The following story appeared September 12 on the Catholic News Agency website.
A Franciscan University of Steubenville course description that lists homosexuality as deviant behavior has drawn critical attention from the only social work accreditation council in the U.S.
Franciscan University said its “Deviant Behavior” social work class – which takes its description from a standard public university textbook – is intended to “help students learn how to better serve and assist future clients.”
The course has drawn hostile media attention after members of an unofficial Facebook group of gay and lesbian alumni asked the school to change the course description.
Currently, the class description reads: “The behaviors that are primarily examined are murder, rape, robbery, prostitution, homosexuality, mental illness and drug use.”
Gregory Gronbacher, a 1990 graduate of Franciscan University who is a member of the group, told National Public Radio he thinks that the course description puts gay students “in the same category as murderers.”
He told NBC News he thinks the school’s administrators “mean well” but “live within a bubble.”
“If you live in that sort of intellectual isolation where gay people are hidden, it’s easy to wander down that path where gay people are rapists and murderers – that scary ‘other,’” he said.
Gronbacher said he was a serious Catholic in college and went on to become a philosophy and theology professor. He said he left the Catholic Church in part because of its stance on homosexuality, NBC News says.
In response, the university’s Sept. 4 statement affirmed its adherence to Catholic teaching that homosexual persons are to be treated with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”
Franciscan University’s social work program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, but the course description has prompted comment from Steven Holloway, director of the council’s office of accreditation.
“The fact that homosexuality was identified in the course description as a deviant behavior raises a flag,” he told National Public Radio. He said understanding “diversity and difference” is “critical for social workers to be effective in working with diverse populations.”
He also noted that the accreditation standards have a diversity requirement that includes sexual orientation.
The council’s 2008 accreditation standards say an accredited program must have a “commitment to diversity” including sexual orientation and “gender identity and expression” that is “reflected in its learning environment.” This includes “the demographic make-up of its faculty, staff and student body.”
The council is the only accreditation agency for social work education in the U.S.
The council’s Commission for Diversity and Social and Economic Justice includes a council on sexual orientation and gender identity. This commission council says on its website that it works for “the full participation of individuals who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or two-spirit in social work education.” It identifies and advocates changes in “any policies, procedures, or activities” that impede these persons’ “full and affirming participation.”
Franciscan University spokesman Tom Sofio told CNA Sept. 11 that the university has not had communication from the accreditation council.
The university’s Sept. 4 statement said the criticized course’s description is “little more than abbreviated chapter headings from the primary course textbook” that is used in over a dozen public universities.
The university said the textbook uses the term “deviant” in the sociological sense “simply meaning different from the norm.”
“We understand that some, not understanding the term or its context, might take offense at the description,” it continued. “Nevertheless, changing standard sociological definitions is beyond the scope of our work.”
The social work class treats other topics including crime, alcoholism and heterosexual deviance. The university said the course uses secular sources with “timely research findings, current data, and solid sociological analysis.”
Franciscan University said it expects that faculty present “authentic Catholic teaching,” saying that this benefits its graduates and their future clients because they have considered both sides of an argument.
“(T)hey leave here better prepared to assist clients than their counterparts from schools that teach only one perspective,” the university said.
The university’s statement also addressed its graduates.
“Our prayers and our love go out to all our alumni,” it said. “All men and women, regardless of their sexual orientation, are deserving of respect, compassion, and love, and as a Catholic university we not only believe that, but also strive to live out that belief each day in our relations with students and alumni alike.”
To read the original story, click here.
The University should give up its accreditation rather than give up its Catholicity!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
My daughter Gabriela Velasquez is a sophomore at this university in the nursing precisely because it is faithfully teaching Catholic morality. We want her to practice nursing with respect for all human life, born and unborn, normal or disabled, old or young, hetero or homosexual. We do not hate gays, but we understand they are broken and need our compassion and healing advice. First you have to admit they are in sin or your compassion is false.
Stay strong Franciscan University!
Does the course teach why the American Psychiatric Association took homosexuality off its mental illness list??? Was it for medical reasons???Was it for scientific reasons???? Or was it for political correctness reasons????????????? Or was it a case of bullying by the homosexual community?????????
yes the homosexual activist will bully….Franciscan University God bless you and stand your ground, homosexuality is a disorder and just because society has decided to praise sodomy does not mean Catholic Universities should!
Or was it for political correctness reasons????????????? Or was it a case of bullying by the homosexual community?????????
There were many that disagreed with the American Psychiatric Association’s revision because of political correctness but most of all from bullying by the homosexual community! Of course the usual and customary accusations of Bigotry blah blah blah…..yet they certainly have no reservations about their criticisms for our Catholic church.
Or did the devil make them do it?
Why yes, Jimbo, the devil was certainly part of the equation; but you already knew that, didn’t you.
Jim there is that question of FREE WILL! have you forgotten?
Yes, Abeca Christian, we have free will to go to Heaven and be with our Wonderful God for eternity or to go away from God and live in darkness in Hell for eternity.
I was so unhappy when I found out present day Psychology changed the whole Psychological beliefs from before 1970, and added false beliefs of homosexuality and other beliefs. My nursing Psycology book from the later 1940’s tells the truth. Why do we stand for lies and untruths to tickle the false believer’s ears?
Yeah! for Franciscan University. Stay strong and keep going forward with the Catholic and God’s truth.
A faithful and competent Catholic psychologist will lead a client from false beliefs such as psychology theories into the truth. This is done by using the common sentiments and steering the soul towards Jesus, accessible through the Sacraments. Whether the sentiments happen to be psycho theories, folk tales, cultural norms, whatever, these things can be points of connection for getting beyond the lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and pride of life and into true religion. Historically it has been monks, nuns and priests who’ve succeeded with this; today it is often the psychologist, but this costs more to the client. And priests and nuns don’t have time because they are busy with administration. It is kind of a role reversal from how St Paul, St Augustine and other saints and doctors of the Church have seen it.
I don’t think we should rely on psychology and science texts from the 1940’s. Modern science and medicine and psychology have learned a lot since then. Back in the 1940’s, most people thought that homosexuality was caused by bad parenting, strong mothers and weak fathers. Very few people believe this falsehood anymore. Back in the 1940’s, most people were not aware of the biological and genetic factors that factor in with a homosexual sexual orientation.
If stating Catholic Doctrine is offensive to some persons, so be it. If persons believe what is being taught is wrong, those challenging the beliefs should academically show their position instead of attempting to get the Church to change its Doctrines to accomodate them.
It is a sad day when a so called right wing Roman Catholic University does not even want to understand the complex issues with regard to psycho-sexual development!! Even the Vatican has come to understand with a kind heart the struggle of the homosexual, the Vatican has never and will never refer to the homosexual as a sodomite as so many of you so called devout Catholics has done on this site!!! Who really are the ones perverting the Gospel, look in your far right wing mirrors!!
You are the one perverting the gospel and putting words in the Vatican Mouths.
No one here dislikes the human beings engaging in this sort of behavior, but we have to tell you, its baaaaaaad for your soul, to sleep with men.. or to engage in sexual acts with women that you are not married to.
It does not matter whom you are attracted to, you cannot do it without being in mortal sin.
And the Sexual act in Catholic teaching is reserved for married people and it has to be open to life, at all times.. Any other use of your sexual gift outside the confines of marriege is diviant.
That is it in a nut shell.
Going into a tizzy will not change that. Love the sinner hate the sin.
Mbûkû Kanyau Mbithûka I love your zeal to defend the faith and the backbone you display here on this website….God bless you!
A Sodomite is one who PRACTICES homosexual acts, versus someone who merely experiences homosexual tendencies and strives to live a chaste (celibate) life. Sodomy is still and always will be and intrinsically evil act.
Finally a Christian speaks out as Jesus would. How can some read the bible and still write such hate-filled,bigoted comments? What does” love one another as I have loved you” and ” Do unto others…” mean to these
individuals? Most comments in this article are negative and bigoted and unchristian. Very sad people encouraging hatred!
Jesus hates evil, and has condemned sodomites. Read Who Jesus is, by reading the Bible and Church doctrines. How often we find these syrup headed perverts who claim to know what love is when all they really know is sin?
No TEM you and the gay mafia are what pervert everything in the Church and Society…
This is sociology, not psychology and not religion. Sociology is a science. Sociology of deviancy or deviant behavior is, like all sociology, value-free. “Deviance” here is used statistically, normatively, not perjoratively. It does not say that the deviant behavior is wrong. All it says is that it is not the norm. Homosexual behavior has always been studied in sociology of deviant behavior. This is not news. What would be news is if other universities have removed it from the study of deviancy out of “poilitical correctness.”
There is no such thing as value free; that idea is a charade of deceptions. The first recorded incidence of what could be the onset of the idea is the ancient Jewish “Judgment Seat”. But God was that Judge, and so the values were perfectly free; but spin has taken its toll over the millenia, and came into serious fruition in the Enlightenment philosophy, essentially anathema to the doctrines of the Church. The Enlightenment pretends to be the judge of right and wrong, which is wrong; however, it excels as a philosophical foundation for material sciences. But it only deceives when used as a philosophy for social sciences.
JLS, yes, you are correct. Value free is very difficult to do with human researchers and human subjects. That is why when one does a study in sociology it is set up as if to discover the opposite of what one thinks they will find. Say if you wanted to study rates of homicide in urban or rural areas, you would begin with the hypothesis that there is no difference between them and gather the evidence to try to prove that. That is to try to make up for researcher bias. Values influence what is studies and how it is studied. So yes, it is very difficult to get a totally value-free study.
No, k, you wrongly claim that I said values free is “difficult”: No, I said it does not exist. Also you are trying to formulate some sort of definition of social science research … but you need some further knowledge on this point to be able to come across sensibly.
k, scientific method does not start with hypothesis. Typically it starts with money; rarely it starts with observation, and then moves to hypothesis, then experiment, and then conclusion, and then it cycles these steps until a theory is formed. There is always the element of money, because someone pays the people who do the science — there is no values free situation.
JLS, OK!
Strange that you would use the word “perverting” to attack those who accurately describe active homosexuals as genuine practitioners of perversion (read: Sodomy).
As for the revealed truth of the Gospels, one could fill up a rather large book with its proscriptions against the perversion of the homosexual act.
Better the truth be told than scandal covered up. — St. Augustine
Sorry, Thomas Edward Miles – but you are wrong again – all Christian Bibles say practicing homosexuals will not get to Heaven, and call them ‘sodomites’.
Don’t you even know what the word ‘sodomy’ means – look it up.
Since you are not Catholic, please do not misquote the Vatican or the Bible again.
BIBLE: Gen 19:1-29; Rom 1:24-27; 1 COR 6:9-10; 1Tim 1:9-11.
CCC: 2357, 2358, 2359, & ” 2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices.”
Read all of the above.
1 Cor 6:9-10 ” 1 Corinthians 6 – – –
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor SEXUAL PERVERTS, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
1 TIM 1:9-11 “understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, immoral persons, SODOMITES, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
The university’s Sept. 4 statement said the criticized course’s description is “little more than abbreviated chapter headings from the primary course textbook” that is used in over a dozen public universities.
The university said the textbook uses the term “deviant” in the sociological sense “simply meaning different from the norm.”
“We understand that some, not understanding the term or its context, might take offense at the description,” it continued. “Nevertheless, changing standard sociological definitions is beyond the scope of our work.”
Whether you or anyone else does not believe that marriage etc. is a definition that has never changed until someone decides to change it’s meaning and purpose is your right of course……
Calm down Tommie… take a sip of water.
TEM,
For your information, although I doubt you don’t already know it, God in His Holy Scriptures called them Sodomites. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorah for the sins of sodomy.
May God have mercy on your poor compromised soul and those you are infecting with your sick beliefs.
Kenneth M. Fisher
A sin is a sin even if everyine is doing it, and a virtue is a virtue even if no one is practicing it. We must love the sinner, but hate the sin. All faithfuil Catholics must remember that the sins of yesterday are the sins of today. The Catholic Church will NEVER change her position. As Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has said, “The greatest persecution does not come from the external enemies of the Catholic Church, but rises from the sin that springs from within the Church.”
Father you bet eventually we will be persecuted violently over this. I know its coming.
Father God bless you. I appreciate your comments here!
Father Karl, you say we must love the sinner, but hate the sin. Read the comments here. I don’t see a lot of charity or love. What does it feel like to be a gay teen and be called a sodomite, or a pervert or deviant? What does it feel like to be compared to a murderer or rapist or alcoholic? It seems when it comes to gay youth, the Catholic Church looks the other way. “I am not my’ brother’s keeper.” comes to mind. We have many fine and faithful gay priests who could be role models for our young people but most keep quiet for fear of discrimination and hate. Yes, the Catechism says that homosexual persons should not be discriminated against but when push comes to shove, I am afraid that many priests would be punished if they were open about this.
And homosexuals don’t murder and rape? What bubble is Gronbacher living in? It is true that the media hides the homosexual aspect of a murder and or rape case, as they have and still are doing with the homosexual scandal caused by the homosexual priests that invaded the Church, but, it cannot be hidden from God and He will not be MOCKED! Normal people that are truly gay don’t rape, murder, steal, lie, commit prostitution (male or female), use drugs or have any other deviant behaviors and don’t have mental illness, unless it is caused by an accident or sickness. We must admit it: WE DON’T WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH about anything that will cause us to think or to change our behavior. +JMJ+
he who cannot deceive nor be deceived.
**Normal people that are truly gay**: Uh, JMJ, there is no such thing. Did you mean to say, Normal people who are NOT gay blah blah blah?
ya JMJ what did you mean?
When the DEVIANTS can prove by using the ‘BIBLE’ in entirety and the ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition’ in entirety that SODOMY is a NORMAL and GOOD thing – let the rest of us know.
Btw, SODOMY is condemned in Protestant versions of the Bible as well.
And for Jews – in the Old Testament.
And for Muslims – The mainstream interpretation of Qur’anic verses and hadith condemn homosexuality and cross-dressing.
See 1 Cor 6:9-10 in all Christian versions of the Bible.
Saying homosexuality is deviant behavior in a “sociological” sense is asinine (no pun intended) and implies that, while the homosexual act is non-normative, it’s an otherwise acceptable practice.
The homosexual act is biologically deviant. It’s not normal, and it is inimical to the human physical condition.
The class ought to be renamed “Destructive Human Behavior.”
I am sure that in class discussions that is brought out. I took a course in Sociology of Deviant Behavior in a rural Southern college and the class discussions were about the immorality of it, even though the professor would try to get things back on track.
The best defense is a good offense: keep citing and throwing out good peer-reviewed research on homosexuality, which would be a service to friends, opponents and the public alike The truth is on the side of the ultimate Truth, which is Christ. This is a teachable moment for Steubenville and the Church. Use it!
Tom Byrne, peer-reviwed research is irrelavent as to whether homosexual acts are immoral. The Church’s norm is God’s created intent – not what now present in a Fallen Humanity. Homosexual acts are always immoral.
As a Franciscan alum, I know from experience that the primary objective is education in an authentic Catholic education being faithful to the Gospel and Magisterium. The arguments against this course are confusing the “orientation” with the behavior. The homosexual behavior is disordered, and being identified as deviant behavior is fully harmonious with the Catechism. It is an act that is contrary to the design of the human body and deviates from both the moral and physical reality of human sexuality; the homosexual act is contrary to the nature of human reproduction and denies life at its core. God’s Truth does not change for any culture, especially for a culture of death and I am thankful for institutions such as Franciscan U that will defend the truth of the Lord for the sanctity of sinners. One thing students learn at Franciscan is that we are disciples, and that it is our duty to strive for sanctity and to love all people as Christ loves us, and to lead one another to His Merciful embrace. We are all called to aid one another in being laborers in the vineyard and assist Holy Mother Church in cultivating the world for the eternal love of all sinners to be reconciled with God. God Love You.
Unfortunately they will not listen to you.
Folly to cut any slack to any homosexual. Man is not distinct from his sin; otherwise, at the Judgment, it would be only the sins going to Hell and the souls going to Heaven. Anyone begin to see the subtle confusion of this incredible mantra of “love the sinner, hate the sin”? When you separate the sinner from the sin, then you are tromping on the Sacrament of Confession. If the sinner wants to part from his or her sin, then that can be arranged; however, to replace Gospel with “love the sinner, hate the sin” is moving towards the vague kind of language that Vatican Council II documents are so well known for. Remember that homosexuals identify themselves by their perverse anti-nature. If you want to love a homosexual, then find a way to disciple them in the truth … “disciple” means discipline. This can be harsh but if it works, then it is a good thing and may save a soul. But I guess you can also “pour coals on their heads”, as Jesus says, and let them continue to burn themselves into Hell. It is a spiritual war, so how do you know for sure what you are dealing with until the moment of truth? Be on your guard.
Awesome points JLS all of them, I also agree it is wrong to cut any slack to any homosexual! BRAVO!
JLS: A sin does not define a person mean that a sinner is incapable of salvation. God loves ALL sinners; if He didn’t, H would not have become Man and given Himself for our salvation. We are all sinners and we are all in need of the Salvific work of the Cross. Not all sinners will accept the redemption of Christ, but He offers redemption to us all. Therefore, saying love the sinner and hate the sin is accurate and follows the example of Christ as He uttered, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do” in Luke 23. We cannot judge the knowledge and consent of the will given to a particular sin by any person and we can never know why people make the decisions they do and decide to sin. All we can do is follow the Lord, lead people to Him in love and pray that they receive the grace to accept His Merciful Embrace, even if it is at the moment of death. We are called to share the truth, accept the hostility that comes with being bearers of light and pray for the repentance of the world. God will never love us less due to our sinfulness and we should too strive to love all of His children as He does and implore Him to have mercy on those who offend Him. God Love You.
The only way to truly love someone who is inflicted with “Same Sex activity” or for that matter any other sin, is to lead them back to the Gospels of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and you can best do this through His Mother, anything else is cooperating with the sin.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Kenneth M. Fisher: I agree 100%. Just as Our Lady brought our Lord into the world through the incarnation, she strives to bring Him to us as she intercedes for us and asks her Divine Son for Him to give us the grace to seek Him in all we do. Our prayer and works of mercy will be an outpouring of grace for one another and we must offer prayer to the Lord and ask our lady to intercede for people with same sex attraction. We as Catholics are called to pity the souls of people living an active homosexual lifestyle, to admonish the sinful activity in charity, proclaim the truth of the Lord and pray for those whom we proclaim the truth to. Not everyone will repent and some will intentionally deny the truth. This makes me think of Mark 10: 21-22 where the Lord called a rich man to sell all he had, but the man chose not to follow the Lord. Our Lord knew the heart of this man and yet still told him the means of salvation and I think we too must love the soul of all sinners and proclaim the truth in hope that all we proclaim and all our prayers will result in repentance. I think we should truly desire that every person attains the eternal reward of Heaven and pray that every soul repents as we implore the intercession of Our Lady and the Divine Mercy of the Lord. God Love You.
MD thank you for this!
people engaging in sexual acts outside of marriege are the same as murderers in the eyes of God.
What is the suprise here? Basic Catechism.
The big pattern to note in the Old Testament is that time after time, a society would rise up virtuous and victorious, and then the women would go for idols and the men for adultery, and soon enough the whole society would be wallowing in sodomy, the consequence of sin. That is the end game and when that society would die one way or another.
The Gospels and Epistles are full of studies of deviant behavior. “Be wise as a serpent, and peaceful as a dove”. You must know how to identify your enemy, whom you cannot see, yet who acts through people.
Geez, more invective from orthodox Roman Catholics on CCD regarding homosexuality. How about for Lent you self-impose a moratorium on reporting on anything having to do with homosexuals or homosexuality? It’s getting tiresome.
PJT, then stop being a sodomite and it won’t bother you any longer. Like all sodomites, all you are concerned with is your feelings. Who cares? You live in a delusion. Get real.
JLS… shoots scores!!!!!!!!!!!!over the shoulder of PJT and into the net… since the NHL is cancelled this season I will have to pretend I am watching hockey…
The headline is very misleading – it reads as if Franciscan University defends a course in deviant behavior.
I am very weary of non-Catholics and ex-Catholics telling me what to believe and how to think. It’s refreshing to see a Catholic institution stand tall for the faith. Thank you Franciscan!
Don’t be intimidated by the accreditation diversity inquisitors. They are stomping on very thin ice.