The E-Mail that Got Dr. Kenneth Howell Fired at U. of Illinois

Dr. Kenneth Howell, Adjunct Associate Professor of Religion, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, was fired after a liberal student complained about an e-mail he sent to his students explaining Natural Moral Law.

By Peter LaBarbera

The University of Illinois has fired Dr. Kenneth Howell, a Catholic adjunct religion professor who was doing his job of teaching a class on Catholicism — after a liberal student complained to the university about an e-mail Howell sent to his students explaining Natural Moral Law. (The professor’s instructive e-mail and the student’s complaint e-mail are reproduced below.)

TAKE ACTION: Contact Michael Hogan, the University of Illinois’s new president, and urge him to reinstate Prof. Howell immediately: phone: (217) 333-6400; Fax: (217) 333-5733. Tell President Hogan that Howell’s firing is a nationwide advertisement that the University of Illinois is bigoted toward and intolerant of people of faith — giving lie to U-I’s mission statement to be “inclusive” and to “treat each other with dignity and respect.” Board of Trustees: contact the U. of Illinois Bd. of Trustees at 217-333-1920 or write: UIBOT@uillinois.edu.]

The U. of Illinois’ “religion department’s website says Howell was recognized for excellent teaching in the spring and fall semesters of 2008 and 2009,” the Champaign News-Gazette reports.

Howell’s terminatioin draws attention to the emerging, cold reality of modern, politically correct America: in cosmopolitan areas and certainly in academia, you are more likely to be terminated, punished or persecuted on the job for opposing homosexuality than for “being gay.”

Here we are — on the verge, with our Democrat-controlled Congress, of creating federal employment “rights” based on homosexuality (and transgenderism), and people are being fired merely for expressing their sincere religious beliefs — which, in Howell’s case, was his job. Even as homosexual activists falsely claim that thousands of homosexuals face job losses because of “who they are,” the number of anti-Christian firings is piling up: remember the Allstate firing of Matt Barber? Crystal Dixon?

As you can see from below, Dr. Howell is a clear thinker who was doing what he was paid to do — teaching Catholic morality to his students. The complaint e-mail that got him terminated dismissses Howell’s e-mail as “absurd…It sickens me to know that hard-working Illinoisans are funding the salary of a man who does nothing but try to indoctrinate students and perpetuate stereotypes.”

If you want to know about the homo-fascist impulse that dominates so many institutions of “higher learning” (hah!) today, here are the key paragraphs from the News-Gazette story:

In a series of e-mail exchanges between [Robert McKim, head of the U-I religion department] and UI administrators about how to proceed regarding Howell’s teaching and his appointment as an adjunct professor, McKim states he will send a note to Howell’s students and others who were forwarded his e-mail to students, “disassociating our department, College, and university from the view expressed therein.”

In another e-mail, Ann Mester, associate dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, wrote that she believes “the e-mails sent by Dr. Howell violate university standards of inclusivity, which would then entitle us to have him discontinue his teaching arrangement with us.”

Inclusivity? What about U. of Illinois’ “inclusion” of traditional Catholic students and students who adhere to historic Judeo-Christian morality? ‘Diversity” has become a code-word for punishing those who dissent from liberal, pro-homosexuality groupthink. Please read the excellent e-letter below on Natural Moral Law by Prof. Howell. And  take action to urge the University of Illinois to correct this injustice. — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

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Dr. Kenneth Howell’s Teaching E-mail to Students:

The following is the e-mail to students that U. of Illinois religion professor Ken Howell sent to his students, as reported by the Champaign News-Gazette:

From: Kenneth J. Howell

Date: Tue, May 4, 2010 at 9:45 PM

Subject: Utilitarianism and Sexuality (for those in 447 FYI)

Dear Students:

Since there is a question on the final exam about utilitarianism (see the review sheet), I thought I would help with an example. I realized after my lectures on moral theory that even though I talked about the substance of utilitarianism, I did not identify it as such and so you may not have been able to see it.

It turns out that our discussion of homosexuality brings up the issue of utilitarianism. In class, our discussion of the morality of homosexual acts was very incomplete because any moral issue about which people disagree ALWAYS raises a more fundamental issue about criteria. In other words, by what criteria should we judge whether a given act is right or wrong?

Before looking at the issue of criteria, however, we have to remind ourselves of the ever-present tendency in all of us to judge morality by emotion. The most frequent reason I hear people supporting same-sex marriage is that they know some gay couples or individuals. Empathy is a noble human quality but right or wrong does not depend on who is doing the action or on how I feel about those people, just as judging an action wrong should not depend on disliking someone. This might seem obvious to a right thinking person but I have encountered many well-educated people who do not (or cannot?) make the distinction between persons and acts when engaging moral reasoning. I encourage you to read the final essay editorial I sent earlier to reflect on this. In short, to judge an action wrong is not to condemn a person. A person and his/her acts can be distinguished for the purposes of morality.

So, then, by what criterion should we judge whether sexual acts are right or wrong? This is where utilitarianism comes in. Utilitarianism in the popular sense is fundamentally a moral theory that judges right or wrong by its practical outcomes. It is somewhat akin to a cost/benefit analysis. So, when a woman is deciding whether it’s right to have an abortion, the utilitarian says it’s right or wrong based on what the best outcome is. Similarly, a man who is trying to decide whether he should cheat on his wife, if he is a utilitarian, will weigh the various consequences. If the cheating side of the ledger is better, he will conclude that it’s okay to cheat. If the faithful side is better, he will refrain from cheating.

I think it’s fair to say that many, maybe most Americans employ some type of utilitarianism in their moral decision making. But there are at least two problems. One is that to judge the best outcome can be very subjective. What may be judged good for the pregnant woman may not be good for the baby. What may be judged good for the about-to-cheat-husband may not good for his wife or his children. This problem of subjectivity is inherent in utilitarianism for a second reason. Utilitarianism counsels that moral decisions should NOT be based on the inherent meaning of acts. Acts are only good or bad relative to outcomes. The natural law theory that I expounded in class assumes that human acts have an inherent meaning (remember my fist vs. extended hand of friendship example).

One of the most common applications of utilitarianism to sexual morality is the criterion of mutual consent. It is said that any sexual act is okay if the two or more people involved agree. Now no one can (or should) deny that for a sexual act to be moral there must be consent. Certainly, this is one reason why rape is morally wrong. But the question is whether this is enough.

If two men consent to engage in sexual acts, according to utilitarianism, such an act would be morally okay. But notice too that if a ten year old agrees to a sexual act with a 40 year old, such an act would also be moral if even it is illegal under the current law. Notice too that our concern is with morality, not law. So by the consent criterion, we would have to admit certain cases as moral which we presently would not approve of. The case of the 10 and 40 year olds might be excluded by adding a modification like “informed consent.” Then as long as both parties agree with sufficient knowledge, the act would be morally okay. A little reflection would show, I think, that “informed consent” might be more difficult to apply in practice than in theory. But another problem would be where to draw the line between moral and immoral acts using only informed consent. For example, if a dog consents to engage in a sexual act with its human master, such an act would also be moral according to the consent criterion. If this impresses you as far-fetched, the point is not whether it might occur but by what criterion we could say that it is wrong. I don’t think that it would be wrong according to the consent criterion.

But the more significant problem has to do with the fact that the consent criterion is not related in any way to the NATURE of the act itself. This is where Natural Moral Law (NML) objects. NML says that Morality must be a response to REALITY. In other words, sexual acts are only appropriate for people who are complementary, not the same. How do we know this? By looking at REALITY. Men and women are complementary in their anatomy, physiology, and psychology. Men and women are not interchangeable. So, a moral sexual act has to be between persons that are fitted for that act. Consent is important but there is more than consent needed.

One example applicable to homosexual acts illustrates the problem. To the best of my knowledge, in a sexual relationship between two men, one of them tends to act as the “woman” while the other acts as the “man.” In this scenario, homosexual men have been known to engage in certain types of actions for which their bodies are not fitted. I don’t want to be too graphic so I won’t go into details but a physician has told me that these acts are deleterious to the health of one or possibly both of the men. Yet, if the morality of the act is judged only by mutual consent, then there are clearly homosexual acts which are injurious to their health but which are consented to. Why are they injurious? Because they violate the meaning, structure, and (sometimes) health of the human body.

Now recall that I mentioned in class the importance of gaining wisdom from the past. One part of wisdom we gain from such knowledge is how people today came to think of their bodies. I won’t go into details here but a survey of the last few centuries reveals that we have gradually been separating our sexual natures (reality) from our moral decisions. Thus, people tend to think that we can use our bodies sexually in whatever ways we choose without regard to their actual structure and meaning. This is also what lies behind the idea of sex change operations. We can manipulate our bodies to be whatever we want them to be.

If what I just said is true, then this disassociation of morality and sexual reality did not begin with homosexuality. It began long ago. But it took a huge leap forward in the wide spread use of artificial contraceptives. What this use allowed was for people to disassociate procreation and children from sexual activity. So, for people who have grown up only in a time when there is no inherent connection between procreation and sex –- notice not natural but manipulated by humans –- it follows “logically” that sex can mean anything we want it to mean.

Natural Moral Theory says that if we are to have healthy sexual lives, we must return to a connection between procreation and sex. Why? Because that is what is REAL. It is based on human sexual anatomy and physiology. Human sexuality is inherently unitive and procreative. If we encourage sexual relations that violate this basic meaning, we will end up denying something essential about our humanity, about our feminine and masculine nature.

I know this doesn’t answer all the questions in many of your minds. All I ask as your teacher is that you approach these questions as a thinking adult. That implies questioning what you have heard around you. Unless you have done extensive research into homosexuality and are cognizant of the history of moral thought, you are not ready to make judgments about moral truth in this matter. All I encourage is to make informed decisions. As a final note, a perceptive reader will have noticed that none of what I have said here or in class depends upon religion. Catholics don’t arrive at their moral conclusions based on their religion. They do so based on a thorough understanding of natural reality.

Kenneth J. Howell Ph.D.

Director, St. John’s Institute of Catholic Thought

Adjunct Associate Professor of Religion, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

_________________________________________________

U of I Student’s Complaint E-mail about Religion Prof Ken Howell:

The following is the e-mail complaint from student about U-I religion instructor Ken Howell, as reported by the News-Gazette:

Prof. McKim,

This past semester, a friend of mine took RLST 127: Introduction to Catholicism. Throughout the semester, he would consistently tell me how the teacher [Ken Howell], who I believe is a priest at the Newman Center, would preach (not teach) his ideology to the class. Many times, my friend (whom I wish to remain anonymous) said the instructor would say things that were inflammatory and downright insensitive to those who were not of the Catholic faith–it should be noted that my friend and I were both brought up Catholic. Anyways, my friend informed me that things got especially provocative when discussing homosexuality. He sent me the following e-mail, which I believe you will agree is downright absurd once you read it.

I am in no way a gay rights activist, but allowing this hate speech at a public university is entirely unacceptable. It sickens me to know that hard-working Illinoisans are funding the salary of a man who does nothing but try to indoctrinate students and perpetuate stereotypes. Once again, this is a public university and should thus have no religious affiliation. Teaching a student about the tenets of a religion is one thing. Declaring that homosexual acts violate the natural laws of man is another. The courses at this institution should be geared to contribute to the public discourse and promote independent thought; not limit one’s worldview and ostracize people of a certain sexual orientation.

I can only imagine how ashamed and uncomfortable a gay student would feel if he/she were to take this course. I am a heterosexual male and I found this completely appalling. Also, my friend also told me that the teacher allowed little room for any opposition to Catholic dogma. Once again, he is guilty of limiting the marketplace of ideas and acting out of accord with this institution’s mission and principles.

I have Cc’d Leslie Morrow, director of the LGBT Resource Center, on this e-mail as well as (name redacted), former features editor at the Daily Illini (I’m sure they’d like to hear about this), and Siobhan Somerville, a former teacher of mine and the founder of the queer studies major.

I didn’t go to Notre Dame for a reason,

(name redacted)

___________________________________________

Bio of Kenneth J. Howell, Ph.D. from the St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the U. of Illinois

Kenneth J. Howell
Director & Senior Fellow, Institute of Catholic Thought
kenneth.howell@sjcnc.org

In addition to being the Director and a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Catholic Thought, Dr. Howell is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Program for the Study of Religion in the University of Illinois. Dr. Howell studied theology at Westminster Theological Seminary where he concentrated in biblical languages and systematic theology.

In 1978, he was ordained a Presbyterian minister and served parishes in Florida and Indiana. After completing his Ph.D. in linguistics at Indiana University, he taught Greek, Hebrew, and Latin at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. His teaching duties involved theological research which led to his conversion to Catholicism in 1996. During this time, he obtained another Ph.D. in the history of Christianity and Science from the University of Lancaster (U.K).

Dr. Howell is the author of four books and numerous articles. God’s Two Books: Copernican Cosmology and Biblical Interpretation in Early Modern Science (University of Notre Dame Press, 2002), Mary of Nazareth: Sign and Instrument of Christian Unity (Queenship Press, 1998) is a scriptural study of Marian doctrine. Meeting Mary Our Mother in Faith (Catholic Answers Press, 2003), Questions College Students Ask…about God, Faith, and the Church (co-authored with Christine Pinheiro) (Champaign, IL: The St. John Institute of Catholic Thought, St. John’s Catholic Newman Center, 2006), The Eucharist for Beginners: Sacrament, Sacrifice, and Communion (San Diego: Catholic Answers, 2006).

Posted in "Civil Unions" & "Gay Marriage", Academic Bias, Boards, Administrators, Teachers, Counselors, Catholic Pro-Family, Christian Persecution, Diversity - Real (including ex-gays and critics of gay agenda), Diversity Propaganda, Freedom Under Fire, Gay Activist Hypocrisy, Gay Protests, Gay Rights vs. Others' Rights, GLBTQ Targeting Youth and Schools, Government Promotion, Morality and Moral Judgments, Natural Moral Law, News, Tolerance?, Universities & Colleges, What is truth?

LISTEN: Part Two of AFTAH Interview with Ex-Lesbian Linda Jernigan — and Ex-‘Gay’ Pastor Roger Ford

Homosexual pedophilia leads a man and a woman into homosexuality

Linda Jernigan

Here is Part Two of our interview with Linda Jernigan, which aired July 10, 2010. [see Part One of the interiew HERE.] In the interview, Jernigan, a former lesbian, is joined on air by Pastor Roger Ford, a former homosexual. Their discussion with AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera is fascinating on many levels — not least of which is the fact that both Jernigan and Ford were seduced into homosexuality as underage kids. (Gay activists denounce and ridicule any linkage between pedophilia and homosexuality.)

Jernigan’s real life parallels the awful “Vagina Monologues” play by radical feminist Eve Ensler in which a 13-year-old girl was seduced into lesbianism by a woman who was supposed to be a role model in the community. (In a later version of the play, Ensler changed the victim’s age to 16.) Jernigan tells AFTAH how when she was just 12 years old, a woman who was supposed to be her “mentor” began exposing Jernigan to sexual banter and discussions, and then started asking Jernigan about her sexual feelings. This led to the woman seducing Jernigan into sex and the lesbian lifestyle.

Posted in A - What does the Bible say about homosexuality?, African-American, Americans for Truth Hour, B - Ex-Homosexual Testimonies, Biblical Truth, Gospel evangelism, HIV/AIDS, Homosexual Pedophilia & Pederasty, Lesbianism, News, Pedophilia/Pederasty, The Bible, Churches, & Homosexuality

Why Is Dr. Laura Schlessinger Promoting Homosexuality and PFLAG?

Dr. Laura needs to “do the right thing” and support PFOX instead

“[A blog article] supposes that I ever quoted Leviticus that homosexuality is an abomination.  That never happened.  I repeat: that never happened.  I never said that.  I don’t believe that….

“In fact, I was one of the earliest radio hosts to support organizations such as PFLAG (you know, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and other efforts to encourage openness and acceptance of gays in their own families, much less society.”  — Dr. Laura Schlessinger, “Setting My Record Straight about Gays,” June 22, 2010, Schlessinger’s blog

The famous radio host, "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger, now praises the radical homosexual group PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). In 2000, homosexual militants targeted Schlessinger with a cyber-boycott because she said (correctly) that homosexuality is a "biological error."

TAKE ACTION: Write Dr. Laura Schlessinger through her blog and urge her to stop promoting the homosexual activist group PFLAG. Respectfully ask her to instead support PFOX, a pro-family support group for parents and friends of ex-gays (and gays). Also urge her to refrain from sanctioning homosexual relationships, which are always wrong, and to instead use her powerful voice to support the ex-gay movement. Another way to contact Schlessinger is through her website, DrLaura.com, but you have to join first to e-mail her this way. Or you can write: webmaster@drlaura.com.
The call-in line for Dr. Laura’s radio show is 1-800-DR-LAURA (800-375-2872). (Calls must come between 11:30 and 3:00 PM Pacific Time Monday-Friday.)

______________________________________

By Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

I’m sad to report that Dr. Laura Schlessinger — the “Dr. Laura” of radio moralist fame — has chosen to sell out the truth about homosexuality because she either: 1) stopped believing it; or 2) couldn’t take the pressure or the potential loss of income and prestige resulting from hostile “gay” activism.

Note that I did not say that Schlessinger has sold out on opposing “gay marriage.” She hasn’t, and still publicly defends traditional marriage. But she has reversed course on homosexuality, which is by far the more politically incorrect battle these days. Let’s face it, “protecting marriage” in our “gay”-saturated culture is a much easier task than opposing the extremist homosexual agenda — which Dr. Laura knows better than anyone because she herself was savaged by ‘GLBT’ cultural bullies ten years ago for describing homosexuality as unnatural.

(I want to stress that Schlessinger’s retreat on homosexuality does not negate her immense contributions to the culture in teaching people to take responsibility for their own lives, and in helping to build healthy marriages and families. For example, I know just from conversations with friends and family that her book, The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands, has blessed many women and, by extension, their husbands and marriages.)

Posted in A - What does the Bible say about homosexuality?, B - Ex-Homosexual Testimonies, Bible, Biblical Truth, Boycotts - Pro-Homosexual, Conservative and Chrisian sellouts, Conservative Leaders, D - GLBTQ Pressure Within Churches, Judaism, News, PFLAG, Radio Talk Show Hosts, Redefining Morality, The Bible, Churches, & Homosexuality, Too Much Tolerance, What is truth?

Sen. Lugar to Blade: Won’t Oppose Homosexuals in the Military

Aide to veteran Republican says he has not issued statement on issue

UPDATE/Note to Readers: I have just called Sen. Lugar’s D.C. office (July 7, 2010) and an aide said that he has NOT issued a statement on the congressional effort to repeal the ban on homosexuals in the military — despite the Washington Blade report cited below. Now is the time for all conservatives — but especially those in Indiana — to contact Lugar and urge him to stay true to conservative principles on this issue. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH.org

___________________________________

TAKE ACTION: Contact Sen. Dick Lugar [202-224-4814; e-mail him HERE] and urge him to oppose the homosexualization of the U.S. military, in a time of war — and to STOP pandering to the Homosexual Lobby. Lugar’s statewide office contact information is at the bottom of this email. Urge Sen. Lugar to support a filibuster of the Defense spending bill, with its provision to repeal the Armed Forces’ sensible homosexuality ban. Please pass this alert on to your friends and family living in Indiana.

A repeal measure passed by the House and contained in the Senate Defense spending bill would inject open homosexuality into the military without even waiting to hear from a (biased) review of the policy by Defense Sec. Robert Gates, which is slated for completion in December. Respectfully urge Sen. Lugar to respect the military by resisting the reckless experimentation with the Armed Forces. For the best information on this issue, go to the Center for Military Readiness website.

__________________________________________

By Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Well, it appears veteran Sen. Dick Lugar [(202) 224-4814; e-mail him HERE; see statewide office contact info at bottom] is another Republican who has “grown” on homosexual issues — leaving wholesome, conservative Indiana values far behind. If the Washington Blade is to be believed, Lugar is not even willing to wait for Defense Sec. Robert Gates’ biased review on how (not whether) to implement President Obama’s homosexuals-in-the-military plan.

The Blade, a newspaper for homosexuals, reports that Lugar will not support a motion to strike language repealing the ban on homosexuals in the military (“Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell”). Here is an excerpt from the Blade (emphasis added), followed by statewide contact info for Sen. Lugar:

U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) told the Blade last week that he isn’t concerned about the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal language in the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill and wouldn’t support an effort to rid the legislation of the provision.

Asked whether he would support a substitute amendment or a motion to strike, Lugar replied, “No. I would just leave it as it is.”

Read the rest of this article »

Posted in "Sexual Orientation"/"Gender Identity" and the Law, Candidates & Elected Officials, Congress, Conservative and Chrisian sellouts, Gay Rights vs. Others' Rights, Government Promotion, Military, News, Pending Legislation

LISTEN: AFTAH Interview with Amy Contrada of MassResistance, Author of Elena Kagan Report

Amy Contrada of MassResistance has exposed the radical pro-homosexual agenda of Elena Kagan (shown above) as Dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan is President Obama's second nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Here is AFTAH’s July 3, 2010 interview with Amy Contrada, Research Director for MassResistance and main author of the MR report, “How Elena Kagan Helped ‘Queer’ Harvard Law School.” Contrada — who has degrees from Tufts and Brown Universities and who once worked as an administrator at Harvard — writes for the MassResistance blog. Working with MR founder Brian Camenker (see AFTAH Camenker interviews Part One HERE and Part Two HERE), Contrada has written extensively on the “gay” activist movement in Boston and has authored an extensive report on radical transsexual rights bill under consideration in Massachusetts.  Both Amy and Brian have joined the faculty of the ongoing Americans For Truth Academy.

HOW TO LISTEN: This is an mp3 file.  Left click on the link below to play.  (Please be patient, depending upon the speed of your internet connection it may take a moment to load.) OR right click the link then “save target as” to download the whole show.

7-3-10, Amy Contrada, All

Posted in "Civil Unions" & "Gay Marriage", "Sexual Orientation"/"Gender Identity" and the Law, 04 - Gender Confusion (Transgender), Americans for Truth Hour, Candidates & Elected Officials, Court Decisions & Judges, GLBTQ Targeting Youth and Schools, Government Promotion, News, Obama, Political Correctness vs. Truth, Post-modernism/relativism, Promoting Gender Confusion, Supreme Court, Universities & Colleges

SPECIAL REPORT: Elena Kagan’s Radically Pro-Homosexual, Pro-Transsexual Record at Harvard Law School

WARNING: Offensive Language

For the last few weeks I’ve been working with Mass Resistance’s Amy Contrada, who has pulled together a wealth of information about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s time at Harvard University, where she served as Dean of the Law School. Many will be shocked at just how extreme Harvard has become — and the radical sexual/gender policies advanced by Kagan. Kudos to Contrada and our friends at Mass Resistance for doing the reporting that most in the liberal media refuse to do (because too many agree with Kagan’s left-wing social agenda). And thanks to Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt of the Pray in Jesus Name Project for supporting this work. Please read the full report, which ends with questions that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee should be asking Kagan.

TAKE ACTION: Fax and e-mail the Kagan report to Judiciary Committee members and request that they question Kagan on her full record at Harvard, which is way out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. Click on the names of the individual Committee members HERE and fax to their MULTIPLE offices (D.C. and local); request that the Senator ask Kagan the questions at the end of the report (reprinted below). Do the same to your own two U.S. Senators. (Congress switchboard: 202-224-3121.) — Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.org

Read our Mass Resistance report, “How Elena Kagan Helped “Queer” Harvard Law School (Will she now help “queer” the US Supreme Court’s decisions?)”

Posted in "Sexual Orientation"/"Gender Identity" and the Law, Academic Bias, DOMA, Frank Kameny, Kevin Jennings, Left-wing activism, News, Obama, Pansexual, Post-modernism/relativism, Promoting Gender Confusion, Sex-change Operations, Sexual Revolution, Too Much Tolerance, US Supreme Court

Pro-Family Legal Groups See Limited Impact in Supreme Court’s Hastings College Ruling against Christian Legal Society

Conflict continues between First Amendment and nondiscrimination policies

The following is reprinted from the website of Alliance Defense Fund. Go HERE to read a Christian Legal Society information page on the Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (UC Hastings) case.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 Monday to uphold an unusual university policy that forces student groups to allow outsiders who disagree with their beliefs to become leaders and voting members. The court confined its opinion to the unique policy and did not address whether nondiscrimination policies in general, which are typical on public university campuses, may require this. The court concluded that public universities may override a religious student group’s right to determine its leadership only if it denies that right to all student groups.

Attorneys with the Christian Legal Society and Alliance Defense Fund represented a student chapter of CLS at California’s Hastings College of the Law in the lawsuit, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. The suit was filed in 2004 after the law school refused to recognize the chapter because the group requires all of its officers and voting members to agree with its basic Christian beliefs.

Posted in "Sexual Orientation"/"Gender Identity" and the Law, Biblical Truth, Christian Persecution, Freedom Under Fire, Gay Rights vs. Others' Rights, Government Promotion, News, The Bible, Churches, & Homosexuality

‘Gay’ Icon Frank Kameny Condemns AFTAH Truth Academy

Homosexual icon Frank Kameny coined the slogan "Gay Is Good." Now he says bestiality -- sex with animals -- is OK ("as long as the animal doesn't mind"). Kameny, who says the God of the Bible is a "sinful , homophobic bigot" who needs to repent, has denounced AFTAH's "Truth Academy," to be held outside Chicago Aug. 5-7, 2010.

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Our upcoming Truth Academy to teach young people how to counter “gay” activist misinformation is not proving to be very popular with GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) activists. In a letter to AFTAH, Frank Kameny, the world’s oldest and most respected (by GLBTs) homosexual activist, has denounced the Truth Academy, which will be held August 5-7 at AFTAH’s office in Carol Stream, Illinois [click HERE for more info].

Kameny is the fellow who can’t recall if he spoke at a 1981 meeting held by NAMBLA (the notorious North American Man/Boy Love Association; NAMBLA reported that he had attended). Kameny also wrote AFTAH to assert that bestiality is OK “as long as the animal doesn’t mind (and the animal rarely does).”

If Kameny is correct that we non-homosexuals have to learn only from homosexuals themselves when it comes to this culture-war issue, then I would ask him: please, teach us about the ethics of declaring the God of the Bible a “sinful, homophobic bigot” and committed Christians “Christianofascists”; or addressing a group that advocates sex between men and young boys (we might understand if you came to scold NAMBLA, but apparently you did not); and teach us about the ethics of bestiality. With regard to the latter, how exactly can a human being be sure that an animal is consenting to be his or her “sex partner”? Also, teach us why we should accept your (a)moral view that “Gay is good” and “Gay is Godly” (he wrote the latter as an admitted atheist) when that flies in the face of historic, Judeo-Christian teachings on sex and marriage.

It is a sobering thought that given his celebrated status as an icon of the proud homosexualist movement, Frank Kameny could one day be lifted up to students as an American hero and role model whose life should be studied — especially if an annual “Gay History Month” becomes a reality in schools (a perverse copy of Black History Month). As with another “gay” activist, Harvey Milk, students will learn only glamorized lessons about these LBGT icons and nothing that would undermine the homosexual activist movement.

Posted in "Gay" Icons, "Sexual Orientation"/"Gender Identity" and the Law, A - What does the Bible say about homosexuality?, Bestiality, Biblical Truth, Frank Kameny, Gay Lies about AFTAH, Homosexual Activist History, Homosexual Hate, Homosexual Pedophilia & Pederasty, Morality and Moral Judgments, NAMBLA, News, The Bible, Churches, & Homosexuality