Catholic High School Teacher Forced Out over Flag

[Sequoia]

Stephen Kobasa has been a Catholic schoolteacher for 25 years.

For the last six years, he has taught English at Kolbe Cathedral High School in Bridgeport, CT.

He no longer teaches there.

Here’s why.

Kobasa does not believe there should be an American flag in his classroom.

“Everything in the Gospel rejects what flags stand for: boundaries, hatreds, creation of enemies,” Kobasa says. “For a Catholic Christian school that holds up the crucifix as a symbol of God’s love, the flag can only be a contradiction. The Church can only function with its prophetic voice by standing outside the state.”

For the past six years, whenever he found an American flag in his classroom he removed it, he says.

That never caused a problem until this semester, he adds. At a faculty meeting in August, he says, a new policy came down from the board of education at the Bridgeport diocese: The school day would begin with a prayer and a pledge of allegiance.

<snip>

http://progressive.org/mag_mc101705

Reminds me of:

Herr Zeller, now a high-ranking Nazi official...appears aggravated that "the only one in the neighborhood not flying the flag of the Third Reich since the Anschluss" is the Captain. (http://www.filmsite.org/soun3.html)

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. He's a better Catholic than his local bishop. n/t

[blm]

2. Isn't the town of Bridgeport pretty much owned by RevMoon?

And Moon helped finance the strict fundamentalist group that splintered from the main catholics in the 70s.

[WillowTree]

3. It's a private school

As such, it has every right to require anything it wants, within limits of legality. If the teacher disagrees with the school's policies, he needs to find somewhere else to teach. Very simple, really.