President Obama, Georgetown University, and the monogram of Jesus

It was problematic enough for faithful Catholics that Georgetown University had invited pro-abortion on demand, pro-fetal stem cell cannibalization President Barack Obama to speak there. But once there, White House staff requested that the university cover up the monogram IHS (actually ιης, the first three letters in ιησους,the name "Jesus" in Greek) which is engraven on a pediment of the stage where the president was to speak.

A triangle of black painted plywood accomplished this.

The White House claims that concealing the monogram per se was not their intention. Rather, they wanted to provide a suitable background to the appropriate flags. It was seen as "disrespectful" to have a Christian symbol displayed behind a president making a policy speech.

Judge for yourself from the photos whether the monogram- which is located behind the black plywood triangle- would have been problematic.

Georgetown is a Catholic university. No president would have any right to ask that Christian symbols be concealed from a stage there on which he had agreed to speak. If the monogram would have created a problem in displaying the appropriate backdrop, that might be a different matter. But it was a dicey request, given the circumstances- and a case can be made that maybe the flags could have been displayed in some other way rather than giving what our Catholic brethren and sisteren might refer to as the occasion of scandal.

Of course, to be fair, the president's staff might say that such was exactly their intention. But it's still a questionable call- and one probably better left to the university, nicht wahr?

HT: Drudge