FOXNews.com – University of Illinois Instructor Fired Over Catholic Beliefs.
Professor Ken Howell was fired from the University of Illinois at Urbana for teaching Catholic beliefs in his class on Catholicism. Specifically he explained the Catholic teaching on homosexual sex, in an email, based on the religious interpretation of natural law. This caused him to lose his teaching position, and also to lose his job as head of the Newman Center at the University.
The Newman Center job is said to be funded by the Diocese, so explanations concerning that dismissal will be interesting. The current claim, attributed to Chancellor Patricia Gibson, is that the Diocese fired Howell because he can no longer teach at the university.
The Alliance Defense fund, a Christian legal group which has also given aid to conscientiously objecting health care professionals, is considering assistance to Dr. Howell.
At first blush, we see a general group of Christians offering to defend a Catholic professor who has been abandoned by his own Diocese.
This is a religious and academic freedom case worth watching.
