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Illinois

July 29-August 4, 2010

ILLINOIS

U OF I LINKS WITH CHURCH QUESTIONED

Compiled by Gary Barlow

URBANA – While Catholics and others protested the firing of Catholic religion professor Kenneth Howell last week, others are questioning why the University of Illinois, as a public institution, ever let the Catholic Church choose and pay a professor who teaches Catholicism at the university.

Howell was told recently that his contract wouldn’t be renewed this fall after students complained about an email he sent to his class in which he said gay and lesbian sex is against “natural moral law.” He went on to tell the students that they weren’t qualified “to make judgments about moral truth in this matter.”

Howell taught two courses on Catholicism at U of I under an unusual arrangement that had the Catholic-funded Newman Center on campus, which is in turn funded by the diocese of Peoria, pay his salary. Howell even went so far as to seek the official blessing of the Catholic bishop of Peoria for promising to remain loyal to Catholic Church doctrine in his classes.

In a July 18 article in the Chicago Tribune, several professors questioned that arrangement, saying it compromises the academic integrity of the university and is not common practice at other schools. The article noted that a committee reviewing Howell’s firing is also looking into that question.

Howell has fought back by contacting the Alliance Defense Fund, an anti-gay Christian legal group, to assist him in retaining his job.