Anti-gay rights students at Catholic NE U. object to giveaway of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis tickets; push­back crashes Creightonian website; administration overrules them

Well this is different. Usually antigay initiatives at Catholic Universities are top-down, not bottom-up. And usually it's the administration overruling progay, not antigay students.
     In Omaha, the Creighton Students Union Program Board was about to begin giving away some 50-75 free ticket vouchers for an upcoming Macklemore & Ryan Lewis concert at the CenturyLink Center (the duo's last Omaha venue was at Sokal Hall).
     We say "about" because the giveaway was delayed while university officials pondered whether to cancel the promotion after Creighton's Catholic Student Organization protested.

James Doyle, president
of Creighton U's Catholic
Student Organization,
which failed to stop
distribution of tickets
for Macklemore & Ryan
Lewis concert

     Kevin Coffey, of the Omaha World-Herald, reported that the group sent letters to the student union and the Rev. Timothy Lannon, Creighton's president, and that the group's president, James Doyle (a fine undergraduate gift to Omaha from Central Texas and Topeka, Kansas), wrote, in a letter obtained by the Herald, that "when artists so deliberately and outwardly advocate such a position [marriage equality], they should not be publicly supported."
     Two offended members of the Class of 2016, Ben Thompson and his best girl, Christina Laubenthal (a bartender/server at the (seriously) Outing Club of Des Moines), dashed off a long letter to the Creightonian objecting to ticket giveaway: "We at Creighton pride ourselves on being a Catholic school with strong Catholic values, and we believe we are still that university. With concern for its integrity, we urge Creighton to resist popular practice and instead hold itself to the highest moral standards. Please continue Creighton’s tradition of excellence in this area; cancel the CSU Program Board vouchers for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis."
     The letter stirred up a hornet's nest of progay Creighton students so great that they crashed the website of the university's student newspaper.  The authors of the antigay letter have now clammed up, refusing to be interviewed by KETV.



     After delaying the voucher giveaway, Creighton officials cancelled the moratorium, adding that the school is committed not to “endorse issues that are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church” but reminding the public that “in the past, the university has hosted debates on the issue of same-sex marriage. We have had open sessions on this topic which centered on (Catholic) tenets of understanding and inclusion.”
     According to the World-Herald:

Since “Same Love” was released, Macklemore and Lewis have performed on some Catholic college campuses, including Boston College, University of San Francisco and St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.