U of Illinois Fires Catholic Prof for Explaining Church Teaching on Homosexuality

LifeSiteNews.com ^ | July 12, 2010 | by Kathleen Gilbert

[topher]

Monday July 12, 2010

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U. of Illinois Fires Catholic Prof for Explaining Church Teaching on Homosexuality

By Kathleen Gilbert

URBANA, Illinois, July 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Catholic professor has been fired from the University of Illinois for sending an email to students in a course on Catholic doctrine, explaining how homosexual activity is contrary to the natural moral law.

Kenneth Howell of Champaign, IL, also lost his job with the diocese of Peoria at the Newman center on campus, where he had been employed for 12 years, after university officials confronted Howell about the email.

Howell had taught “Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought” at the university's Department of Religion since 2001.

In an account posted by CatholicVoteAction.org, Howell says that although students in the course have often disagreed with Catholic teaching in the past, in Spring 2010 he "noticed the most vociferous reaction that I have ever had" regarding the Catholic teaching against homosexuality as morally wrong.

"It seemed out of proportion to all that I had known thus far," he wrote. This, he said, spurred him to send an email explaining "how this issue might be decided within competing moral systems," contrasting utilitarianism and natural moral law. 

"If we take utilitarianism to be a kind of cost-benefit analysis, I tried to show them that under utilitarianism, homosexual acts would not be considered immoral whereas under natural moral law they would," he wrote. "This is because natural moral law, unlike utilitarianism, judges morality on the basis of the acts themselves."

In the email, as quoted by the Associated Press, Howell had written: "Natural Moral Law says that Morality must be a response to REALITY. In other words, sexual acts are only appropriate for people who are complementary, not the same."

After the end of the semester, Howell says he was summoned to the office of Robert McKim, chairman of the Department of Religion, where he was told his email had been forwarded to the Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Concerns, and that he would no longer be able to teach at the university. Despite discussion of the email's contents, said Howell, McKim "was quite insistent that my days of teaching in the department were over."

Howell offered not to address the subject of homosexuality in class, and "averred that to dismiss me for teaching the Catholic position in a class on Catholicism was a violation of academic freedom and my first amendment rights of free speech. This made no difference."

Because the diocese of Peoria reportedly only permits university professors to teach at the campus Newman center, Howell lost his position there as well. Howell is now pursuing legal action with an Alliance Defense Fund attorney.

Initial attempts to contact the Diocese of Peoria and the University of Illinois have been unsuccessful as of press time. Dr. Howell declined to comment before speaking with his lawyer.

The case, while extraordinary in the United States, has been foreshadowed by similar discrimination in Canada and elsewhere. Dr. Chris Kempling, a teacher in British Columbia, was cited for professional misconduct and his license suspended after writing letters to a local newspaper explaining Christian belief on homosexuality. Kempling fought the charges all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court, where his appeal was denied - leaving him with hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

ADF attorneys see Howell’s case as part of an ominous trend on college campuses.

“A university cannot censor professors’ speech - including classroom speech related to the topic of the class - merely because certain ideas ‘offend’ an anonymous student,” said Howell's attorney, ADF Senior Counsel David French. “To fire a professor for teaching the actual subject matter of his course is outrageous. It’s ridiculous that a school would fire a professor without even giving him a chance to defend himself when he simply taught Catholic beliefs in a class about Catholic beliefs.”

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10071205.html

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[topher]

One cannot teach the truth in a public university.

One must distort the truth to be a professor/educator.

It is my personal belief that Science reflects God's perfection and man's imperfection.

In this same way, the perfection of God is distorted in our public education system (and even Catholic/Christian schools).

[topher]

Also, Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech have done away with at the University of Illinois.

Maybe this is to be expected from the state that has produced the likes of Obama and company...

[topher]

Note that the Diocese of Peoria has fired this Professor from a position at the Catholic Student Center.

From the article:

Kenneth Howell of Champaign, IL, also lost his job with the diocese of Peoria at the Newman center on campus, where he had been employed for 12 years, after university officials confronted Howell about the email.

[worst-case scenario]

This professor, unfortunately, must not have been tenured. Perhaps he was even an adjunct - appointed on semester-bt-semester contracts.

This is the sort of situation that the tenure system was designed to combat. Once you get tenure, you can’t be fired by your school over any sort of academic dispute, no matter how unpopular your position is with the rest of the faculty, the administration, or any group of students. It was developed to support the concept of “academic freedom-” the freedom to make well-supported, rational arguments, no matter how politically incorrect.

Abolish the tenure system and this sort of event will happen more and more.

[ArrogantBustard]

Because the diocese of Peoria reportedly only permits university professors to teach at the campus Newman center, Howell lost his position there as well. Howell is now pursuing legal action with an Alliance Defense Fund attorney.

Also from the article, and emphasized in the interests of completeness.

[GOPJ]

“To fire a professor for teaching the actual subject matter of his course is outrageous.

bump to the top

[Neoliberalnot]

This professor, unfortunately, must not have been tenured. Perhaps he was even an adjunct - appointed on semester-bt-semester contracts.

This is the sort of situation that the tenure system was designed to combat. Once you get tenure, you can’t be fired by your school over any sort of academic dispute, no matter how unpopular your position is with the rest of the faculty, the administration, or any group of students. It was developed to support the concept of “academic freedom-” the freedom to make well-supported, rational arguments, no matter how politically incorrect.

Abolish the tenure system and this sort of event will happen more and more.”

There is a massive effort by the left to rid the system of tenure in higher ed. Going against the tyranny of political correctness will allow conservatives to be savaged by the deviants on the left. Less than 50% of positions are actually tenure track and 80% of new highers are non-tenure track.

[naturalized]

In fact, anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

[worst-case scenario]

Absolutely correct. Administrations all across the country have been moving towards the non-tenured model for at least the past 15 years. It’s not just because of the ease with which a controversial professor can be let go under the non-tenure system. It’s sheer economics.

You can hire ten adjuncts at $5000 per year (teaching two classes) for each $50K tenure-track faculty. You don’t have to pay any sort of benefits for the adjuncts. They are at-will and can be dismissed at any time. You don’t need to give them office space. The biggest incentive is fiscal flexibility - you have no future financial obligations to them.

I’d say it’s not so much the wishes of leftist faculty. After all, they would be on the tenure committees that would approve the permanent hiring of a new faculty member, and could make sure that only people of similar political outlook were hired.

It’s the wish of the MBAs and bean-counters in the Bursar’s and chief administrators’ offices. Those are the guys controlling the purse strings.

The fellows at the top are just following the model of all other American businesses. Why keep permanent employees around, who expect health coverage, pensions and other expensive benefits? Temporary workers to whom you have no obligations are cheaper, and can be ordered around more because they feel insecure in their jobs to begin with.

It’s just the way of modern American business.

[topher]

I missed that the first time -- that you had to be a professor at the University -- to teach at the Newman Center...

Maybe the Diocese and the Newman Center should join in a challenge to the firing of the Professor.

[ArrogantBustard]

There may be a legitimate reason for the diocese to want only University Professors to teach at the Newman Center ... I'm not clear on what the relationship is.

The diocese definitely has a stake in the matter, though, and I hope its lawyers are working out the best angle for legal action.

[Augustinian monk]

He should have said “Alla Akbar- Death to Homosexuals”

[OpusatFR]

I don’t care who you are, that was just plain funny!

[BenKenobi]

What percentage of tenured professors are conservative? It’s job security for liberals.

[Neoliberalnot]

I suggest you have never worked for a well-run modern American Company. Some companies treat their employees far better, and without the malice of political correctness, then do academic institutions. The pay is better, benefits comparable, extras such as daycare, full exercise rooms, and retirement and investment programs that put the academy to shame. Academic institutions are incredibly intolerant of free speech.

[worst-case scenario]

I’ve worked for a number of well-run American companies, both as a full-time employee with all the perks you describe, and as a contractor.
Over the past thirty years, what I increasingly saw was a transition on the part of companies to increasing “employee flexibility.” What that meant was reliance on long or short-term outsourcing. Whole departments and divisions were let get and offered buy-outs, even as their key staff members were brought back as contract employees. Sometimes the pay was comparable; the day-cares and company shops would still be available. But the long-term benefits of things like health care and retirement benefits were shed.

Just as an example, take a look at the eleven men that died on the Deepwater Horizon. They were all highly skilled, indispensable workers, but they were all contract employees. There were only six full-time BP employees on that rig; they were the ones that called the shots. But the actual hands-on work was done by the contractors.

It’s been the same in most businesses with which I’m familiar here in this state. Pharmaceuticals, insurance, large retail chains at all price points, manufacturing, and even law firms - the companies are run by well-paid and cared-for upper management. They are staffed with a middle management that finds increasing pressure for deliverables and higher productivity is being pressed upon them every week or quarter. Contract workers are brought in for all levels of projects, some often lasting for years.

I suggest that *you* have been fortunate enough to continue in a field or at an employment level where you are, thus far, relatively immune to this phenomenon. Perhaps you will even be so fortunate as to exist in that situation for the rest of your life. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t an increasing trend - just that you are fortunate.

It’s the reason that I got out of corporate life, as comfortable as it was, and opened my own shop. After 25 years of watching “staff reductions” at my places of employment, when my buy-out offer finally came, I grabbed it. My income isn’t the same, the hassles are sure greater (it was nice to have THEIR accountants handle all the company reporting burdens) and I had a nice office and a much bigger staff - but here at least I have control of my own destiny.

[Neoliberalnot]

I concur with all you write and I feel a sense of despair for those treated badly by employers. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful to have a decent job, but I absolutely detest the intolerance for diversity of opinion that has become a hallmark of “higher education.” Political correctness is a vile oppressor of truth and individual freedom.

May your business be a success. I have a couple of small side businesses myself that produce a bit of extra income and I am a survivalist thanks to my upbringing in a rural area. I am a master of nothing but a jack of a dozen trades.

[worst-case scenario]

Thanks for your response. I live in the town right next to a large public research university, and have friends that have held appointments from adjuncts to full-fledged tenured positions. The political correctness you describe has been something they’ve encountered, but really has only become a problem in some fields such as English Literarure and some branches of history. The hard sciences, mathematics, engineering, and economics are all fairly insulated from “PC,” as they call it. For one thing, those fields are based on data.

But fields like English don’t really have tenure opportunities anymore. The English Department is huge, because it has to deliver English Composition to thousands and thousands of students every year (and those kids need it.) But the courses themselves are delivered by adjuncts - graduate students and permanent academics-without-portfolio, who often work at 3 or 4 colleges to earn a living wage. At least 80% of the employees of that department are adjuncts.

The days of the departments that can afford strict PC adherence are numbered and they all know it. David Horowitz can find a few aberrations in the system, but within ten years, tenure will be a thing of the past but for all of the most “elite” (that is, expensive private) institutions.

The local county colleges and community colleges have always been relatively free of PC, because their students aren’t there for a “liberal arts” education for the most part. Their faculty is often non-tenure-track as well. A whole different mindset...

I always say that any kid who graduates college as a Marxist will find that theory beaten out of him after a few years in the working world. A lot of the PC ideas they may subscribe to in late adolescence evaporate, just like their interest in the world of Pokemon did ten years before.

And the world that Marx describes is as unreal as Pokemon-world.

[detective]

“community colleges have always been relatively free of PC”

I know people who teach at community colleges and attend community colleges. They are NOT free of political correctness. They are poisoned by political correctness. Political correctness is everywhere and it is getting worse.