Freedom of speech on campus?

If this is true, and if it's as simple as it sounds, this is kind of scary.

Apparently, he stated that homosexual acts (but not necessarily inclinations) were wrong, according to Church teaching, and that he agreed with the Church's teaching.

This was in a class about Catholicism.

If it's as simple as the link above stated - then it's scary. I mean, on the one hand, if he was singling out students in his class who were "out" and harassing them, that's jerky behavior and is not right. On the other hand, if he's stating what's been Church teaching for I don't know how many years, and happens to say he agrees with it - well, then, I don't think people can be offended. Or rather, they can, but I don't think it rises to a firable offense.

People are FAAAAAR too sensitive these days. All through my college experience, I heard profs make rude comments or jokes about Christianity - far worse than what this man apparently said on the other side. I've heard crass comments about conservatives, or people who are even slightly to the right of the speaker.

But you know what? It's their opinion. I disagreed with them. Their making rude jokes about my faith didn't lessen my faith any; I didn't feel the need to become an atheist in order to become one of the "cool kids."

You should be able to believe what you believe without feeling "hurt" by people who are going to say things that disagree with you. You should also be adequately able to defend your beliefs - as I saw some of my braver fellow students do with some of the profs, arguing Christianity with them.

What the adjunct fired over the "moral teachings of Catholicism" said was much more fact-based, and much more neutral than rude jokes about Christ or people who follow Him. (And frankly: if you're taking a class on Catholicism, shouldn't you EXPECT to hear the teaching that the church opposed homosexual acts? And, for that matter, sex outside of marriage? And birth control?)

I don't know.

I would also observe that this is why we need NOT to let tenure die. Yes, there are a few very obvious people out there who become "dead wood" after getting tenure - and that's unfortunate. But, just as tenure protected those who leaned left in the 1950s, it should today be there to protect those with "unfashionably" conservative beliefs.

Also, it could lead to professors who are "crustier" or who say things in a more blunt way being hurt by that bluntness. And frankly? A lot of us who are in the professoriate are here because we don't always have the same ability to smile and say what we think people want to hear. Some of us are pretty damn blunt a lot of the time. And if we're going to have to start walking on eggs lest we be fired because a sensitive student complains...well, the Ivory Tower will empty out, just to be refilled with Stewart Smalley types who want to make everyone "feel" good. Even if it means they don't learn crap.

What the adjunct said, apparently that homosexual acts "violated moral law."

I don't know. I admit I tend to be laissez-faire about it; I don't care what consenting adults do in their bedrooms provided I don't have to listen to them do it (or have them tell me about it afterward). But isn't that kind of church teaching? I mean, I'm not Catholic, but I know people who are.

And anyway, in college, isn't that where you ask the hard questions and have the difficult discussions? If a student who is gay is hurt so badly by being told, "This major world religion disapproves of how you get your rocks off," then they must have had a very, very sheltered life up to this point. (I know, I know: it's hard for gay people. But I would argue it's also hard for egghead kids in a school system where the social system rewards the kids who pull Cs with minimal effort and party, or women who are bigger than a size 8, or people with disabilities, or or or. Plato said, Be kind for everyone is facing a hard battle, but I don't think that means we need to zip our lips and not discuss anything that might get somewhere near offending someone.)

Makes me kind of wonder what would happen if it had been a Muslim scholar teaching a class on Islam...