Dealing with anti-Catholic prejudice in college

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Bill6

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Greetings in Christ,
I started my first semester in College a few weeks ago. I have noticed significant anti-Catholic bias in many classes. For this thread, I’ll focus on history. Whenever the instructor discusses Our Faith, he is very demaning and tells lies. He said that Catholics believe in reincarnation. When I charitably siad we do not, he said something like “Don’t you believe Christ came back?” I tried to explain that Christ rose from the dead. He interupted me and said that I had admitted we actually do believe in reincarnation. The class loves what he teaches and when I refuted the teacher’s error, students laughed at me and I think one of them even called me a derogatory name.

He also said that Catholic teaching on Purgatory is that it is a waiting room wherein God decides whether or not to save someone. According to him, indulgences were paid by people to convince God to save their desceased loved ones.

The guy also said that European Catholics always sought to impose their Faith on others, meanwhile people of other faiths have historically been more peaceful and tolerant than Catholics. The guy also claimed that Catholics do not follow the Bible. He said that Catholic teaching has basic Biblical teachings but then believes and teaches whatever the Pope and bishops decide they want to teach. Finally, he said that Christians supported slavery because they’d forcibly baptize slaves. In general, he lies about the Faith and is dishonest and very mean.

Just one more thing, my English Professor had us write about a public figure we would want to spend time with. I chose St. John Paul II. She gave me the lowest grade she’d ever given me, and this is the only assingment where she wrote no positive feedback.

What would you do in this situation? The college is very leftist and pretty much everyone (students and faculty) are very hostile to anyone not in line with their views. As far as I know, there is no Newman Club or anything like that. Thank you and God bless.
 
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Bill6 said:
Just one more thing, my English Professor had us write about a public figure we would want to spend time with. I chose St. John Paul II. She gave me the lowest grade she’d ever given me, and this is the only assingment where she wrote no positive feedback.
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I’d meet her for office hours and ask her to explain my grade and give me feedback.
 
I feel sorry for you my,goodman.You can continue fighting,but remember that everyone is up against you.You might meet a christian or two but everyone is most likely going to be hostile.These people never wants to hear condemnation of their sinful acts nor be proven wrong.Be careful and don’t hope for good grades or good anything. Unfortunately, this is the way things are.
 
Bill6 said:
Finally, he said that Christians supported slavery because they’d forcibly baptize slaves.
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This isn’t quite true. The Canary Islands are off the western coast of Africa, not at war with any one. The Portuguese were well into their slave trade and the Church several times announced that it was immoral to enslave Christians, but there were no penalties for enslaving non-Christians.

The Portuguese were in the Canary Islands and it was discovered that they were enslaving natives there, both Christian and non-Christian. In the bull Sicut Dudum the pope expressed sorrow that the Portuguese were enslaving those who had been baptized or made promises to become baptized as they were given “a promise of safety”. The Church did not denounce enslaving in general, just enslaving Christians – who with the words of the pope shows many were being baptized to avoid being enslaved.

So it wasn’t that the Church was for slavery because they could then forcibly baptize the slaves, but because the threat of slavery caused many to choose baptism (i.e. blackmail).
What would you do in this situation?
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Study and have citations ready in case the professor says something you don’t believe is factually correct. Also listen because while the professor may say some things that are incorrect, it’s also possible that he’ll say things that are true but differ than what you assume is correct.
 
I like this idea personally. At this point you don’t know why she gave you the grade. Your suspicion is that it might be something less than equitable. If possible try to be objective in her feedback, to investigate further.

However it might also help to document the situation. Perhaps write down an objective description of the in class incident, as well as your concern over the grade, with appropriate dates etc.

If a5 some point you feel it’s necessary to speak to the dean then it might be helpful to have objective documentation. Just a thought.
 
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Thank you all for your responses. The thing is, I hear about violence against conservative college students. I do not feel safe saying anything, so I stay silent. Thank you all and God bless.
 
If the years I went to college, I never experienced anti-Catholic prejudice.
 
Bill6 said:
Just one more thing, my English Professor had us write about a public figure we would want to spend time with. I chose St. John Paul II. She gave me the lowest grade she’d ever given me, and this is the only assignment where she wrote no positive feedback.
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I would suspect you hve two options.

The first is to transfer to another class.

the second is to ask for some time with the head of that department, detail (time, date, subject) of the harassment you are receiving, and ask for some intervention. Because I know attorneys, if it were me, I would go in with the request, and if I was shot down, I would figure out who to speak with in administration over the department head. If no relief there, I would casually name drop the attorney I was going to speak with. However, one never makes threats; one makes promises, and if you are not willing to make that promise (and you should have spoken with the attorney to know what you are getting into) then don’t go there. Schools have become gun shy of lawsuits by conservative students; a lot of that has been over student fees; but outright discrimination over faith issues should not be tolerated.
 
Bill6 said:
What would you do in this situation? The college is very leftist and pretty much everyone (students and faculty) are very hostile to anyone not in line with their views.
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Well there you have it. If you want to graduate from this institution, keep your head down. This is not a battle you’re going to win. For me, I would not be interested in getting a lawyer involved and fighting this.

The corruption of the heart is everywhere. When these lies are broadcast from a person in charge like a teacher, say silently in your heart prayers like Jesus I love you, save souls. Jesus thank you for your death on the cross. Jesus I remember you before Pilate, not saying a word.

I know people who kept their head down, graduated, and became salt and light in their field. We need Catholic people out in the workplace. Be smart like a fox.
 
With this , I think this is a possibly viable strategy. I hope your correct actually. However this doesn’t always work either unfortunately.

I went to a liberal arts college and I think this type of behavior did affect my grades, and subsequently, opportunities for professional/graduate school. It didn’t improve over time tbh. In the original post it seemed one concern was the grade received on a paper. So if future opportunities are missed due to lower grades that’s a challenging place to be imho.
 
Considering that the college is so anti-Catholic (faculty and students), could you possibly transfer to a different college, perhaps a Catholic one if the financial costs are not prohibitive?
 
Thank you for your response. The tuition is much more expensive, and I am not sure that the Catholic schools nearby are orthodox. God bless.
 
While the history class incident is enough to make most people mad, you’re going to experience a teacher like that in every school. I took a Women’s Choir class I did not even need because the head of Vocal Education asked me to, as they needed my voice part. They had put this little twerp of a GTA in charge of it and he was a mess. He was so busy flaunting his ego around in front of these goofy freshman girls that he was seriously behind when it came time for the first performance. He apparently didn’t have any French and was teaching a French song using a pronunciation guide he said he got from a “friend that was really good at French.” His modelling was atrocious but he came upon an error that was so egregious that I couldn’t bear to let it go and I raised my hand and told him how it was actually pronounced. Holy ego attack, Batman! This pathetic almost-professor actually laughed at me. Like, despite the fact that he admitted openly that he does not speak French and got advice from the supreme authority of his “friend that was really good at French”, he cocked his barely-pubescent head and LAUGHED at me.

Allegra no like.

But I did not react in kind. I simply explained the pronunciation rule he was messing up as politely as possible. Now, if he simply took his really-good-at-French-friend’s advice over mine, I would be okay with that. But his disrespectful attitude put me over. What’s more, the word in question was ‘rester’ which anyone who had taken a class in French would have learned their first semester. There had to be at fair few girls in that group of girls that knew darn well that this guy was totally wrong, but not one spoke up. And THEN, this obnoxious little twerp turned around and rolled her little eyes and said “I think Ryan (they loved that he let them call him by his first name.) knows better than you!” I was done. I was already there as a favor and this guy’s alto section desperately needed it. Actually, all of his sections needed it. I walked. I had nothing to loose and a Monday afternoon time slot to gain. Oh, he went shrieking and screeching to my adviser, who was the department head. He was of the impression that I wasn’t “allowed” to quit. My adviser informed him that I was there as a favor and he should speak respectfully to everyone if he wanted a choir. Then I got to sit back and watch the trainwreck at the first concert, which was gratifying.
I don’t remember where I was going with this. Oh yeah! Some teachers are ridiculously unpleasant and also incredibly bad at what they are trying to teach, be it history or French folksongs. But unless you happen to be there as a favor, you have to put up with it until you get the survey that you get to fill out at the end of class and then you let the creep have it!
 
I used to be amazed at anedcotes about college professors’ dismal lack of knowledge of Catholicism and Church history, but now things have gotten so bad that nothing surprises me.
 
I would go to the office of inclusion (if your college has one) and ask for their advice. These centers deal with student discrimination. If you feel like the discrimination would worsen after making any sort of report, they should be able to get you into another class.

Prayers. I deal with the same thing on a daily basis, but it’s more “sarcastic” than that.
 
If this professor is that impertinent, then I’d try contacting the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights: www.catholicleague.org.

I guarantee this wouldn’t happen to any other group.

A very liberal cleric (name withheld in order to avoid flags) once said that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice in America. (For the record, I’m NOT a supporter of any of his ideas.)
 
Are there no Catholic or Christian organizations at all there? How about a local parish? Even if someone can’t directly help you, at least there might be sympathetic friends somewhere!
My daughter is at a large US public university, and she has encountered plenty of ignorance, rudeness, and hostility to Catholicism. She feels outnumbered in her classes, but there is a large Catholic group on campus.
Look for allies – you can’t be the only Christian on campus I bet. But I understand it might feel like that.
How many students are at your school?
 
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Bill6 said:
What would you do in this situation?
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I’ve spent more years than I’m proud of schmoozing to my professors, (the hand that holds the grade book is the hand that rules the world . . . or so believe many of them).

How long to you have left until graduation? Are you moving on to graduate school or a work environment that will require their recommendations? If so, is there a not-so-hostile professor who could be your ally in this arena?

If not, you’ll one day come to the shocking epiphany that employers don’t care what your grades were. If anything, I got by best if I didn’t try to appear smarter than any of my bosses.

Even without a Newman center, could you start a group for Catholic students?
 
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