Student banned from criticizing gay ‘marriage’ in class at Jesuit college

lifesitenews.com ^ | 11/17/2014 | Thaddeus Baklinski

[massmike]

A student at Marquette University, a Roman Catholic institution in Wisconsin run by the Jesuits, says his philosophy professor that he was not allowed to express his view against same-sex “marriage” in her classroom.

The student, speaking to The College Fix, said that MU philosophy instructor Cheryl Abbate told her “Theory of Ethics” class that "gay rights" was a settled issue because, unlike issues such as immigration, civil rights and the death penalty, “everybody agrees on this, and there is no need to discuss it.”

The student, who asked to remain anonymous, challenged Abbate, telling her he thought the issue deserved to be discussed, and that dismissing arguments against gay "marriage" and gay adoption because of her personal views set an inappropriate precedent for the class.

Abbate then told the student that “some opinions are not appropriate, such as racist opinions, sexist opinions.” When he insisted on his rights to free speech, he said Abbate told him he did not have “a right in this class to make homophobic comments.”

She then invited the student to drop the class, telling him, “In this class, homophobic comments, racist comments, will not be tolerated.”

The student said he filed a complaint with the associate dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Susanne Foster, who referred him to Nancy Snow, the philosophy department chair, but they not only failed to address his complaint, but warned him not to talk to Abbate in a “disrespectful manner.”

[Steve_Seattle]

The American Jesuit universities ceased to be Catholic about 20 years ago. I am an alum of one (Seattle University), and it is not the same place that I once knew. A higher percentage of Seattle U profs voted for Obama than did the profs at the University of Washington.

I don't know exactly how that happened, but economics might have been part of it. They were struggling financially in the early 70s, and when they became publicly liberal, the money started flowing in. But I'm sure that the leftward turn was not just for financial gain, because they really had gone far left.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Why would any serious Christian want to pay big bucks to attend this hellhole?"

At this point in time, the ONLY reasons are that you don't have the GPA or the connections or the athletic prowess to make it into a public university.

[Talisker]

Well, that’s not what liability means, but your point is well taken. This dissertation sounds like complete BS.

Well I have trouble with big words. After all, liability has five whole syllables. And then I go and do things like presume a dissertation on the study of the applicability of liability would include discussions on the acceptable interpretive limits of truth-telling vis-à-vis the declared focal issue of "defensive" situations, leaping from there to my admittedly indefensible presumption that truth-telling would or could be contrasted with the concept of being responsible or even guilty of "lying." But your point is well taken.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Well I have trouble with big words. After all, liability has five whole syllables. And then I go and do things like presume a dissertation on the study of the applicability of liability would include discussions on the acceptable interpretive limits of truth-telling vis-à-vis the declared focal issue of "defensive" situations, leaping from there to my admittedly indefensible presumption that truth-telling would or could be contrasted with the concept of being responsible or even guilty of "lying." But your point is well taken."

In terms of the context of the situation taken as a whole, and accounting for all variables, known and unknown, along with the inherent malleability of all possible parameters, and the persistence of oxymorons, you just might be right. :.)

[BeadCounter]

Marquette was (and probably did) give a professorship to Russ Feingold once he was out of congress. Another boo-boo by that Univ.

[BeadCounter]

It’s a pity too because basketball-wise, I think Marquette has actually had some good collegiate teams.

[RinaseaofDs]

Ecofeminism?

OK, wow. That sounds like an unholy marriage.

[wardaddy]

Homosexual amnesty loving commie Jesuits

Is this same tribe burned Prods at the stake and tried to assassinate monarchs?

Where’d they put their balls?

Buddy of mine went to Spring Hill college in 70s

He said they were tough....brutal

[terycarl]

she is SO fortunate that I am long since out of college because when I was in there, she’d have had NO CHANCE against me whatsoever, and I certainly would not have dropped her class. The students ust understant that they are paying huge bucks to be educated, not indoctrinated and Gay marriage is WRONG AND DOUBLY WRONG in a Catholic school.

[CodeToad]

Censorship, a liberal trait.

[Theodore R.]

Uninformed Catholic peoples must still be making donations to “the cause”.

[Oratam]

"Want your sons and daughters to lose their faith, send them to a Catholic university."

--Abp. Fulton Sheen

[Steelfish]

She studied animal ethics? Which animals?

[Last Dakotan]

Roman Catholic? Not very.

I'm a Marquette alum and former teacher. There are simply not enough Jesuits left there or in the order to be a force for good, bad or otherwise.

What I'd call the formerly Catholic institutions are now fully secular having the same liberal faculty as anywhere else. Even the President of MU is no longer a Jesuit.

[jimfree]

And she said...
Flowers are red young man
Green leaves are green
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than they way they always have been seen

[Talisker]

In terms of the context of the situation taken as a whole, and accounting for all variables, known and unknown, along with the inherent malleability of all possible parameters, and the persistence of oxymorons, you just might be right. :.)

Let's not get carried away. "Right" carries heavy socioeconomic implications and patriarchal judgement attachments, not to mention longstanding and overt political biases which can easily be seem as denigrating women, children, the LGBT community and people of color if not accompanied by a completely filled out Form B-1A5 that has been reviewed and approved by the appropriate student government Hate Protection Committee.

Which is why I'd just rather say that since the Moon is in the Seventh House, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, I feel that at the end of the day I'm on the same page as those who seek progressive clarification of goal assessments in this particular area (assuming preliminary group acceptance of my submission), while always remaining open to coalition-building feedback concerning any unrecognized, privilege-based global warming repercussions.

[BlackElk]

Norm:

Why pick fights with your Catholic allies?

I reflexively agree with you on most issues and I am, have always been and always will be Catholic. Now you might say that I am not in "leadership" and that would be true.

OTOH, there are many Catholic leaders with whom you may agree on much: Michael Novak, the retiring Francis Cardinal George of Chicago, Raymond Cardinal Burke, Archbishop Charles Chaput, Archbishop William Lori, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Bishop Daniel Jenky, to name a few.

You would find yourself in substantial agreement with the Knights of Columbus and its Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, formerly of Reagan's White House staff, and the previous Supreme Knight Virgil Dechant, a long time conservative Republican in Kansas.

I grant that there are numerous regrettable figures in leadership in the US Catholic Church: Sean Cardinal O'Malley, Donald Cardinal Wuerl, incoming Archbishop Blaise Cupich, Bishop Robert Lynch, come immediately to mind.

Because of the failure to date of internal warfare in the Catholic Church, we have yet to establish a refusal of sacraments to those "Catholic" public figures (where one was baptized as an infant is not everything) who have effectively excommunicated themselves from the Church by their material cooperation with abortion or cheerleading for it: the late Ted Kennedy, John French Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Rosa DeLauro, Patty Murray, Jerry Brown, Dannel Malloy, Patrick Quinn, Anthony Cuomo, Mario Cuomo, Edward Markey, Susan Collins, Patrick Leahy, Martin O'Malley, and so many, many others. OTOH, those who are not Catholic cannot be described as "Catholic leaders."

A list of relatively recently (last 50 years or so) deceased Catholic leaders include such noted conservatives as Bill Buckley, Frank Meyer, Friedrich von Hayek, Clare Booth Luce, Professor Warren Carroll, Russell Kirk, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.

The Catholic Church, as an institution, has always been favorable to organized labor, recently favorable to immigration and favorable to social spending projects which include neither abortion nor homosexuality. OTOH, any Catholic worthy of the name Catholic leader has been quite opposed to Marxism in all its forms.

In short, it is a gross overstatement to say that "the Catholic leadership is fully liberal." Not at all perfect but certainly not fully liberal.

God bless you and yours.

[SoFloFreeper]

http://ceabbate.wordpress.com/

According to this "instructor"'s web site...

Cheryl Abbate is currently a doctoral student in the philosophy department at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin....

Cheryl’s research interests are first and foremost Animal Ethics, including how Animal Ethics intersects with Animal Theology, Animal Minds, and Animal Consciousness. Cheryl also pursues research in military ethics, bioethics, environmental ethics, ecofeminism, and feminist philosophy.

Alllllrighty then.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

I hope he sues the arrogant bi*ch.

[BlackElk]

In 1967, there was a conference held at Land o' Lakes, Wisconsin to which all Catholic colleges and universities were invited. It was chaired by the infamous Fr. Theodore Hesburgh (hanging off the left edge of the universe by his breaking fingernails) who was the president of Notre Dame University when it began to go bad. The secretary was Fr. Robert Henle, SJ, former president of Georgetown University who had actual academic accomplishments unlike Hesburgh.

The purpose of the conference was to get the Catholic colleges and universities to sign a joint statement abandoning their Catholic status. The purpose? As Catholic institutions, they were subject to local bishops' authority and that non-Catholic "scholars" would never respect their intellectual integrity and independence so long as bishops could interfere.

All but 6 of the then Catholic colleges signed. I do not recall the full list of non-signees but Grenier College in Erie, PA, and St. John's University in Queens, NY, were two who refused to sign.

Of course, there was a potential problem in abandoning the formal Catholic affiliation. How to keep farming Catholics for donations, endowments and students when the school had renounced its Catholic identity. No problem! Just call the defecting school "a school of Catholic Heritage." The sheep gloss over that language and feel reassured that the school is still Catholic.

By analogy, the United States under Obozo, is a nation of constitutional heritage; i.e. we were once governed as a nation under a constitution restricting the powers of government but, while that is no longer true, we get a warm fuzzy feeling over the good old days just as Christians enjoy Silent Night at Christmastime or the Winter Holiday or whatever.

I attended and graduated a Jesuit prep school soooooo long ago that the Jebbies were STILL Catholic. If Marquette tells anyone that it is a Catholic school, whoever says that on behalf of the school is a liar. The Jebbies went fully bad under a Superior General named Pedro Arrupe who was elected in 1963 and just about forcibly removed from office with a crow bar by St. John Paul II. Despite that removal, the leftist Jebbies pulled in their horns, elected Hans Pieter Kolvenbach and quietly awaited JP II's death to continue their leftward march.

That's how.

May God bless you and yours!