Carla Hale, Gay Teacher, Fired From Catholic High School After Being 'Outed' By Mother's Obituary
Carla Hale, a beloved teacher at Bishop Watterson High School, was fired because of her sexuality. She was a teacher who cared for her students and treated each one with respect. The school, however, did not reciprocate that respect in its treatment of her. Discrimination and injustice is something that we all have a duty to fight in today's society. It's unfair that someone who cared so much about her students and her job should lose them on the basis of something she cannot even control.
Read more about this story here.
What follows is my take on the dynamics of the situation:
Whether they know it or not, the people who fired Carla Hale are reenacting what the Pharisees did 2000 years ago to the itinerant carpenter, whom they claim to follow and whose authority they have appropriated and assigned to themselves.
He's the guy who refused to condemn the adulteress; the guy who supped with tax collectors and sinners; the guy who preached love for all and said "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" when questioned about allowing his followers to ignore a "law."
Yep. That guy - the one they nailed to a cross to protect their positions of power and influence within a stagnant social structure clinging to the past and peddling a snake oil security at the cost of one's personal integrity and worth - the very items "that guy" declared to be the essence of the good news - that you, and in fact all people, are worth God's love (Matthew 10:31).
The posturing of those who fired Carla Hale reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from the movie "Jesus Christ Superstar." The Scribes and Pharisees stand upon and protect a flimsy scaffold amid the ruins of the temple as they sing sing "He Is Dangerous!" and "This Jesus Must Die!"
It is no accident, of course, that the scene opens with an overhead shot of buzzards soaring and the Scribes and Pharisees are dressed in black robes.
He's the guy who refused to condemn the adulteress; the guy who supped with tax collectors and sinners; the guy who preached love for all and said "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" when questioned about allowing his followers to ignore a "law."
Yep. That guy - the one they nailed to a cross to protect their positions of power and influence within a stagnant social structure clinging to the past and peddling a snake oil security at the cost of one's personal integrity and worth - the very items "that guy" declared to be the essence of the good news - that you, and in fact all people, are worth God's love (Matthew 10:31).
The posturing of those who fired Carla Hale reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from the movie "Jesus Christ Superstar." The Scribes and Pharisees stand upon and protect a flimsy scaffold amid the ruins of the temple as they sing sing "He Is Dangerous!" and "This Jesus Must Die!"
It is no accident, of course, that the scene opens with an overhead shot of buzzards soaring and the Scribes and Pharisees are dressed in black robes.
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