Catholic University course compares homosexuality to rape, murder

A Catholic university in Ohio is coming under fire for comparing homosexuality with murder and rape for one of its psychology questions.

The Christian Post reports that a gay student who graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville found the course description for Social Work 314 on the university’s website where it listed homosexuality under deviant behavior.

“Deviant behavior focuses on the sociological theories of deviant behavior such as strain theory, differential association theory, labeling theory, and phenomenological theory. The behaviors that are primarily examined are murder, rape, robbery, prostitution, homosexuality, mental illness, and drug use,” the course description states on the Franciscan website. “The course focuses on structural conditions in society that potentially play a role in influencing deviant behavior.”

The university’s public relations department says that they treat all gay students with “respect.”

“Franciscan University bases its educational mission on the teaching of Christ as proclaimed in Sacred Scripture and Tradition and authoritatively interpreted by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church,” spokesperson Tom Sofio said in a press release to the Christian Post. “Accordingly, Franciscan University follows Catholic Church teaching in regard to homosexuality and treats homosexual persons with ‘respect, compassion, and sensitivity’ while holding homosexual acts as ‘intrinsically disordered.’”

Gay and lesbian alumni are trying to get the course description removed.