Catholic school fires teacher for her lack of belief in God

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Dale_M

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People are getting serious in Fort Dodge Iowa, USA
Abby Nurre, 27, was hired last summer as an eighth- grade math teacher at St. Edmond Catholic School. In August, she responded to a Facebook members’ poll in which she was asked whether she believed in God, miracles or heaven.
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In response, Nurre answered, “No.” Her answers then became part of her Facebook autobiography page, which was accessible only to her designated “friends.”
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In November, Nurre posted a comment to an online discussion forum, Atheist Nexus. In her post, she provided a link to a New York Times article that, as she described it, indicated the government had spent $2.3 million on prayer research in the past 10 years.
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Five weeks later, she was called to the office of Monsignor Kevin McCoy and handed a letter informing her that she was suspended for making “atheist statements in a public forum.”
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desmoinesregister.com/article/20100528/NEWS02/5280336/1001/NEWS/Catholic-school-fires-teacher-for-her-lack-of-belief-in-God

The school board and the Iowa Catholic Conference (an advocacy organization headed by the state’s four bishops) also challenged her request for unemployment benefits.
 
Dale_M said:
People are getting serious in Fort Dodge Iowa, USA

desmoinesregister.com/article/20100528/NEWS02/5280336/1001/NEWS/Catholic-school-fires-teacher-for-her-lack-of-belief-in-God

The school board and the Iowa Catholic Conference (an advocacy organization headed by the state’s four bishops) also challenged her request for unemployment benefits.
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It’s appropriate. The converse has also been true - teachers fired for publicly making Christian statements in public. Schools have a right to retain teachers whose beliefs are in line with the school’s and to rid themselves of those whose aren’t.
 
Teaching is a vocation not a job.Teaching in a Catholic school is a Catholic vocation whether one is Catholic or not.To publicly contradict the teachings of the Catholic Church is to result in job termination.I’m certain she had a contractual obligation to uphold the teachings of the Church or at least not to contradict them.
 
I’m going to get some flak for this, but here goes nothing;

I don’t think we need these faith-based schools. What your religion is should not be a requirement to teach math. I graduated from a public high school last year and I still study Catholicism on my own time (thanks for the help CA)
 
At least she got her unemployment benefits. Now she can get on with her life, and get her bills paid, while she looks for a more suitable workplace elsewhere.

The fact that the school was not able to prove her misconduct says that they didn’t do a good enough job making her understand what they expected of her. As far as I know, it’s not a requirement to be Catholic to teach math in a Catholic school. If a school requirees this, they should make it clear in the job description and in the contract.
 
I teach in a Catholic school. I had to submit a letter from a priest (pastor) saying I was a Catholic in good standing before I would be hired.
 
Rence said:
At least she got her unemployment benefits. Now she can get on with her life, and get her bills paid, while she looks for a more suitable workplace elsewhere.
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Yes, however, she was fired in December and is apparently still looking for employment. The AP reports she is currently in Phoenix, Arizona applying for a job,.
Rence said:
The fact that the school was not able to prove her misconduct says that they didn’t do a good enough job making her understand what they expected of her. As far as I know, it’s not a requirement to be Catholic to teach math in a Catholic school. If a school requirees this, they should make it clear in the job description and in the contract.
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I agree, the evidence against her seemed a bit sketchy. However, the Diocese of Sioux City is backing the school’s decision.
usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-05-29-fired28_ST_N.htm

On a side note, the local daily newspaper in Fort Dodge hasn’t reported on the incident, even though the story has been developing for months and now has made the national media. A search of a the paper’s website simply mentions her as being an assistant volleyball coach. Fort Dodge is a town of 25,000 people in an otherwise rural county. I wonder if this issue is considered too controversial to cover?
 
What great news. I pray for her to see the Light, but she has absolutely no place teaching in a Catholic school (I would argue in any school, but that’s another subject).
 
Luigi_Daniele said:
What great news. I pray for her to see the Light, but she has absolutely no place teaching in a Catholic school …].
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I agree.

Kids look up to their teachers as role models. Parents should be able to decide who gets to be around their kids in a leadership role like a teacher. Parents don’t send their kids to catholic school so they get atheists as role models.
 
Misjudgment on the schools behalf I think. They should have given her a stern warning to keep her atheistic beliefs quiet. My math teacher at Catholic High School never attended school mass, but was my best teacher.
 
Gift_from_God said:
I’m going to get some flak for this, but here goes nothing;

I don’t think we need these faith-based schools. What your religion is should not be a requirement to teach math. I graduated from a public high school last year and I still study Catholicism on my own time (thanks for the help CA)
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Such a claim can get a bit complicated. You are correct, a person’s belief (or lack thereof) is not a requirement to teach math. The teacher in question could have gotten a job in a public school. There are also private schools which are not run by churches.

Can a faith based school make a requirement that it employees believe in God (or at least not advertise their atheism). I would say yes. The culture of the school’s population can be as much of an education as the formal classes which the school offers.

I am also wondering why you believe that faith based schools are not needed. The establishment of schools (by the Church) is a corporal work of charity which dates back hundreds of years.
 
From Dale_M’s USA Today link:
Nurre said her views constantly evolve and that she is constantly trying to expand her knowledge, whether on religion, astrology, fitness or politics.
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“I’m not an atheist. I’m not a Catholic. I’m not a Christian. I’m somewhere in between.”
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Well, that’s cleared that up then. A math teacher who studies astrology and is somewhere between being a Catholic and a Christian. I mean, a geography teacher, fair enough, but math?

There might just have been more going on than was reported at the time.
 
inocente said:
From Dale_M’s USA Today link:

Well, that’s cleared that up then. A math teacher who studies astrology and is somewhere between being a Catholic and a Christian. I mean, a geography teacher, fair enough, but math?

There might just have been more going on than was reported at the time.
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“Somewhere between a Catholic and a Christian”.I certainly hope that’s your assessment of what she said and I hope it’s not yours,that Catholicism is not Christian.
 
Soutane said:
“Somewhere between a Catholic and a Christian”.I certainly hope that’s your assessment of what she said and I hope it’s not yours,that Catholicism is not Christian.
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No, not to worry. It wasn’t his assessment, simply the statement of the teacher who was fired. This is her exact quote, from the USA Today/ Associated Press article:
I’m not an atheist. I’m not a Catholic. I’m not a Christian. I’m somewhere in between."
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It sounds to me as if she is confused about her beliefs - which isn’t unusual for someone who is 26 or 27. But she said she attended Mass at the school, so I hope she wasn’t taking communion.
inocente said:
There might just have been more going on than was reported at the time.
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Yes, I agree. The local newspaper has finally reported on it, but they had no information that they didn’t get from the national Associated Press article. This inclines me to suspect that more is going on than people want to talk about.
 
The school board definitely made the right decision. What is she doing teaching in a Catholic school? How she can teach on the faith, the arguments for Gods’ existence etc. when she does not even beleive. Ridiculous. Hope she sees the light.
 
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