Via Kos, Karl decided Bubble Boy should get back to his roots by making the commencement speech at a small Christian college.

Well, it turns out many of the Christians there aren’t too happy about it. They wrote to WashPo’s Dan Froomkin to protest:

Professor Kenneth Pomykala, chair of Calvin College’s Department of Religion.. wrote to me that some members of the community “are unhappy with Bush’s visit because we believe that Christian values require public policies that seek social justice, compassion for the disenfranchised, human rights, a commitment to peace, care and preservation of the environment, and honesty, say, from political leaders — in short, policies opposed to the Bush agenda.”

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Kate Bowman, the student activities coordinator at the college, e-mailed to say: “Many of us do not believe that Calvin’s graduation ceremony is the proper forum for a partisan political address, particularly from such a divisive and controversial figure. . . .
“Many of us believe that his actions since taking office contradict the teachings of the Gospel, and though we love President Bush as our brother as we are called to love all (even our enemies), we profoundly disagree with his appeals to Christianity to support his own political aims.”

“There is a lively and thoughtful discussion happening on our in-house faculty listserv at the moment around the issue of Bush’s visit. Currently the hot topic is how protest should be approached at this event. People want to be respectful without appearing to give a stamp of approval to the actions of the administration.”

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And Raleigh Chadderdon, {a student} wrote that “the majority of graduating seniors I’ve talked with since have generally been disappointed, frustrated, and feeling betrayed by the school’s decision to politicize our graduation. . . .
“Once word was out, a significant number of students were scrambling to counteract the event, setting up dialogue over e-mail which now will hopefully take place on a public online venue, just recently started. The Group is called Our commencement is not Your platform.

These are Calvinists, mind you - not exactly your touch-feely Christians.