This is Part One of AFTAH’s interview with Professor Ken Howell, Senior Fellow at the School of Catholic Thought of the John Paul II Newman Center, which resides at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Prof. Howell was fired (and the reinstated) by the University of Illinois (Champaign) last year for teaching the Catholic “Natural Moral Law” understanding of homosexuality. This interview was pre-recorded and aired Nov. 5, 2011. Howell explains the circumstances surrounding his firing, and how he ended up at UIC (but not actually teaching for UIC).
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Pro-family advocates in Chicago rally against the new "Civil Unions" law in Illinois. The bill, HB 1716, was passed in a lame-duck session and ironically called the "Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act" despite the fact that its passage immediately put Illinois citizens' religious and First Amendment liberties in jeopardy. Photo by Lynn Thomas; click to enlarge.
Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (www.aftah.org); June 1, 2011
CHICAGO–Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality and a principal behind the Illinois Defense of Marriage Initiative (www.DefendMarriageIL.org), issued the following statement on the new Illinois “Civil Unions” law that takes effect today:
Homosexual behavior is always wrong, according to the broad sweep of Judeo-Christian history, so it is tragic to behold the State of Illinois – or any government entity – recognizing immoral same-sex relationships and treating them like marriage. Moreover, for the City of Chicago and Gov. Pat Quinn to celebrate homosexuality with a mass Civil Union ceremony June 2nd is an act of hubris and defiance toward the Creator that mocks His wonderful plan for real marriage – the sacred union of a man and a woman to produce children and family. The pandering Quinn – epitomizing the modern Democratic politician –mocks his own professed Catholicism by working tirelessly to undermine its clear moral dictates.
The anti-Christian Civil Unions law must be repealed. It was passed in a lame-duck session that once again revealed the contempt that liberal Illinois lawmakers have for the citizens they are supposed to serve. Ironically, shortly after passage of this bill – mischievously titled the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act –religious liberty for Illinois citizens and religious institutions was immediately put in jeopardy. A homosexual male couple targeted Paxton, Illinois, bed-and-breakfast owners Jim and Beth Walder – who now face prosecution by the State because they refuse – as Christians – to hold “civil union” ceremonies celebrating homosexuality on their own business property. And theRockford Diocese’s Catholic Charities announced that it will halt its state-funded foster care and adoption services rather than be forced by the State of Illinois to place children in same-sex households that are motherless or fatherless by design.
House Speaker Mike Madigan, a Catholic, used his considerable power to advance the homosexual agenda in Illinois by successfully pushing for a "civil unions" bill -- even though the state's Catholic Conference urged opposition to the bill.
The following e-Alert was sent out yesterday prior to the House vote. Pathetically, only two downstate Republicans, Rep. Dave Reis (Olney) and Rep. Ron Stephens (Greenville), rose on the floor to speak against this bill – which that takes a giant step toward government promotion of homosexuality in Illinois. Good for Reis and Stephens, and bad for the IL-GOP, which continues to live down to its reputation as one of the weakest Republican parties in the nation when it comes to actually fighting for the conservative GOP Platform.
We hear from a key pro-family lobbyist in Springfield that some “pro-family” legislators lied about their voting intention — saying they would vote against “civil unions” and then caving like cowards under the pressure of Mike Madigan’s and the Democrats’ lobby campaign. Now the vote goes to the Illinois Senate. TAKE ACTION: call your state senator at 217-782-2000 (see below for more info).
And so Illinois, dominated by Chicago and its corrupt Democratic machine, continues its moral descent. Land of Lincoln? In name only, as Abe Lincoln — whom some very troubled homosexual activists have tried to smear as a homosexual (it’s easy when the targeted victim is deceased) – actually revered the Bible, and thus surely respected its moral teachings — including the sinfulness of homosexual behavior and all sex outside of marriage.
Here is a PDF with the House vote tally, and Illinois Family Institute’s initial story on the vote. And here is the Chicago Tribune story in which the reporter seems surprised that Stephens linked the embrace of homosexuality to the decline of American civilization. No, I’m afraid America is not “special” in that regard: every advance of homosexualist legislation strengthens a powerful perversion movement that ingeniously plays the victim while promoting acceptance of its pet sin in the name of “civil rights.” Aren’t you tired of politicians like Madigan who ignore the teachings of their own church because they presume to be smarter than God? — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org
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AFTAH’s e-Alert sent out Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010:
Dear Illinois Readers,
TAKE ACTION TODAY! If you are an Illinois resident and care about marriage, it is imperative that you make your voice known NOW about the “Civil Unions” bill that liberal Democrats are pushing in the lame-duck session in Springfield! A vote could come today, tomorrow or at any time before the new session if they extend the lame-duck Veto Session. Call your state legislators at 217-782-2000 (find them here: www.ilga.gov or use your your zip code to find them here: www.congress.org; or call IFI at 708-781-9328 and get the information). Dem power-brokers like Rahm Emmanuel, Lisa Madigan, and her powerful father Mike Madigan are lobbying hard to pass Civil Unions. They are cutting deals to get votes for this bill (S.B. 1716) — so “We the People” must act now to defend real marriage and resist their pro-”gay” machinations!
Questions remain about secular, pro-”gay” bias at Champaign-Urbana
Dr. Kenneth Howell will continue to teach at the University of Illinois.
We are relieved that Prof. Kenneth Howell has been reinstated at the University of Illinois, but serious questions remain about the U. of I.’s secular bias against people of faith and in favor of aggressive homosexual activism. There needs to be an independent, outside investigation into how this travesty happened at a taxpayer-funded university — and the department heads and administrators who put political correctness above academic freedom and basic fairness should pay a price. If the larger problem persists of celebrating homosexuality at the expense of others’ fundamental rights, there will be many more Kenneth Howells in Illinois and across the nation. – Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org
URBANA, Illinois, July 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. Kenneth Howell, the professor barred from teaching after a student complained about his explanation of the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality, in a class on Catholicism, has been reinstated by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
News spread rapidly of the censure earlier this month of Dr. Howell, whose scheduled classes next fall had been cancelled based on one student’s complaint that an email from the professor to students in the class explaining how homosexuality is incompatible with the natural moral law amounted to “hate speech.”
The university was soon deluged with opposition from within UIUC and beyond. Even the school’s Atheists, Agnostics, & Freethinkers group expressed outrage at the professor’s silencing. Howell, who had taught “Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought” at the university’s Department of Religion since 2001, had also taught at the school’s diocesan-run Newman Center for 12 years.
Gay Liberation Network's Bob Schwartz supports the University of Illinois' firing of Catholic professor Kenneth Howell. Imagine how different his reaction would be if it were a "gay" professor fired for explaining "gay rights" to his students.
I received the following note yesterday from Bob Schwartz, a leader of the Gay Liberation Network in Chicago. Schwartz is a self-described Trotskyite (communist) and is the fellow who bragged that he worked to get AFTAH’s website labeled as a “hate site” by the Southern Poverty Law Center:
From: [Bob Schwartz, Gay Liberation Network]
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:55:16 -0400
To: <americansfortruth@comcast.net>
Subject: Kenneth Howell
Here are AFTAH’s two stories on Howell’s firing:
Just a note to advise you that I asked the new U of I president to support the termination of antigay bigot “natural law” [Prof. Kenneth] Howell.
Bob…If this happened to a homosexual prof who affirmed gay rights to his students (in a class about the GLBT Movement), you and GLN would be crying “discrimination!” to the media and holding protest vigils at U of I. But I’ve come to expect such hypocrisy from you guys. “Tolerance for me but not for thee.”…
Peter LaBarbera, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality
Here are two AFTAH articles on the University of Illinois-Howell termination scandal:
Key gay legal activist says homosexual sex is “morally good” — and says her side’s “moral” claims eclipse our right to oppose homosexuality
“As a general matter, once a religious person or institution enters the stream of commerce by operating an enterprise such as a doctor’s office, hospital, bookstore, hotel, treatment center and so on, I believe the enterprise must adhere to a norm of nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. … … While I was initially drawn to the idea of providing an exemption to those enterprises that advertise solely in very limited milieus (such as the bed & breakfast that advertises only on Christian Web sites), I became wary of such an approach as a practical matter….” – Homosexual legal activist, Georgetown law professor, and Obama EEOC appointee Chai Feldblum, “Moral Conflict and Liberty: Gay Rights and Religion,” 2006, p. 52. Feldblum favors a limited exemption to “gay rights” laws for religious teaching institutions and the “leadership” of faith-based groups.
Will Her ‘Rights’ Replace Yours? In the world of Chai Feldblum (above), defending sodomy and homosexuality-based relationships is a “moral” endeavor. Legally speaking, she sees the battle between “gay rights” and religious/moral opposition to homosexuality as a “zero sum game” — i.e., one side wins and the other side loses. But if the “right” of homosexuals and transsexuals to have their lifestyles approved supersedes the freedom of Americans to act on their belief that homosexual behavior is wrong, then wouldn’t Christians and moral Americans become second-class citizens?
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TAKE ACTION: The U.S. Senate will be taking up the Chai Feldblum nomination, probably in the next few weeks. Call and write your two U.S. senators (202-224-3121; www.congress.org) and urge them to oppose her confirmation to be a Commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Tell your Senators that you oppose awarding superior rights to people based on their homosexual, bisexual or transsexual lifestyle — which they would have if Feldblum’s radical egalitarian philosophy takes hold in the employment realm. Explain that Americans’ First Amendment liberty to follow our conscience should never be made subservient to special interest sexual agendas.
Unlike some “gay” activists, Feldblum at least grants that we religious Americans have a legitimate “belief liberty” to oppose homosexuality. But she also asserts that according to her reading of the law and Constitution, homosexuals’ “moral” claims should usually eclipse ours under. (And please forgive me if I don’t gush over Feldblum’s recognition of our moral rights — considering that homosexual practice has been linked as a dominating causal factor for HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases, and that it ranks up there with incest, bestiality and child sacrifice in the Old Testament not-to-do list.)
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