More on the story we highlighted a few days ago. University of Illinois Religion Professor Ken Howell was fired for telling students in his “Modern Catholic Thought” class that he agreed with the Church teaching on marriage and sexuality.
AP coverage of Ken Howell’s firing is below. You can read the email that got him in so much trouble here.
U of I instructor fired over Catholic comments
The Associated Press
Posted Jul 09, 2010 @ 10:22 AM
Last update Jul 09, 2010 @ 03:05 PMURBANA -- The University of Illinois has fired an adjunct professor who taught courses on Catholicism after a student accused the instructor of engaging in hate speech by saying he agrees with the church's teaching that homosexual sex is immoral.
The professor, Ken Howell of Champaign, said his firing violates his academic freedom. He also lost his job at an on-campus Catholic center.
Howell, who taught Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought, says he was fired at the end of the spring semester after sending an e-mail explaining some Catholic beliefs to his students preparing for an exam.
"Natural Moral Law says that Morality must be a response to REALITY," he wrote in the e-mail. "In other words, sexual acts are only appropriate for people who are complementary, not the same."
An unidentified student sent an e-mail to religion department head Robert McKim on May 13, calling Howell's e-mail "hate speech." The student claimed to be a friend of the offended student. The writer said in the e-mail that his friend wanted to remain anonymous.
"Teaching a student about the tenets of a religion is one thing,"the student wrote. "Declaring that homosexual acts violate the natural laws of man is another."
Howell said he was teaching his students about the Catholic understanding of natural moral law.
"My responsibility on teaching a class on Catholicism is to teach what the Catholic Church teaches," Howell said in an interview with The News-Gazette in Champaign. "I have always made it very, very clear to my students they are never required to believe what I'm teaching and they'll never be judged on that."
29 Comments
The professor was right. He has every right to teach about the Catholic beliefs and to belive it himself, as long as he does not require his students to belive it. This is outrageous that he was fired and a very frightening course to note that only imoral thought is tolerated, and that opposing views are not. Fight hard against this.
Karen Levine
There comes a time when expressing what a person believes is true is defined as 'hate speech" indicates that we have lost our freedom. This is such a case.
Since when does a university have a right to fire a professor from expressing his beliefs concerning a subject that he is teaching. It is time to call those who claim to be protecting the rights of an individual become greater that the right to express truth in a college course. This act to control what is being taught is evil.
How sad! Based on an anonymous tip, and hiding behind the unconstitutional term "hate speech" a professor looses his job.
When is it ok to express opinion in America. Free speech is not only the privalage of protected groups such as the homosexual community and Minority groups.... Free speech is a universal right of American citizenship.
How can we dialog or teach when people are going to be fired for expressing their beliefs. This article did not represent the content of the professors email well. The responding "friend" of the student to complained to the department head used inflamitory language, not the professor.
Oh, yeah... I forgot... its ok for people to spew hate and misrepresent others negatively because they are from the "protected group." Perhaps this reply will be considered hate speech too....
I am utterly shocked and appalled.
It seems that the homosexual movement will stop at nothing short of completely destroying religious freedom, academic freedom, freedom of speech, and our nation as we have known it. God help us!
This is another example of one religion stomping all over another religion. Freedom of speech freedom of the written word! You the press should understand MOST OF ALL. What is religion? Simply put what ever you put at the very top of your list and believe that it will bring you happiness.
What is Christianity? It is a religion but it's much more then that. It is a WAY OF LIFE. This is why the other religions hate Christianity so much. They have no way to fight Christianity. It Changes Lives! There only fight is to make laws against it. The problem with that is that it pushes people closer to God and they become bolder and more out spoken. Maybe we Christians need some persecution to get us off our seat and our feet into the streets. I read to the end of the book and God win!!!!!!
It's ashame that Obama's left wingers have gained control of our education system. Why did the school even allow Christian religious courses to be offered if they didn't want the church's doctrine taught. I hope he sues the school bigtime and wins. Then maybe they'll fire the Robert McKim.
To Whom It May Concern:
The University Professor of Illinois was teaching the truth about the Catholic Church's morals and teachings. He did not do anything wrong but told the truth and SHOULD NOT BE FIRED!
This is utterly WRONG - he was not making the student convert but was stating the facts about our
Catholic Church teachings. Freedom of speech should definitely rule in this case. Wake up America before it is too late !!!!
Who is the unnamed student who stirred up the fuss? If he is gay, why did he take Prof Howell's course in the first place? And if he thinks that sodomy and all the other forms of homosexual sex are normal and natural, why doesn't he make a case for that?
unbelievable!
It is unthinkable that a professor teaching a class on Catholicism could not tell the students what the Catholic Church teaches in the area of morality. This is bigotry at its worst.
It also shows where "higher" education is going - they do not allow freedom of speech. Where is academic freedom? I guess its wherever the "powers to be" want it to be. What a sham!!
Joan Flood.
This firing makes me furious. I am NOT a Catholic, but I do believe Mr. Howell, in keeping with his faith, is obliged to answer questions about his personal beliefs honestly. It appears that "Chicago politics" have penetrated that part of Illinois that I didn't believe it could. Sadly, I once considered attending the U of I; now I'm almost ashamed to admit I'm originally from that once great State! I hope Mr. Howell sues the pants off the University and wins big time.
I read once a very wise saying, and it said, " the truth is first mocked, then denied and then it becomes self-evident." And it is very true. Most people today are mixing the fact between freedom to choose and what is morally right. People are not setting standards for themselves and they are just following the crowd.Its no wonder why we have anxiety attacks, diseases and mid-life crisis in our late twenties. A very famous book quotes, " the wages of sin is death." And if America doesn't shape up...God help us.
No matter what you think about the professor's point of view or the quality of his reasoning, it is clearly not hate speech.
Perhaps a public funded college is not the place for catholic teaching to be taught--what you are doing is giving the left fuel for their fire. Would we all be upset if the class were on Muslim beliefs? It would probably not have been reported by a catholic or pro-life site as a horrible thing, however, I personally think religion should not be taught in these state run schools, for exactly the reason that this issue highlights---people get offended if the truth about a religion is taught and they disagree with it--public education is way too secular humanistic to ever go back to the days of teaching Judeo-Christian morals and by coming down on the school for offering religion classes we actually will be shutting the muslims out too. Beware--many things we are fighting for as Christians are going to come back and bite us as Muslims use them to infiltrate our society. By allowing religion classes to be run in state funded schools we are in fact, allowing anyone to teach what we believe--would you like this class being taught by someone who left the catholic church to become muslim or evangelical christian? And unless there is someone watching to make sure the truth is being taught, you are going to end up with lies being taught to unsuspecting minds who think "he's a professor, he must KNOW this to be fact". Best to leave religion to the church--make them come to us to learn where we are sure the teachers are qualified to teach and backed up by their heirarchy. I am catholic and would not want my child taking a course with the above title at her state university because I am quite sure it would be taught by some liberal who doesn't teach truly what the church teaches.
This is not just the belief of the Catholics , the bible states this,why don't these high and mighty men read the bible, and find out for themselves, and I might add, he that goes against God"s teaching are in for a great surprise, and it isn't a good one.
Something is wrong with a school that hires someone to teach about a certain religion then fires them for teaching the beliefs of the religion.
He wasn't fired for believing Catholic faith myths but for judging homosexuality as immoral. That's typically against hate speech codes on modern college campuses.
The right to make judgements based on one's conscience is a basic human right. Howell has the right to his own personal judgment about what is acceptable moral behavior, (freedom of religion), and he has the right to share his view/judgment with others (freedom of speech). He doesn't have the right to force his view on others. That is tyranny. And, that is what UI and the homosexual lobby are doing.
You write that Professor Howell was fired because "he agreed with the Church teaching on marriage and sexuality," and now all of your readers believe this and are outraged. If you have documentation from UI that this was the reason he was fired, I would like you to post your source.
The UI Academic Staff Handbook's statement on academic freedom states that faculty members must provide students with "the freedom to consider conflicting views and to make their own evaluation of data, evidence, and doctrines. Furthermore, faculty members have a responsibility to maintain an atmosphere conducive to intellectual inquiry and rational discussion." From what I have read, Professor Howell failed to do this.
I believe in freedom of speech, I believe that there can be a healthy debate in regards to same-sex marriage and the Catholic Church, and I believe that Professor Howell could have shared his viewpoints while maintaining a class atmosphere that is expected of him. Unfortunately, he did not.
I am shocked and amazed that if one express ones religious belief, it is termed "hate Speech" I am sure if this comment was made by a Muslin, it would not have caused a small ripple, but for a Christian to voice their belief, it is hate speech, in a land that was claimed for the glory of God. We are reaping the just grapes of our own stupidity in reaching for a brass ring (the Change) that promised "change". I am sure that those who voted for "the change" never thought that this promise was only another venue of forcing Socialism on the American people. Lord help us to find the guts to vote these people out of our government and once again say with true hearts that this country honors God in all our ways. Believe what you may, this country was claimed by our forefathers as a country "Under God".
Howell was hired to teach an approved UI course. This student took the course knowing the content and its obvious that the student complaint is a frivilous one based on hear say of his friend. I am glad UI has this course in there college and more colleges should follow suit as long as the Catholic faith is not distorted. I believe this Professor did his job and did express the Catholic faith and beliefs properly. This teacher was fired illegally .
Unfortunately the professor went outside of Catholic thought in his email. Here is an excerpt:
"In this scenario, homosexual men have been known to engage in certain types of actions for which their bodies are not fitted. I don't want to be too graphic so I won't go into details but a physician has told me that these acts are deleterious to the health of one or possibly both of the men. Yet, if the morality of the act is judged only by mutual consent, then there are clearly homosexual acts which are injurious to their health but which are consented to. Why are they injurious? Because they violate the meaning, structure, and (sometimes) health of the human body."
This isn't a point of view from the Church.
This is awful what is happening in our Universities.
What I can say, as a Roman Catholic, our religious freedom is being squashed by groups that come in & feel they can control our lives & our souls.
Our children do not need to hear any of this until the appropriate age. Today, our culture has allowed too much freedom with no control.
God bless & continue to inform us.
disgusting. The university should be cut off from all federal funds for this blatant discrimination against.....thought and....free will.
The Progressive Left has brought back the Salem wich trials back to our land. If you do not agree with their doctrine, your freedom of speech does not exist. Everything in opposition to their misguided beliefs is viewed as hate speech. They in fact are the haters and the one's that should be fired from their jobs, not for disagreeing, but for the despotism'
Psalm 9:17 in The Old Testament of God's Holy Word, The Bible, declares, "The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God." KJV And Mark Twain was quoted as saying, "If you tell the truth, you don't have to rememder anything."
Going back a few pages, President Obama said he never read his infamous health-care bill. It was, likely, penned by the ACLU - "Anti-Christs with Lucifer United," with his full knowledge.
Dear Professor, please seek the assistance of Liberty Counsel at http://www.lc.org to plead your case.
All who trust, solely, in Jesus Christ shall not be ashamed!! That's a given.
How on earth can they justify this? I mean, higher education in general already lets the other side of the political and moral spectrum say whatever they like without consequence, making this a case of double standard by any measure. Then add in the fact that the class he was teaching was a class ON CATHOLICISM!
They fired the guy for saying exactly what he teaches. That would be like firing a math teacher for saying that two plus two is four because it's not inclusive to the kid who wants to believe that it equals five. It's ridiculous.
He's better off out of that sewer of anti-intellectualism. He can probably get a job at an authentic university. I would be ashamed to say I graduated from such a sorry mess.
Professor Ken Howell did the right thing, so God is goin to provide another and better job. God Bless him and his family.
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