<p>I don’t like the sound of my last post.</p>
<p>I’m starting to get agitated and strident. I’m starting to blur the line between determining how Notre Dame behaves as a large employer (which I think is an issue where all citizens have a stake) and how Notre Dame defines its own religious and social culture (which is a matter in which a non-Catholic outsider like me should have little or no say).</p>
<p>I believe the original question was something like, “Will this law suit look explicitly partisan to outsiders, and will it affect applications and enrollment?” I came originally to give my outsider’s opinion: Notre Dame’s participation in the suit does look partisan to me, but I would be surprised if it had much impact on applications. As others have said, the overlap between Notre Dame applicants on one hand, and Obama- and mandate-backing family-planning advocates on the other, was already pretty minimal.</p>
<p>For a page and a half or so, I think there was a very respectful and well reasoned discussion of the birth-control mandate, and whether it unreasonably restrains Notre Dame’s free exercise of religion. I have tried to explain my position: while I don’t like the fact that the mandate requires something that many Catholics find objectionable, I think it’s allowable because in this instance, Catholics and a Catholic university are engaging in secular activities, so I support the mandate firmly, but with some misgivings. And I tried (back in the beginning, before I started falling apart on page 3) to listen to others’ arguments, and to concede that often those arguments had a lot of merit.</p>
<p>I’ve said what I came here to say. But I fear I am on the verge of overstepping–on the verge of saying how I think Notre Dame should think and act, when that’s not really my place. And I’m afraid I may wind up saying something that later I’ll be ashamed to own. So, clearly, it’s time for me to thank you all for a robust debate and then say good-bye, with apologies for any offense I may have given.</p>
<p>Thank you, and good-bye. I apologize if I offended; I did not mean to.</p>