No room in the inn...not for you.

It's seldom I read a story with so many layers.

Synopsis: A woman teaching at a Catholic school was unfortunate enough to get pregnant while unmarried. She was fired for being a bad moral example to the children.

So here's a woman who messed up and got pregnant. I really hope given the context that the school spoke to her regarding the circumstances of her pregnancy, first because this would be simply awful if she were raped, and second because the most famous woman of Catholocism also had a somewhat inexplicable pregnancy... But let's suppose she had consentual sex and got knocked-up in the ordinary fashion. Was it unprotected because of her religious values? If she'd taken her sins one step further and used birth control would she still have a job? Tough break.

Now in principle, as a citizen, I support the right of churches as private institutions to hire and fire whomever they choose for moral reasons. So in that respect all is well and good.

But as a Catholic, I'm appalled. Sure the school wants to set an example for the children, but what example are they setting by kicking a single pregnant woman to the curbs? Is that what Jesus would do? Say "Get away, you dirty sinning Jezebel?" I doubt it... Of course I have to defer to the clergy about Jesus's decision-making process, but to me it doesn't sound likely. I don't think the church is following His example. If they offered her a lower profile job (to "protect" the kids) I'd be ok with that, but it sounds like she was out and out fired: a not terribly Christian thing to do.

It bothers me to see such a bad example from my own church. Even the anti-abortion groups are against the firing, pointing out that the cost of showing a pregnancy is being shamed and thrown out. That means 1: an incentive for the teacher to get an abortion 2: an object lesson to the children (whose values are being protected) to get abortions.