The controversy surrounding the recent dismissal of Professor Kenneth Howell of the University of Illinois may not be settled before the fall. He taught at the University of Illinois the Champaign/Urban Campus in religious studies department "Introduction to Catholicism" and "Modern Catholic Thought" in university classrooms, but served on the payroll of the St. John's Catholic Newman Center funded by the diocese of Peoria. He was terminated for making controversial statements about homosexuality which were interpreted as hate speech.
Part of a religious studies course is presumed to be about explaining what the Catholic faith believes and to analyze why a religion acts as it does and why others would disagree.
What is being questioned now is not so much the controversial statements the professor made concerning the position of the Catholic Church had on the issue of homosexuality, rather it is the relationship between the University of Illinois and the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, and who should be hiring professors for this course the University or the Diocese of Peoria.
The University of Illinois is a secular college that has a religious studies department. The purpose of that department is the study of religion from the perspective of the humanities, not in an oppositional or contrary way to religion, but in a way that doesn't just look from the orthodox believer's perspective, but the non-believer's as well. In other words, the class from a university's perspective should not be used to promote a religious agenda, and it should be the university, not the diocese of Peoria, that performs all academic vetting of professors when hiring for this course.
What is troublesome about Howell's situation is that he had sought a mandatum a certification provided by Catholic bishops that theologians teaching at Catholic universities are doing so in accordance with the Church's teaching. The professor does not teach at a Catholic university, nor is he teaching a class about theology. Why did he feel a need to apply for religious authority to teach in a secular environment?
What is not being discussed by the supporters of Professor Howell is his relationship, not with the University of Illinois, but rather with the Catholic diocese of Peoria.
If you want to study Buddhist, Methodist or Jewish thought at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, there are relevant courses in religious studiescourses where the instructors have been selected by a department of scholars, through standard academic procedures.
But if you want to study Roman Catholicism, your instructors have been through different vettingthey will have been nominated by ( and their salaries paid by ) the St. John's Catholic Newman Center, a church organization independent of the university, set up to serve Catholic students at the university. Despite objections from scholars, the agreement with the church has remained in place at the Urbana-Champaign campus since the religious studies department was founded in 1971.
It is time this whole situation be re-evaluated in light of this incident.
Joe Murray
Rainbow Sash Movement