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

The following is a LifeSiteNews article about Prof. Howell’s reinstatement:

By Kathleen Gilbert

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 Schwartz

Here is my reply to Schwartz:

From: [Peter LaBarbera} americansfortruth@comcast.net to [Schwartz]
Date: July 13, 2010
Subject: Re: 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:

• U. of Illinois’ President Hogan Says Kenneth Howell Firing Under Review
• The E-Mail that Got Dr. Kenneth Howell Fired at U. of Illinois

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.

Dear Readers,

AFTAH is featured in the report below by American Family Association’s “One News Now.” about President Obama’s latest homosexual appointee: Georgetown law professor and lesbian legal activist Chai Feldblum as a commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). (Think “sexual orientation discrimination” EEOC lawsuits against businesses if Obama gets his way legislatively.)

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.)