Catholic Schools: Be Like This!

Hey Catholic schools around the U.S., please take note.  THIS is how you do it.   Please read this.  I’ll be chopping a bunch out.  http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/online-petition-calls-for-firing-of-xavier-prep-teacher-for-anti-abortion-black-genocide-handout-8285489  In short, teacher teaches facts in a Catholic school and lawyer alumna whines about it.

First, Catholic schools, you teach truth. You don’t candy coat it and make what you want it to be.  You tell it.  Gavin Ahern did just that.  Now I know this is hard if you are a school run by the Jesuits but this one, thankfully, is only named after one and seems to have been saved from Jesuit insanity.  Peg Perl, however, did go to a Jesuit school when she left Xavier College Prep and it shows.

Next, Catholic schools, when your teachers do what they’re supposed to do, teach the Truth according to the Catholic Church, defend them in their efforts to the hilt.  Be like this:

From Xavier College Preparatory:

Xavier College Preparatory is a Roman Catholic educational institution, fully committed to a belief in God according to the tenets of the Roman Catholic faith. That faith forms the very foundation of the mission: “to prepare young women with the knowledge, skills, and integrity to meet the challenges of a changing global society in a positive and productive manner.” Without our commitment to our faith, we cannot hope to achieve this vital Catholic mission.

As an educational institution, Xavier recognizes that certain issues may be the subject of vigorous intellectual, spiritual, and moral debate. We encourage our faculty and students to explore these often controversial issues, and to participate in this healthy and constructive process as Xavier strives to educate students not only academically, but also spiritually and morally within the context of our faith.

Among the most important, most fundamental spiritual and moral truths that Xavier imparts to its students is respect for the sanctity of human life, in all forms and at all stages. We teach our students to care for human life, to defend human life, and to speak out about the sanctity of every human life wherever it is threatened, from the first moment of conception until natural death.

We acknowledge the emotions that discussion on such matters can often evoke, and recognize that disagreements may result, even among members of the Xavier community. Nevertheless, Xavier will not allow the threat of controversy to intimidate our teachers, counselors, and administrators from discussing these important controversial issues, nor silence us in our duty to impart the values of our faith to the young women entrusted to our care.

BAM!

Don’t let some silly little lawyer from an ambiguously named little club, the Colorado Ethics Watch, intimidate you. (Are they watching ethics to litigate them out of people or do they support ethics?  With this stupid move, I’d have to say the former is probably where dear Peg is headed.)  I urge you all to sign the petition against Peg Perl’s lame petition. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/417/682/524/opposition-of-previous-petition-against-gavin-ahern/#sign   It’s already garnered close to a couple of thousand in two days and more Arizonan’s than Perl’s petition but let’s put Perl’s petition into the miserable failure books, OK?

So, for all those parents out there whining about Gavin Ahern teaching the truth according to reality and to the Catholic teachings, why don’t you please just pull your kids out of the school?  I’m sure you can find some other prep school that will get them into a ripping university that will cater to your liberal theology.  There are plenty of parents, faculty, and teachers at Xavier Prep who are happy to have authentic Catholicism taught by Mr. Ahern as exemplified in the comments of the above petition.  Sounds like he’s also very skilled at teaching critical thinking.  You’re obviously not there because you want your kids to get a fabulous Catholic education.  Well, guess what?  That’s exactly what Catholic schools are designed to do, so either stop railing against it or get the heck out.  With their excellent record, I’m sure they’ve got a waiting list.

Peg, you are just yet another example of a Georgetown loser.  Go to Georgetown and then you end up trying make the Faith wrap all around your cozy beliefs rather than conform your will to God’s.  I wish I could say it wasn’t typical of a Jesuit school graduate but it is.  It really sounds like you could have benefited from Mr. Ahern’s theology class.

So, to pick it apart, here’s a few things that I’m going to comment on from the Phoenix New Times article:

Online petitioners are demanding that a local Catholic school teacher be removed from the classroom for what they call “racist and sexist hate speech.”

OK, right off the bat, Peg Perl never actually states what was racist or sexist.  It seems in her mind it’s racist because it talked about abortion in the African-American community and it’s sexist because, simply, she is a pro-abortion woman and Gavin Ahern is not.  Ridiculous? Of course it is.

The petition, which has garnered more than 2,500 signatures (and counting) over the past couple of days, alleges that an instructor at Phoenix’s Xavier College Preparatory, a private Roman Catholic high school for girls, distributed anti-abortion propaganda in class that makes inflammatory claims about abortion and African-Americans.

Uh, let’s clarify this.  It didn’t make inflammatory claims about the African-American community.  It made factual claims on abortion in the African-American communities.  If anyone would like to see the information Rev. Dr. Clenard Childress puts out, please go to www.blackgenocide.org and look at the wealth of information about the toll abortion has taken on the African-American community.  Yes, indeed Margaret Sanger would be proud.  In fact, really, go look at it because something good should come out of Peg Perl’s stupidity.  I want to see lots of click-throughs on that link, people.  In fact, making a donation would really tick off Peg and friends.

A photo of the flier in question accompanies the petition. It features a skull-and-crossbones emblem, and the words “Black Genocide,” along with racially tinged statistics about black women and abortion.

What in the heck does racial tinged statistics mean?  It’s statistics from an African-American on African-Americans using Planned Parenthood’s own stats.   What else is it supposed to be about?  Oh, got it.  We’re just not supposed to talk about the genocide of the African-American community, because, you know, they’re African-American and it’s racist just to even discuss them?  Please. 

“Maybe the Klan Didn’t Invent Abortion,” the pamphlet reads in part. “[B]ut you have to believe they are pretty happy with the results.”

You do understand how the KKK views African-Americans, don’t you?  Of course they’re happy!!!  They either want black people to disappear off the face of the earth or to make them slaves again.  They don’t see them as human beings.

The tract also claims that “According to BlackGenocide…more black children are killed today by abortion than are born,” and “every day about 1400 black babies are killed by legalized abortion.”

And?  If you want to dispute the facts, go right ahead.  Right now, you’re just pointing them out.

<snipping a lot>

Perl says a daughter of a fellow alumna, who is a student at Xavier, brought the handout home from school last week, explaining that it had been distributed by one of her teachers. Unsure how to handle it, her friend was venting online to their private group.

Some in the group who are local to Phoenix were afraid to speak out because their children attend Xavier, Perl says. That gave her the idea for a petition.

Please. Stop the drama.  Real adults don’t persecute peoples’ children because they disagree with them.  It almost sounds like this little club of complainers is composed of the 1993 cheerleading squad who might have been the typical bullies.  Teachers like Mr. Ahern like a good conversation.  They thrive on logic and rhetoric.  They don’t shy away from controversy and crawl into their safe spaces.  They say “Let’s look at this together!” and try to see all of the sides and facets of the argument.  Wouldn’t you want this type of approach taught to your kids?  It doesn’t simply teach them to put their fingers in their ears and say “Lalalalalalala!”  It teaches them to take in an argument and look at all of the sides to it.  That sounds a bit like maturity!

“This is not just about Planned Parenthood or an abortion issue,” Perl explains. “I think it’s generally about the racist and sexist overtones of what [this teacher] is doing, in a position of authority and in an academic setting.”

Going all Obama on us, are we, Peg?  Never mind backing up such silly statements with those pesky things called facts.  Let’s just throw out racist and sexist and see if we can make that stick.

Her petition alleges that Gavin Ahern, who teaches theology at the academy, distributed the literature in question. It alleges other incidents of Ahern’s “misogynistic rhetoric” and calls on Xavier to “remove Mr. Ahern from the classroom immediately and take whatever steps are necessary to permanently remove him from the Xavier community.”

Again, back it up, Peg!  Quite frankly, for once, I’d like to see someone sue you on Mr. Ahern’s behalf for defamation of character.  I’m so tired of this liberal tactic of seeing who can whine the loudest and avoid the most facts.  You are now trying to damage someone’s career and livelihood and I hope you get a big smack down for it.  I’m not really a litigious person but this is getting quite out of hand in this country and the good guys better start fighting back.

One has got to wonder if Peg thinks that all Catholic teaching is misogynistic or just the stuff with which she disagrees.  Did she happen to notice Mr. Ahern chose to teach at an ALL GIRLS SCHOOL?  Yeah, totally sounds like someone who hates women.  Get a grip, Peg.  It’s not Ahern who’s the misogynist. It’s you who’s the misandrist.

 New Times attempted to speak with Ahern at his home in North Phoenix about the petition and the “Black Genocide” literature. He accepted a business card but declined to answer questions.

“I’m not going to comment,” he said.

Good for him.  Newsflash:  Catholic schools teaching Catholicism isn’t news!

On Xavier’s site, Ahern is listed as the “moderator” for the Right to Life Club and other student groups. His LinkedIn page states that he has taught theology at Xavier since August 2002 and also works as a sales rep for a specialty advertising company.

Imagine that.  Gavin Ahern has taught at Xavier Prep for 14 years and nobody noticed what a misogynist he was in all that time.  Hmmm…

The arguments promulgated in the flier Ahern allegedly distributed have been around for decades, according to a Washington Post article from last year, which addressed similar comments espoused by then-Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson.

Post fact checkers found that while Carson’s claim hinged on whether “one considers an abortion to be a death,” it contained a “kernel of truth”: specifically, that black women and, for that matter, Latinas, “underwent more abortions in 2011 — the most recent year for which data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is available — than the number of people who died as a result of each group’s respective primary cause of death.”

Psh!  It’s science, people.  Scientists do not deny that the joining of the egg and the sperm creates a new life.  It’s a completely separate organism.  They simply disagree on whether that life has value and rights equal to the parents.  DNA tells us whether or not this new life is African-American, Latina, Caucasian, etc.  It is human, it is a life, and Catholics (you know, the religion guiding Xavier Prep) belies that all life from the moment of conception holds intrinsic value.  Not really sure where the author of the article is wandering off to here.

The Post article notes further that “[r]esearchers at the CDC and the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights think tank, have identified poverty, health insurance coverage rates, and inconsistent and sometimes nonexistent contraception access and use as three primary causes of elevated abortion rates among black and Latina women.”

Of course, those aren’t the sort of facts included in your average anti-abortion tract.

Um, hello???  Pro-lifers routinely quote Guttmacher?  Now, do you know just who the Guttmacher Institute is? Oh yeah, it’s the research arm of Planned Parenthood.  No bias there.  It is a fact that Planned Parenthood builds 78% of its facilities in low-income, minority neighborhoods has absolutely nothing to do with it all.  They’re going to blame anyone but themselves for targeting minorities.  Getting rid of minorities and the poor was the reason Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood!  Now there’s something you never find in a pro-abortion tract!

Though the Roman Catholic Church is zealously pro-life, Perl thinks distributing the literature does not befit her alma mater. 

Riiiiiiiight, because her Catholic alma mater should think just like she does, not how the Catholic Church thinks.  In short, it doesn’t benefit her self-centered self!

“Single-sex education is supposed to be empowering for women,” says Perl, adding that the anti-abortion tract “is not in keeping at all with the goals and mission of the school, and the education of young women.”

Oh really?  I think that being a Catholic is supposed to be empowering for all.  Let’s look at the mission and philosophy statement of the school shall we, Peg?

http://www.xcp.org/page.aspx?pid=347

Mission Statement

 Xavier College Preparatory is a Catholic community that strives to prepare young women with the knowledge, skills, and integrity to meet the challenges of a changing global society in a positive and productive manner.

 Philosophy

 We, the community of Xavier College Preparatory, are committed to a belief in God according to the tenets of the Catholic faith enlightened by the Second Vatican Council. In that spirit, we believe in providing opportunities for all to contribute to the community of faith.

We fully believe in the ideals of democracy, integrity, tolerance, and respect in harmony with the love of God, of self, and humankind, and we affirm the fundamental roles of parents and families as primary instruments of faith and education.

We also believe in conscientiously reviewing and improving our college preparatory curriculum, educational goals, and performance objectives, in order to sustain a learning process that encourages personal growth, faith development and community involvement for the young women entrusted to our care.

Now, Peg, how about you tell us how pro-life information contradicts the mission and philosophy of the school?  I’d have to say that YOU are the one in contradiction with the mission and philosophy of the school.   I’d hate to see what you’d do if you found out the school even suggested that abstinence was the rule of the Church for single people.  Your head would probably spin.  Oooh!  What would you do if they taught that contraception was wrong???  You might want to start a few more petitions because I’m pretty sure this school has it going on in the area of teachings on sexuality from the Catholic perspective with teachers like Mr. Ahern.  Oh, and just one more for the road, Peg– THEOLOGY OF THE BODY!

Dear readers, please don’t forget to sign the petition and share it when you’re done.  A good thumping might make one think twice about launching into a petition tizzy again. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/417/682/524/opposition-of-previous-petition-against-gavin-ahern/#sign