Posted by
Billy on Monday, May 31, 2010 11:45:13 AM
A math teacher who said in an online survey that she did not believe in God has
been fired by an Iowa Catholic school after her views were discovered on her
Facebook profile and after officials found she had posted a comment at an
atheist website.
Last August the teacher, 27-year-old Abby Nurre, who had
just been hired to teach eight-grade math at St. Edmond School in Fort Dodge,
checked "no" in a Facebook survey about whether she believed in God, heaven and
angels. Then in November she posted a link to a news article about federal
funding of research on prayer in an online discussion forum run by atheists.
In December, five weeks after that posting, a student brought printouts of the
websites to school officials, and Nurre was fired. The Catholic school, backed
by the bishops of Iowa, also sought to deny Nurre unemployment benefits, which
prompted a court hearing that concluded in her favor this week. She will still
not be able to return to
St.
Edmond School, however.
"Each one of our teachers signs a contract
when they are hired and one of the first things on the contract is the condition
that they have to uphold our faith and teachings," Kristie Arlt, director of
communication for the Diocese of Sioux City, which covers Fort Dodge, told
Politics Daily. Arlt said it did not matter that she taught math and not
religion or a subject directly related to faith or morals.
"We have
wonderful teachers who are not Catholics -- some are Lutherans -- but they
cannot willingly and publicly take a stand against the Catholic faith. So this
should not have been a surprise to her [Nurre]."
(Billy's Thoughts>>
I have mixed feelings on the above news item. In fact I can see it both ways. I am 100% sure the courts should not make this school hire the teacher back. I have a question for the teacher if she doesn't believe in God why did she go to work for a religious based school? The school is right it must have people working for it who will uphold faith in God. I am not Catholic but for the last three years I have worked at a Catholic School and in that school faith is important and while I don't agree with every doctrine in the Catholic Church I don't go around telling the students not to believe in God in fact those I work with and a lot of the children know my faith is very important to me. On the other hand is it a Christian thing to fire somebody who doesn't believe in God. Yes she did sign a contract. If this was not a religious based place I would say the school was 100% wrong and did not show their faith well but those who work for this school need to display God and faith to the students. I wonder if anyone took the time to explain to this teacher before they fired her what it means to put your faith in Jesus. Read more of the above Catholic
School Fires Math Teacher Who May Not Believe in
God.)
