Onward Catholic Scholars

Accuracy in Academia ^ | August 5, 2010 | Malcolm A. Kline

[AccuracyAcademia]

Truly, the Lord works in strange and mysterious ways. It was both unbelievable and unsurprising at the same time that a Catholic scholar— Dr. Kenneth Howell— was fired from a state university for teaching the Church’s position on homosexuality in a course on Catholicism.

“Howell, who had been teaching at the university since 2001, was relieved of his teaching duties based in part on an anonymous complaint sent via e-mail to university officials,” the Alliance Defense Fund reports. “The e-mail was sent by the friend of an anonymous student who claimed to be ‘offended’ by a May 4 e-mail Howell sent to students elaborating on a class discussion concerning Catholic beliefs about sexual behavior.”

“The May 4 e-mail from Howell addressed a May 3 lecture in which he explained how the Roman Catholic Church distinguishes between same-sex attraction and homosexual conduct. He accurately stated the church’s teaching that homosexual conduct is morally wrong, framing the issue in the context of natural moral law.”

Flash forward to the end of July. “The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana confirmed to Alliance Defense Fund attorneys Thursday that it will once again allow popular professor Dr. Kenneth Howell to teach on Catholicism after recently firing him for explaining the Roman Catholic Church’s position on human sexual behavior to members of his class,” the ADF claims. “ADF attorneys representing Howell sent a letter to university officials on July 12 explaining that the university’s actions violated his rights protected by the First Amendment and asked that he be reinstated.”

[LibertyRocks]

Apparently teachers are not allowed to teach accurate beliefs of CERTAIN religions — even though it’s COMPLETELY within the bounds of a normal syllabus for a course on CATHOLICISM!

Now, if the teacher has expressed the same thing to these same kids in a “liberal arts” class, and said it with the appropriate sneer the college would be fumbling all over itself to cover it up...

Absolutely sickening... And an “anonymous letter” which is CLAIMED to be written by a student is the basis for this firing? I hope the teacher wins big (even though it will come from taxpayers pockets). Something has to get through to these people...