An astronomy professor from Pennsylvania is claiming that he was fired from the community college where he was teaching after he lent a Christian book and mentioned God in a letter to his students.
Professor Dwight Anderson recently lost his job at the Bucks County Community College after a student forwarded to school administrators a copy of a letter where he mentioned God. The student also complained about Anderson's teaching style.
Anderson thinks school administrators were offended by his openness to his Christian faith, as expressed in his letter to his students. The letter was sent to students as an attachment to an e-mail containing their grades.
"Please know that love is a way of life and not an emotion. If each of us, little by little with God's help, can incorporate these foundation stones of goodness into our lives, we will find an anchor for our lives, which will result in a deep and lasting satisfaction through life, and allow us to influence the world for good as we live out our lives," a portion of the letter read.
After sending this letter, Anderson was terminated by the community college.
"As you probably remember, you were warned that any further violation of college policy would result in possible termination. Your letter, as are your previous actions, is inappropriate. I cannot imagine how it is related to meeting the learning objectives of the course you were asked to teach," the dean's letter to Anderson read.
The college professor is currently contesting his termination.
Before this, Anderson also made available to his students copies of the Christian book, "Since Nobody's Perfect, How Good is Good Enough?" He said he purchased copies of the books and told students they can read them voluntarily.
One of his students, however, supposedly blackmailed him into changing his grade for a higher one, in exchange for not reporting the book to the school administrators.
"One student called me about it and said that if I didn't do something about his grade, then he would go to the administration about the book," the professor said.
Anderson did not budge, causing the student to report him to school authorities.
The administrators then scolded Anderson and warned him against giving "overtly Christian" books to students. They also told Anderson that he would be terminated if he committed the same offense.
