{"id":20328,"date":"2010-07-28T12:37:50","date_gmt":"2010-07-28T16:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/?p=20328"},"modified":"2017-03-10T03:24:33","modified_gmt":"2017-03-10T03:24:33","slug":"the-clampdown-shirley-sherrod-ken-howell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2010\/07\/28\/the-clampdown-shirley-sherrod-ken-howell\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clampdown; Shirley Sherrod & Ken Howell – UPDATED"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here we have the presentment of two job losses:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Shirley Sherrod gives a speech;<\/strong> within the speech she indulges in a bit of roundaboutation, saying some things that seemed offensive, until the larger context was understood.<\/p>\n

Because the embrasure of \u201cpolitically correct speech\u201d has encouraged reactionary hyper-vigilance as to words, sentences or modes of reasoning that might steer too close to the movable line known as \u201chate,\u201d Sherrod\u2019s edited remarks were immediately received as such and she was quickly denounced by the very NAACP that had access to her full remarks\u2013and should have known better\u2013and then fired from her job.<\/p>\n

Context, when finally absorbed,<\/strong> exonerated Ms. Sherrod from the charge of \u201chate speech,\u201d and even though\u2013because perfect communication is a rare thing\u2013her speech did contain a few wince-inducing lines, (\u201cwell, it is about white and black<\/em>, but\u2026\u201d) the general sense is that if Sherrod wants her job back, she should have it. The offer for reinstatement has been rightly made.<\/p>\n

But the destructive rush-to-judgment says a great deal about a society perhaps too-fully enthralled to the victim\u2019s mantel, too-ready to play Red-Queen-Off-With-A-Head without bothering to listen<\/em><\/a>, or to get a complete story, or to thoughtfully digest it.
\n
\nTwo weeks before Sherrod\u2019s dramatic 15 minutes<\/strong> came and went<\/a>, University of Illinois Professor Kenneth J. Howell, who is employed by that institution\u2019s Department of Religion to teach Catholicism, Catholic theology, Catholic thought and reason, was summarily fired<\/a> for, basically, trying to help his students understand a point regarding Utilitarianism and Sexuality, before their final exam.<\/p>\n

So, fundamentally, he was attempting to serve<\/em> his students, for the benefit of their own understanding and the sake of their grades. He did this by emailing a clarification of his lecture points<\/a> to his students.<\/p>\n

The email was long;<\/strong> it demanded a full reading to be understood in context. Without context, Howell, like Sherrod, was bound to be misunderstood, and charged\u2013with full finger-in-face righteousness\u2013with the amorphous crime of \u201chating.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with Sherrod\u2019s speech, where we acknowledged that imperfect communication is not necessarily \u201chateful,\u201d Howell dared to traipse a very thin line. If Sherrod could say, \u201cwell, it is about white and black, but\u2026\u201d<\/em> and then go on to make her acceptable larger point, then Howell\u2019s writing, \u201cMen 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\u2026\u201d<\/em> should be weighed against:<\/p>\n

. . . a survey of the last few centuries reveals that we have gradually been separating our sexual natures (reality) from our moral decisions . . .<\/p>\n

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 \u2013- notice not natural but manipulated by humans \u2013- it follows \u201clogically\u201d that sex can mean anything we want it to mean.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I know this doesn\u2019t 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\u2019t arrive at their moral conclusions based on their religion. They do so based on a thorough understanding of natural reality.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Emphasis mine. What we see, after all the high-drama<\/strong> of Howell\u2019s daring to speak an eternal thought that is at odds with current thinking, is an intellectual doing what intellectuals do: admitting that he is not \u201canswering all the questions in many of your minds,\u201d while puzzling over an issue, trying to pierce the veneers of moral thought, social codes and natural reasoning, to find the core piece of human understanding that is, in fact, so distant: what our humanity means in relation to creation and God.<\/p>\n

We see a courteous teacher with critical thinking skills and a mind trained to question and probe, trying to impart those skills onto students who have been taught that \u201csensitivity\u201d trumps courtesy; they have been trained not to think, but to herd, not to probe, but to fall in line.<\/p>\n

It was inevitable, then, that Howell would be called out for his crime,<\/strong> and not by one of Howell\u2019s own students, but by an un-named \u201cfriend\u201d writing on behalf of a student<\/a> who, we are told, had been offended by Howell\u2019s semester-long insistence on teaching\u2013to students enrolled in a class entitled \u201cIntroduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought<\/em>\u201c\u2013a Catholic<\/em> understanding regarding such things as utilitarianism, sexuality and the church\u2019s natural moral theories.<\/p>\n

Wrote the non-student complainant:<\/p>\n

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\u2019s worldview and ostracize people of a certain sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

. . . 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\u2019s mission and principles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nCritical-thinking skills are nowhere in evidence, here<\/strong>. Nor is an appreciation for mere irony. The writer calls for the promotion of independent thought and a limitless worldview by damning a professor for theorizing in opposition to the student\u2019s worldview. A course designed to familiarize a student with Catholic thought is thought divisive for attempting to remain focused on same. The \u201cmarketplace of ideas,\u201d has no room for ideas that do not conform.<\/p>\n

I think in some ways, the Howell situation is more urgently troubling than Sherrod\u2019s. Sherrod\u2019s story illustrated to us that writers, editors, broadcasters, activists, bureaucrats and the White House are running on mere reflexiveness against perceived political black-eyes and feather-caps, with accompanying \u201ccollateral damage,\u201d and that cynical opportunism is self-defeating.<\/p>\n

That is a grim enough message, in such serious times.<\/p>\n

The Howell story, however, goes beyond grim:<\/strong> it tells us that a simple charge of thinking incorrect thoughts<\/em> and encouraging others to also dare to think<\/em>, even if one comes to a different conclusion (\u201cAll I ask as your teacher is that you approach these questions as a thinking adult . . .All I encourage is to make informed decisions\u2026\u201d) is enough to destroy a career and assign a corrosive label, at whim.<\/p>\n

Such actions do not encourage future development of critical thinking skills; they encourage a clamping down, not an opening, of the human mind.<\/p>\n

Shirley Sherrod did not deserve to lose her job<\/strong>, not seen in context. In context, nor does Professor Ken Howell. Both of them, ultimately, were urging their audiences to move beyond comfort zones, assumptions and a perceived conventional wisdom \u2013 to entertain a broader range of thought, and see where it leads.<\/p>\n

That used<\/em> to be considered a good thing, even a liberal<\/em> thing.<\/p>\n

The future is in the playpen.<\/strong> The playpen is not being taught how to reason or debate; it is being encouraged not to reason, but simply to feel, not to debate, but to fall in line.<\/p>\n

I begin to wonder if a project such as this comes too late<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong>
\nVia Hot Air, More Campus Clampdowning<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It sounds to me like the ACA wants a \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d rule for religion. That runs square into the First Amendment, especially for a state-run school. The ACA\u2019s idea of who comes first doesn\u2019t get to trump the restriction on freedom of religious exercise. If clients get off-put by Keeton\u2019s approach to counseling, they can look for another counselor. Now, the ACA can decide not to certify her; as a private organization, they have that prerogative. If they do that explicitly based on her religious belief, however, they may have a problem with that in court, especially as it will block Keeton\u2019s ability to make a living.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I guess my question is<\/strong>, if a gay counseling student expressed an inability to \u201cembrace\u201d religious people or their values, would he\/she also be subject to remediation? Are we drowning in irony, here?<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/strong>
\nBrutally Honest<\/a>
\nDeacon Greg Kandra<\/a>
\nVictor Davis Hanson<\/strong>: Net Negative<\/a>
\nJon Stewart<\/strong>: on Sherrod and Breitbart<\/a>
\nGay Patriot:<\/strong> Free speech aside, are the Sherrods race baiters?<\/a>
\nNewsBusters<\/strong>: A valid question from Jake Tapper<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here we have the presentment of two job losses: Shirley Sherrod gives a speech; within the speech she indulges in a bit of roundaboutation, saying some things that seemed offensive, until the larger context was understood. 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