Editor,
On Friday the Daily Lobo had an article about a professor of English, Dr. Peter Lundman, who protested the Mass on the Grass that was held at the Duck Pond.
Lundman is trying to force his atheistic beliefs down the throats of anyone within the UNM and CNM areas.
A high-ranking professor’s involvement in a protest with a group of students leaves the students open to discrimination that lasts beyond the one day in which they evoke their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to peaceably assemble.
Lundman’s motives are unclear to me. He was under no obligation to attend the mass, and by protesting the mass he is showing that he is narrow-minded in his view points.
He is offended by a meeting of a group of Catholic students on a campus, mind you, that he does not teach at.
Lundman is a professor at CNM. He has a double standard: he has not protested the Campus Crusade for Christ, or CRU as it is now known, even though it uses an actual classroom in Mitchell Hall rather than a non-instruction space where students go to relax such as the Duck Pond.
If Lundman had seen one of his students at the event, do you really think that this man, who, to quote an entry on ratemyprofessors.com, “Grades unfairly if he does not like you” and is “not open-minded to [his students’] opinions,” would really not hold a grudge he saw them receive what is, according to their faith, the sanctifying grace that is the body and blood of Jesus Christ?
Imagine this analogy: A Hindu group of students plan to sacrifice goats to Kali or Shiva. They received the proper paperwork and are ready to perform their religious ritual. However, a professor at the campus protests the exhibition. One of the students also has class with this professor.
Such a situation would cause the student to worry about persecution in class for expressing his or her views. The student, however, shouldn’t worry about expressing such views in public because it is guaranteed under the Bill of Rights.
Brendan Kearns
UNM student
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