U Of Ill Prof Fired For "Hate Speech"

Unless the professor called for homosexuals deserved to be injured and attacked for their beliefs, it doesn't qualify as "hate speech" under the letter of the law. It actually falls under the First Amendment's protection of free speech, if I'm not mistaken.

 

It's disputable whether or not the professor did anything wrong. The school obviously thought he did.

I suppose cops should never use anonymous tips to bust criminals either, right?

 

I dont think the intent of the e-mail was to condemn homosexuals. He was basically sending a crib sheet of notes to his students studying for a year end exam on catholic beliefs, all of which I am pretty sure would have been covered in class at some point. This was one point that was covered. He also never said homosexuals will go to hell or anything along those lines, this is what he wrote:

"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."

And as far as a course teaching the the beliefs of the Catholic church goes, I see nothing wrong with this. He is teaching the beliefs of the catholic church. Heading in Students should at least have an idea of where a very conservative church built through traditions stands on something as liberal as homosexuality.

If you dont want to hear those beliefs taught, dont take the course.

The friend who sent in the complaint I can guarantee you has more of an issue with the Catholic church than the prof who he probably has never met.

The prof even defended himself this way.

"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."

I dont care if he was tenured or just an adjunct prof, he was fired for his religious beliefs which he was hired to teach. Certainly I could maybe give the students a pass for their ignorence on where the catholic church stands on homosexuality, but not the university.

 

That was my first thought, too, but the story in the link specifies so little that it's almost impossible to know what happened. Or what was in the email.

If he's been there for what, 7 years, and has a .edu address, that might make a difference. And he lost that other job as a direct result of this. And if there's been a pattern of contention in the department, which the story hints at, who knows?

 

Yeah. I am not sure I believe it was a complete study guide email sent to all the students. It may have been more targeted than that.

 

Exactly. There's a lot more to all of this. What if it only went to half the students? Or some kids the adjunct felt were "like-minded."

 

If the university continues this class with a different professor, I'd be interesting in seeing how he or she teaches the class while leaving that part out. As far as I'm concerned, he was teaching the religion he was hired to teach.

I'd also be interested in seeing what else was in that e-mail. I mean, it couldn't have been just that sentence, but that seems to be what stood out to the students. I can only assume that sentence was one of several topics previously discussed and one of the many things to expect on the final.

Moral of the story: Never put anything in writing.

 

According to the story he had also received awards the two previous years for his course.

 

On the surface, it would appear the school overreacted here in their judgement.

And I, too, am not a big fan of the 'friend of a friend' manner in which the complaint was made. If you're offended, I think you need to make it known, not you dorm buddy.

 

It's a fact of life that people often disagree. To teach students that the proper way to deal with a person who has a divergent opinion is to relieve him of his livelihood sits 180 degrees from a true academic mindset and ultimately does students a disservice.

 

That's what public universities really need, adjunct professors to run public relations interference for Pedophiles R'Us, otherwise known as the Roman Catholic Church.

Maybe he should have gone on to explain that as far as Papa Ratzy and his minions are concerned, homosexual activity is just hunky-dory, as long as you're an ordained priest and your lucky "significant other" (i.e. victim) is a little kid.

 

Well, that's pinning down an entire religion based solely on the actions of pedophile priests who don't represent Christianity as a whole. It isn't a fair comparison to make.