The Los Angeles Times hasn’t had a religion reporter in years and the newspaper’s lapses in religion coverage get embarrassing after awhile.

Such was their Nov. 21 story about a lesbian student at Fuller Seminary who is suing the school because they expelled her after they learned she was married to a woman. As I read it, certain parts sounded quite familiar until I realized I’d commented on a similar story by Religion News Service last July.

Once again, I have to remind folks that doctrinal covenants, creeds and behavior codes are something students agree to, and often sign a document attesting their compliance to, when they enroll. They are choosing to join a voluntary association defined by a set of doctrines, some about moral theology.

So here we go, again.

Joanna Maxon, a 53-year-old Christian mother of two, was searching for ways to advance in her career as a supervisor and began looking into graduate schools.
She decided on Fuller Theological Seminary, a religious graduate school based in Pasadena, because it combined things she valued: her faith and her studies.

We know the middle of this story — they kicked her out.

Now, Maxon, who lives with her wife Tonya Minton in Fort Worth, is suing Fuller, alleging the college violated Title IX rules that forbid educational institutions from discriminating against students on the basis of sex.
Paul Southwick, Maxon’s attorney, alleges the school also violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act and is seeking compensation of at least $500,000 to cover attorney fees and Maxon’s federally funded student loans, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in a U.S. District Court in Central California.
Southwick said that because Fuller accepted federal aid and had not received a religious exemption, it must adhere to federal laws, including Title IX.

OK, did anyone bother to look at the sexual standards page on Fuller’s web site? The seminary’s position that marriage is only between a man and a woman and that the unmarried are expected to abstain from sex is stated in four languages. How did Joanna Maxon not see this?

How did the Los Angeles Times not see this? Why didn’t the reporter press her on that one point?

The Times did post a page from Fuller’s site on Title IX and community guidelines, but in terms of sexual activity outside of traditional marriage, it was the wrong page.

The article only quoted Maxon and her lawyer. As for Fuller, they didn’t “immediately respond to a request for comment,” which is reporter shorthand for not waiting for the seminary to get back to her before running the piece. It appears that the newspaper got wind of the lawsuit and got one of their metro reporters to throw together something as soon as they heard from the plaintiff and her lawyer.

The fact that Fuller Seminary is an internationally known evangelical institution and has a long history in those parts doesn’t matter.

The article is also scant on Maxon’s beliefs other than saying she is Christian. A simple reference to her church or denomination would be helpful — as some approve gay marriage whereas others don’t.

There are some parts of this piece that don’t make sense.

For Maxon, the love and support from her peers gave her a false sense of safety, Southwick said.
Though the college does allow same-sex relationships, it does not allow “homosexual forms of explicit sexual conduct” and has made clear that it believes sexual intimacy is reserved for a marriage between a man and a woman, Southwick said.
According to the lawsuit, at no point in Maxon’s time at Fuller did administrators ask whether she engaged in “homosexual forms of explicit sexual conduct.”

I’m not sure how a seminary — not a college as the article states — can allow same-sex relationships (it would help to define that term) but not the sexual conduct that goes along with them. As for the lawyer’s contention that Maxon was never asked if she’d engaged in gay sex, give me a break, people. She’s married. That was the seminary’s line in the sand.

It’s weird having to explain the facts of married life to the Times, but there’s always a first time, I guess.

Bloomberg gave scant coverage to the same story. The Christian Post did a much better job, repeating a statement from the seminary that students are told what the community standards are and that they agree to abide by them. Had the Times waited for the seminary to get back to them, which is standard journalistic practice, they could have reported this important point.

Sadly, the Times story has already been widely distributed. The image atop this piece comes from a change.org petition directed at Fuller.

The Times’ tweet of the article has already elicited 660 replies on Twitter, a lot of which are directing hate toward the seminary. I so wish that (a) the Times would invest in a full-time religion writer who knows the territory and (b) would hold back on publishing such pieces until it gets decent reaction from both sides.

Is that too much to ask?