I have been debating whether or not to comment on the controversial visit of President Obama to Notre Dame last Sunday. But I concluded it was no coincidence that I walked out of a restaurant as Air Force One was making its final approach; and then, with no knowledge of the routing from the airport to the campus, I saw the presidential motorcade.

My comment on the decision won't take much space. It is simple and forthright:

For a major Catholic University to bestow an honorary Doctorate of Law degree on a pro-choice president is tantamount to a major Planned Parenthood agency honoring Randall Terry for his achievements--totally inconsistent with its stated purposes.

The long-term damage this does to the pro-life movement could be monumental. A huge message has been sent forth to Catholics everywhere, and that message extends beyond the issue of abortion. It's a statement that says, "prestige over principles, and popularity over morality." 

Somewhere along the line, the administration of the Fighting Irish quit fighting for principle and morality.  

Two Life-Shaping Experiences at Notre Dame
Yet I want to explore much deeper than one commencement exercise at one university. I was compelled yesterday to ask myself two questions: "How do institutions depart from their biblical worldview moorings of operating based on principles and morality? And how does this apply to our own ministry here at Life Action?" Ironically, I reflected on two life-shaping experiences I had on campus at Notre Dame more than two decades ago, and how they both influenced my worldview in a positive way.

Life-Shaping Experience #1: Truth is truth regardless of how it affects me.
I remember going to Washington Hall on campus to hear a debate on abortion. It was the mid-1980s. The debate was between a liberal professor from Marquette University and a conservative law professor from Notre Dame.

The contrast was sharp and compelling in favor of the conservative professor. His closing argument concluded that to be truly and consistently biblical, a pregnant woman, even if her life is at stake, should choose to die to save the life of her unborn child.

His rationale was based on the example of Christ's ultimate sacrifice on the cross. He contended that if Christ modeled giving up His life so that others could live, how could we not do the same? Even in the case of rape or life-threatening danger to the mother!

In the pro-life battle, many evangelicals would draw the abortion line short of these two conditions. I don't. Truth is truth. In other words, truth does not cease to be truth just because it does not benefit me.

Movements and organizations will begin to falter whenever the one who is serving esteems himself better than the one he is serving. When we quit laying down our lives for others, at any cost, we are in trouble.

Life-Shaping Experience #2: Doing what is morally right is more important than doing what is popular.
This past week was the 25th anniversary of the death of Francis Schaeffer. I had the privilege of being invited to the campus of Notre Dame in 1982 for a special gathering of lawyers and educators. Their assignment was to address the cultural issues facing our nation, how to combat moral deterioration, and how the outcome would affect our religious liberties. Undoubtedly, the highlight for me was an address by the late Dr. Schaeffer.

Francis Schaeffer, as he regularly did, commended Moral Majority (a conservative evangelical activist group) for their initiatives to mobilize Christians in opposing legislation that tolerated immorality, though he privately expressed concerns to Dr. Falwell over his style. Style was important to Dr. Schaeffer but secondary to substance.

Today, I fear that style has become more important than substance--a dangerous equation. Inevitably, this leads to elevating popularity over morality. That's where we are in our land, both politically and in our brand of Christianity.

Conclusion: The ministry of the Holy Spirit is an essential ingredient to maintain principles over prestige, and morality over popularity.
This is where I want to borrow from Lane Dennis, president of Crossway Books, as he reflected this past Friday on the impact of Dr. Schaeffer, addressing the role of methods (style) in Christian ministry. The following is worth digesting carefully and prayerfully:

L.D. - The tendency is for Christians to fail to understand the utter lostness of the world, and instead, they embrace the world's methods for doing the work of the Lord.

F.S. - The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord's work in the power of the flesh rather than the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them. If we do not want to waste our lives, then we must understand the importance of having a humble, quiet heart and the power of the Holy Spirit. Though we know the power of the Holy Spirit can be ours, we still ape the world's wisdom, trust its form of publicity, its noise, and imitate its ways in manipulating men! If we try to influence the world by using its methods, we are doing the Lord's work in the flesh. The key question is this: as we work for God in this fallen world, what are we trusting in? To trust in particular methods is to copy the world and to remove ourselves from the tremendous promise that we have something different to offer. [Click here to view source.)

In Life Action, we can easily be drawn into desiring popularity within our own spectrum of evangelical culture, and begin to operate pragmatically in the power of the flesh. But each time we do, we lose another moral fiber of character and Holy Spirit influence on the world that surrounds us.

Conversely, each time we depend solely on the power of the Spirit to enable us, we counter immorality, and prestige becomes unnecessary and even distasteful as we carry forth His principles for living.

The bottom line? Principles and morality are worth fighting for even if it means we lose prestige and popularity. "Not by might, but by My Spirit!"