MERGED Instructor of Catholicism at UI claims loss of job violates academic freedom

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GraceSofia said:
Perhaps it is instructive to look at cases where Christians in academe have been discriminated against by anti-Christian professors:
nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/41048/answering-questions-about-lopez-v-candaele
alliancedefensefund.org/n…aspx?cid=4823
aclj.org/News/Read.aspx?ID=2947
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In the first and and third links, the discrimination was against a student, rather than against the professor. I think that is an important distinction, since the professor is in a position of power over his or her students. In the Howell/University of Illinois case, the university terminated him because they say he abused his position by violating the school’s diversity policy.

I think the second link is broken. At least, I was unable to get it to work with the Firefox or Chrome web browsers.
 
I offered these stories because they show bias against Christian viewpoint in academic life and attempts to censor Christian speech. Those are the similarities with the UI case which I think important. The first case below is still dragging on; the second case was won by the Christian. That’s why it is important not to let people muzzle Christian speech, but to go to court if necessary.

alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=4823
On Nov. 24, 2008, Los Angeles City College speech professor John Matteson interrupted and ended Jonathan Lopez’s presentation mid-speech, calling him a “fascist bastard” in front of the class for speaking about his faith, which included reading the dictionary definition of marriage and reciting two Bible verses. Instead of allowing Lopez to finish, Matteson told the other students they could leave if they were offended. When no one left, Matteson dismissed the class. Refusing to grade the assigned speech, Matteson wrote on Lopez’s evaluation, “Ask God what your grade is.”

aclj.org/TrialNotebook/Read.aspx?id=584
Sara Sloan of Phoenix, Arizona contacted us regarding the denial of an occupational journalism certificate by her community college due to the religious viewpoint of some of her articles
 
GraceSofia said:
I offered these stories because they show bias against Christian viewpoint in academic life and attempts to censor Christian speech. Those are the similarities with the UI case which I think important. The first case below is still dragging on; the second case was won by the Christian. That’s why it is important not to let people muzzle Christian speech, but to go to court if necessary.
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I agree wholeheartedly. Thank you for sharing the examples.
 
Dale, your point that the Christians were students is well taken; I didn’t think I would easily find cases of instructors being discriminated against just because it would be so difficult to prove, but there have been some. The first one below is very interesting as it involved an adjunct professor being fired on the basis of one student complaint about offending homosexuals. I am not sure what end result of this case was. I don’t have time to look now.

alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=4612
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom and Pacific Justice Institute filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of a former San Jose City College biology professor fired for answering a student’s in-class question about heredity and homosexual behavior.
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alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=4069
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom filed suit Monday on behalf of conservative pundit and professor Mike Adams, who was denied promotion and faced harassment by his superiors at UNC-Wilmington because of his religious beliefs and conservative political viewpoint.
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“The university is supposed to be the marketplace of ideas, and university officials should not treat religious or conservative professors as second-class citizens on campus,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David French, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom.
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alliancedefensefund.org/news/pressrelease.aspx?cid=4612
Politics and Professional Advancement Among College Faculty
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This article first examines the ideological composition of American university faculty and then tests whether ideological homogeneity has become self-reinforcing. A randomly based national survey of 1643 faculty members from 183 four-year colleges and universities finds that liberals and Democrats outnumber conservatives and Republicans by large margins, and the differences are not limited to elite universities or to the social sciences and humanities. A multivariate analysis finds that, even after taking into account the effects of professional accomplishment, along with many other individual characteristics, conservatives and Republicans teach at lower quality schools than do liberals and Democrats. This suggests that complaints of ideologically-based discrimination in academic advancement deserve serious consideration and further study. The analysis finds similar effects based on gender and religiosity, i.e., women and practicing Christians teach at lower quality schools than their professional accomplishments would predict.
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For those interested in a bit of the background, Dr. David Delaney (who also worked for the Newman Center and taught a few courses before he was dismissed by the Religious Studies dept. a few years ago) wrote a nice summary of the history of the Newman Center’s relationship with the University:

They Finally Won: Background on Ken Howell’s Firing

I think it sheds some light on how this whole thing came about.
 
Joe_5859 said:
For those interested in a bit of the background, Dr. David Delaney (who also worked for the Newman Center and taught a few courses before he was dismissed by the Religious Studies dept. a few years ago) wrote a nice summary of the history of the Newman Center’s relationship with the University:

They Finally Won: Background on Ken Howell’s Firing

I think it sheds some light on how this whole thing came about.
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Thanks for the link; I went there and read the article. I always appreciate a historical perspective, to shed light on the present. I put in my two cents worth and came away. My response may well not be the best of Catholic charity; but I did restrain myself from reminding everybody of Jesus’ words, “Sow not thy pearls before swine, lest they turn and rend thee.”
Which, in my opinion, is exactly what’s happening at that and other American university and we are free to distant ourselves from such rabidly anti-Catholic people, imho, because they aren’t going to change.

Let me transliterate my position into the contemporary Politically Correct jargon: we’re not put here to subject ourselves or our Church to unnecessary abuse.
 
1holycatholic said:
The e-mail complained about Howell’s statements about homosexuality, which the student called “hate speech.”

“Teaching a student about the tenets of a religion is one thing,” the student wrote in the e-mail. “Declaring that homosexual acts violate the natural laws of man is another. The courses at this institution should be geared to contribute to the public discourse and promote independent thought; not limit one’s worldview and ostracize people of a certain sexual orientation.”
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This statement is the most sophmoric, hypocritical and oxymoronic thing I have ever seen. If epitomizes the reality of a homosexual agenda and the intolerance that homosexuals so often promote.
 
The article mentioned by Joe5859 is written by a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing Dr. Howell. The following paragraph is significant, because the ADF had previously given the university until last Friday to reinstate Howell as an instructor, or they would advise Howell to go to court.
Joe5859's link:
Late Thursday, we received a letter from the University stating that they are “suspending” the decision of his department chair pending review by the committee. While this is a nice step, this does not resolve the issue. It is meaningless for Professor Howell to retain his status as an adjunct professor without being able to teach any classes, and the committee’s review of the situation does not change the fact that Professor Howell was relieved of his previously scheduled teaching responsibilities because his instruction to students was deemed not to meet standards of “inclusivity.” Save for that email, Professor Howell would still be teaching Introduction to Catholicism in the approaching semester. That is a violation of his constitutional rights, and we have indicated as much to the University in our response letter, sent today.
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Here is the new letter sent by the ADF to the university:
speakupmovement.org/content/pdf/20100720FollowupDemandLetterfromHackertoVeazie.pdf

It gives the university until July 27th to reinstate Howell, or they will “proceed to lititgation.”
 
The response from the University sounds like a classic “Nuts, they’re serious about this” moment of realization.

Keep the pressure up. The University needs to understand that “inclusivity” cannot be just a pretext for fronting one perspective, that dialog needs to be maintained even if an idea is unpopular with vocal students.
 
1holycatholic said:
The e-mail complained about Howell’s statements about homosexuality, which the student called “hate speech.”

“Teaching a student about the tenets of a religion is one thing,” the student wrote in the e-mail. “Declaring that homosexual acts violate the natural laws of man is another. The courses at this institution should be geared to contribute to the public discourse and promote independent thought; not limit one’s worldview and ostracize people of a certain sexual orientation.”
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What I find so frustrating is people who say that universities should be “geared to contribute to the public discourse and promote independent thought” only to try to shut it down when they hear something they disagree with. Did it ever occur to this person that the Catholic view on homosexuality and Natural Law is one of many points of view that contributes to the public discourse? I’m sure this point of view probably offers a balance to what would be taught in a gender studies course or any class that deals with gender issues since I can probably bet those courses don’t dive into the Catholic philosophy on such issues.
 
PrayHarder said:
What I find so frustrating is people who say that universities should be “geared to contribute to the public discourse and promote independent thought” only to try to shut it down when they hear something they disagree with. Did it ever occur to this person that the Catholic view on homosexuality and Natural Law is one of many points of view that contributes to the public discourse? I’m sure this point of view probably offers a balance to what would be taught in a gender studies course or any class that deals with gender issues since I can probably bet those courses don’t dive into the Catholic philosophy on such issues.
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Yes, that would be the ideal at universities, and perhaps the only good thing to come of this case is that many people have become aware how intolerant universities are of certain vewpoints.
 
Dale_M said:
The article mentioned by Joe5859 is written by a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing Dr. Howell. The following paragraph is significant, because the ADF had previously given the university until last Friday to reinstate Howell as an instructor, or they would advise Howell to go to court.
Here is the new letter sent by the ADF to the university:
speakupmovement.org/content/pdf/20100720FollowupDemandLetterfromHackertoVeazie.pdf
It gives the university until July 27th to reinstate Howell, or they will “proceed to lititgation.”
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The university wanted to wait until the end of August to decide whether Dr. Ken could continue teaching. What? A day before classes start?
And what is Dr. Ken supposed to do if he is informed that he has no classes, and therefore no INCOME, in late August?!
It is very difficult to scramble around and find another teaching position at that late date.
So UI also would be punishing him further by preventing him from having time to get another position. How cruel to be left hanging like that!
 
Dale_M said:
The article mentioned by Joe5859 is written by a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing Dr. Howell. The following paragraph is significant, because the ADF had previously given the university until last Friday to reinstate Howell as an instructor, or they would advise Howell to go to court.

Here is the new letter sent by the ADF to the university:
speakupmovement.org/content/pdf/20100720FollowupDemandLetterfromHackertoVeazie.pdf

It gives the university until July 27th to reinstate Howell, or they will “proceed to lititgation.”
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Thanks for the additional info, Dale. 👍

For those on Facebook, a note went out late last night on the Save Dr. Ken page:

Updates, Action Items, and A Note of Concern

The Diocese met the the University yesterday and there may be reason to be cautiously optimistic, but we need to keep the pressure on in a respectful, charitable manner!
 
Joe_5859 said:
Thanks for the additional info, Dale. 👍
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😊
You’re most welcome, but really the credit belongs to you since you are the one who found the web source. I simply culled some information out of it.

Thank you for your ongoing postings of updates, to keep us informed. This is been a good thread, and perhaps more useful than most.
 
Dale_M said:
😊
You’re most welcome, but really the credit belongs to you since you are the one who found the web source. I simply culled some information out of it.

Thank you for your ongoing postings of updates, to keep us informed. This is been a good thread, and perhaps more useful than most.
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I guess I should say, Thank you for culling that additional info whereas I was lazy and simply posted the link. 😉

This has been a good thread, as unfortunate as the circumstances are that brought it about. It’s always nice to break 100 posts without anyone bickering back and forth. 🙂
 
I just heard about this through this thread. Shameful. But I do have to say that in both universities I’ve attended, the most inclusive classes I’ve taken were my Philosophy 101 and Comparative Theology classes.

We got into quite a pickle in Philos101 when a student decided that the discussion concerning the existence of evil contradicted what the Bible said, and my professor very calmly explained “we are exploring the philosophical argument, not any particular dogma” and managed to calm her down. In Comparative Theology we touched base on Catholicism, but the focus of the course was how the majority of the world’s religions condense into 3 major theological groups (based on philosophical process–therefore, a lot of Protestant groups ended up alongside Islam!), and, again, it was one of the most inclusive discussion-based classes I’ve had. On the other hand, women’s and gender studies classes I’ve sat in on have been the most dogmatic and virulently narrow-minded classes I’ve ever seen. Classes on sexuality tend towards the dogmatic, and University faculty and trustees seem to have no issue with that.

🤷 The American university system is a joke and goes against the entire Enlightenment from which they derive and claim to have inherited so much. It’s truly appalling. I’m keeping up with this story now and am including Dr. Ken in my prayers.
 
donsnow said:
Thank you, Joe, for the link.

Went there and read it. Can’t figure out if the University is stonewalling or sincere, to appoint the review committee. Maybe August isn’t such a delay, but it leaves little time to prepare for the winter semester, if he’s retained.
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If my understanding is correct, Dr. Ken has been teaching 2 courses for 9-10 years, so the preparation would be minimal.

But if he is NOT retained, it leaves NO time for him to get a new job. Most unfair.
 
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