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Former PCA minister fired for teaching
Catholic stance on homosexuality

The Layman, Posted Thursday, July 29, 2010

According to an article in The News-Gazette, a University of Illinois professor of religion was dismissed due to an anonymous student complaint over teaching the Catholic Church’s belief that homosexual acts are morally wrong.
 
Kenneth Howell had been teaching religion at the university for nine years, including the Introduction to Catholicism and Moderate Catholic Thought courses last spring. He also lost his job as director of the Institute of Catholic Thought, part of St. John's Catholic Newman Center on campus and the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Ill. Funding for his salary came from the Institute of Catholic Thought.

According to the newspaper report, Howell e-mailed his students in preparation for an exam, in which he discusses how the theory of utilitarianism and natural law theory would judge the morality of homosexual acts.

"Natural Moral Law says that Morality must be a response to REALITY," he wrote in the e-mail, as reported by The News-Gazette. "In other words, sexual acts are only appropriate for people who are complementary, not the same."


Writing on behalf of an anonymous friend who was in Howell’s class, a student complained to the head of the religion department that the professor’s statements about homosexuality were "hate speech."

Howell grew up Presbyterian, was ordained in the PCA in 1978 and at one time taught at Reformed Theological Seminary. He converted to Catholicism in 1995 and also has taught at the University of South Florida, Indiana University and Belhaven College.
 
An attorney from the Alliance Defense Fund, which is helping defend Howell, has said that the university could be sued for violating the professor’s First Amendment rights.
 
According to a July 21 report in The News-Gazette, Howell’s lawyers received a letter from the university saying that legal action would be unwarranted because Howell was not “fired.” The letter stated that the professor could be back in the classroom this fall, pending a review by a faculty senate committee.
 
"To fire a professor for teaching the actual subject matter of his course is outrageous,” ADF Senior Counsel David French said in a News-Gazette article. “It's ridiculous that a school would fire a professor without even giving him a chance to defend himself when he simply taught Catholic beliefs in a class about Catholic beliefs."
Correction, Aug. 6, 2010: Kenneth Howell was incorrectly identified as a former PCUSA minister in the original version of this article. The Layman regrets the error.

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