The message from the University of Maryland is coming through loud and clear: Porn is bad. Prayer is good.
After a few weeks of battle between porn-watcher wannabes and lawmakers, the university president decided Thursday that a little bit of churchin' couldn't hurt anyone.
On Monday, the university's 175-member senate voted to abolish the invocation usually given during commencement ceremonies. They said that with such a diverse campus, many people felt excluded by the invocation. Never mind that the two-minute prayer is rotated among 14 university chaplains who are told to make it "as inclusive as possible," according to the Diamondback.
Apparently there was a groundswell of support in the form of holy e-mails sent to the university filled with holy rage after the senate's decision.
President C.D. Mote Jr., who rarely deviates from what the senate says, caved in to the higher online callings and said the invocation will go on as planned. Senate be damned.
So what might have led Mote to stop the senate? It might have all boiled down to one thing -- the porn:
... Senate Chair Ken Holum said Mote needed to respond to concerns from people outside the university community, particularly after a controversy earlier this week regarding the screening of part of a pornographic movie on the campus.
Holum, who said he respects Mote's decision, said he had received about 20 to 30 negative e-mail messages about the issue and that Mote had received many more.
"The firestorm had to do with a lot of things," he said. "Certainly had to do with the porn issue."
