[P-Marlowe]

Since he had a contract that requried him to be a practicing protestant, he broke the contract by converting to Catholicism.

He should have tendered his resignation. I'm sure it would have been accepted and there would not have been any controversy. That would have been the honorable thing to do. He had a legal and moral obligation to resign.

Wheaton was not only within their rights to fire him, but since he went public with this issue in an apparent attempt to embarrass the college, I would suggest that they should sue him for breach of contract.

[Kolokotronis]

I agree with everything you wrote except this:

"Wheaton was not only within their rights to fire him, but since he went public with this issue in an apparent attempt to embarrass the college, I would suggest that they should sue him for breach of contract."

That really would depend on the terms of the contract and I doubt that constitutionally any institution could maintain an action for breach of contract over a refusal of an employee to maintain certain religious beliefs, but I suppose its possible, say in the event that the professor had received some value beyond simply the agreed value of his services, like a signing bonus or some such benefit which hadn't been fully "amortized".

[Dumb_Ox]

Wheaton was not only within their rights to fire him, but since he went public with this issue in an apparent attempt to embarrass the college, I would suggest that they should sue him for breach of contract.

I'm not a subscriber, so I couldn't read the full article.

Who is stirring this pot? Did somebody seek out this professor, or did he seek out the media? This is an intra-Evangelical issue, too, so perhaps those Evangelicals aiming for academic respectability have adopted the guy as a cause celebre. I sure hope the professor didn't go whining to the press. Academic positions are hard to come by, but decisions have their consequences.

[jo kus]

Since he had a contract that requried him to be a practicing protestant, he broke the contract by converting to Catholicism

Did he have such a contract? He was REQUIRED to be a Protestant by contract? If that is the case, then I suppose Wheaton had a right to let him go. But on the other hand, one wonders why he didn't just go to the board of directors more quietly. Who knows of his motives and the whole story. I wonder about the requirement. Being that this man was an instructor, what sort of religious freedom are they teaching? What sort of conviction does the board have with their own faith? Interesting.

Regards