Self-Labeled 'Proud Homophobe' in Campus Hot Water
by Jim Brown
October 11, 2005
(AgapePress) - A conservative professor at Washington University in St. Louis is under fire from students for declaring on his faculty website that homosexuality is sinful.
A small firestorm began after senior Jeff Stepp wrote an article in the student newspaper Student Life, arguing that Professor Jonathan Katz's views on homosexuality should be removed from the faculty website. In his column, Stepp rejects the professor's reasoning but says he is most disturbed by the fact that Katz's essays -- including one entitled "In Defense of Homophobia" -- are hosted on web space that is owned by the school and funded by student tuition.
Now some homosexual students are saying the school should remove Katz's remarks from the website. But Katz says he has yet to hear from administrators.
"I think they understand that if they try to pressure someone for presenting a reasoned exposition of his views or any exposition of his views, they'll be violating their trust as administrators of an institution of learning, and they will really look bad," the educator says. "I think they correctly realize the best procedure for them is to be completely silent -- and so they have been."
Along with his essays, Katz issues a disclaimer that his opinion pieces "represent his personal views alone," and that "Washington University would never take an official position which might deviate from the 'politically correct' line." In his essay discussing homophobia, Katz refers to himself as "a homophobe, and proud," and says homophobia is a "moral judgment upon acts engaged in by choice."
Katz claims his opponents have a double standard. "The interesting thing is that the people who went public in Student Life are overwhelmingly against. In fact," he says, "the first wave was all in favor of censorship."
The physics professor says that reaction caused him to wonder. "I said to myself, 'Hey, these people call themselves liberals and their reaction to something they disagree with is censorship?' That's weird, isn't it?" he asks.
According to Katz, private correspondence tends to run 2-to-1 in favor of his being allowed to state his opinions. But he adds that even though the university is supposed to be a place for open discussion of controversial issues, there is something seriously wrong on campus when people privately tell him they fear being shunned for publicly supporting him.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
