Beards, Dens, and Lions

PUBLISHED ON

March 10, 2010

Over at OSV’s Daily Take, John Norton points to the perfect antidote to such depressing news as our Speaker of the House’s insistence that ” we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

Only this antidote isn’t a thing; it’s a person — Dr. Raymond Leo Dennehy, Professor of Philosophy, Bioethics, and Epistemology at the University of San Francisco:

Dennehy has been going to Berkeley for this debate for 46 consecutive semesters, invited by students who knew he was a high-profile abortion foe. Before Potts arrived a decade ago, Dennehy faced off with the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women. One time, no opponent showed up, so he sparred with a video.

Dennehy, a Roman Catholic son of Irish immigrants and a father of four, began publicly arguing against abortion in 1969. Two years earlier, California Gov. Ronald Reagan had signed a law legalizing limited abortion. Dennehy became active in a local antiabortion group and was invited to make his case on a local radio station. After that, his debating career took off.

Each time he makes the trek across the Bay Bridge to debate Potts, he steels himself a little; he knows that, generally speaking, he is entering enemy territory.

Wow. And in Ms. Pelosi’s backyard, no less. I feel better already.

God bless Professor Dennehy for his courage.

Author

  • Joseph Susanka has been doing development work for institutions of Catholic higher education since his graduation from Thomas Aquinas College in 1999. Currently residing in Lander, Wyoming -- "where Stetsons meet Birkenstocks" -- he is a columnist for Crisis Magazine and the Patheos Catholic portal.

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