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Professor fired for believing what he taught...

MaggieD

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Upshot is this guy was hired by the University of Illinois to teach a class in Catholic doctrine. He was fired for hate speech.

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. {As I understand it, the professor made clear to his students that he was Catholic and so believed what he taught.}
FOXNews.com - University of Illinois Instructor Fired Over Catholic Beliefs

Should this professor have been fired? Should he be reinstated? What are your thoughts?
 
Based on the evidence provided, he should not have been fired. I don't agree with the man in the slightest, but the subject is part of the course he is teaching, and his actions were not worthy of dismissal.
 
I would agree with you. How can you ask someone to teach a class on religious doctrine and then slam him when he admits he agrees with it? The whole thing sounds absurd.
 
Based on the evidence provided, he should not have been fired. I don't agree with the man in the slightest, but the subject is part of the course he is teaching, and his actions were not worthy of dismissal.

Ditto here.
 
what he said was catholic doctrine, firing him for saying gay=bad under his morals is just stupid.
 
Sounds like another case of the PC World over-reacting and lashing out at an innocent person for personal beliefs that are not aligned with the new PC World Order. Lame.
 
It sounds to me like their problem is with Catholicism, not the professor. If they have the courage of their convictions, they should declare Catholic doctrine to be hate speech and eliminate the class altogether. It would be interesting to see how that went over.
 
Utter foolishness. They hire a man to teach a class on religious doctrine and then fire him for doing exactly what he was hired to do. If they believed that such doctrine was hate speech, they shouldn't have been offering classes that taught it.

The only thing more foolish is the spineless worm that took a class on religious doctrine and was then offended by it.
 
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