4:33PM >> Jonah Goldberg of National Review notices that the faculty of Boston College selectively invokes the institution’s historical Catholicism when convenient for making political stands. Take, for instance, this maneuver to revoke the invitation of this year’s commencement speaker, who happens to be Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

In a letter distributed by the heads of the Catholic school’s theology department and signed by about 200 faculty members, we are informed that, “On the levels of both moral principle and practical moral judgment, Secretary Rice’s approach to international affairs is in fundamental conflict with Boston College’s commitment to the values of the Catholic and Jesuit traditions and is inconsistent with the humanistic values that inspire the university’s work.” The letter, titled “Condoleezza Rice Does Not Deserve a Boston College Honorary Degree,” cherry-picks quotes from Pope John Paul II to argue that Rice’s policies should disqualify her as a commencement speaker.

One can respect honest disagreement over the Bush administration’s foreign policy. But this high-minded rhetoric is a bit hard to take considering that B.C. is fairly selective about where it will draw such lines. For example, Mary Daly was for decades a distinguished professor at Boston College, despite the fact she exceeds even the right-wing parody of a left-wing academic. She refused to teach men. Her writings include such relentlessly anti-Catholic manifestos as “The Church and the Second Sex” and “Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation.” (Although my favorite title is “Outercourse: The Be-Dazzling Voyage.”)

Daly left the school in 1999, when she was told that she could no longer discriminatorily bar men from all of her classes. Rather than teach men, she chose to quit. But until then, Daly was free to call for the abolition of the Catholic Church and other “patriarchal religions” in favor of her own “post-Christian” feminist religion. Apparently, teaching students to reject Catholicism entirely is tolerable in a Catholic school, but Catholicism is useful in a pinch when it can be used to shun villains like Rice. “This is the only time these people have cited Pope John Paul II on anything,” the Rev. Paul McNellis, an adjunct professor in the B.C. philosophy department, told the Boston Globe.

12 May 2006 >> The Washington Post wonders whether 2006 will be the year of the black Republican:

The three are running on similar platforms of lower taxes, smaller government, and opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, but they come to their contests with different credentials. [Ohio Gubernatorial candidate Kenneth] Blackwell has a long resume in elective office and conservative causes. [Maryland candidate for governor Michael] Steele is a former state party chairman but has never been elected on his own. [Pennsylvania governor hopeful Lynn] Swann is a true political novice, albeit one with the star quality of a Hall of Fame wide receiver.

I would imagine it’s not easy being a black Republican. Holding views that differ from the edicts of the media-anointed “leaders of your race” will get you labeled a sell-out. It will confound white liberals who assume that your skin color is supposed to determine your political orientation. It will cause political opponents to do things like throw Oreos at you during public appearances.

It must take quite a lot of guts to promote ideas you believe in knowing full well that doing so will get you excommunicated from your own racial group by the arbiters of What It Is To Be Black.