Tuesday, October 17, 2006

In the Campus Papers

Last Thursday, the Marquette Tribune published a fantastic viewpoint written by a Catholic student whose faith is guiding him to vote no on November 7. In his column, Paul Hinze writes that Catholics have access to God's revelation through three avenues: Scripture, the Church, and personal revelation through an informed conscience. His informed conscience leads him to disagree with various passages of the Bible (which he says have been used just as easily to justify things like racism and sexism that we now agree is wrong):

It is Catholic Church teaching, which strongly emphasizes the obligation to follow an informed conscience, that advises me here. As paradoxical as it may sound, my obligation to the Catholic Church is to disagree with the bishops' teaching in the interest of fostering further reflection and discussion.

He concludes his piece by writing that our growing awareness of homosexual members of our community "gives us new opportunities to learn how God means for us to live together," and says:

We are at a point in history — a point that has come before with issues of race and gender — where the identity of a group of individuals is becoming clear, but their full participation in our community is yet to be attained. Let us not cut off this process with a premature ban, but rather join them at the table as Jesus did and seek the wisdom of God together.

Students for a Fair Wisconsin also received our first campus editorial board endorsement for the fall semester from the Advance-Titan at UW-Oshkosh. They call on voters to be smart and do what is best for Wisconsin:

On Nov. 7, your choice on the ballot doesn’t have to be one between “fair” or “moral.” In order to keep the UW System and other businesses competitive, a smart Wisconsin should vote “no.”

The Daily Carindal editorial board also wrote an editorial supporting the UW System Board of Regents for their opposition to the ban.

Finally, we continue to have letters to the editor published, including this one in the Badger Herald, this one in the Advance-Titan, and one in the UW-River Falls Student Voice.

Note: this post also appears on Fair Wisconsin's No on the Amendment Blog.