OK, I know that it has only been two months since I wrote about this topic and that recent post’s headline even included a nod to the fact that this is a topic I have addressed before.
Sue me. That headline stated: “Reminder to journalists (again): Private schools – left, right – can defend their core doctrines.”
You see, as a former professor on several Christian campuses, and the graduate of the Baylor University Church-State Studies graduate program (which, alas, closed a decade ago), this is the kind of subject that matters to me. And since this is Thanksgiving, I really need to find a way to frame this quick post as a Thanksgiving offering.
So here goes. I am thankful for the First Amendment and I am thankful that, at this point, it still protects the believers on both the left and the right, in terms of the freedom to exercise their beliefs in the real world.
This First Amendment reminder was inspired by a recent Religion News Service story with this headline: “Eastern University on hold from CCCU after dropping ban on LGBTQ faculty.” I should state, right up front, that I am a former founder and director of the Washington Journalism Center program at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and, what do you know, I once interviewed for a proposed faculty slot at Eastern, where it was clear that I was not a good fit, doctrinally speaking.
There is nothing all that unusual about this RNS story. As one would expect, there is zero attempt in this “news” report — as opposed to an analysis piece — to represent small-o orthodox voices in this debate about life on a campus that has, as the story notes, been headed to the doctrinal left for several decades. This niche-news, advocacy journalism approach has, alas, become the norm on this topic. Here is the overture:
Eastern University, a Christian school affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, has amended its policies to allow for the hiring of LGBTQ faculty and to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination statement.
As a result, its membership with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities has been put on hold during the 2022-23 academic year, and the school is no longer listed online among the 150 U.S. and Canadian schools that belong to the Christian higher education association.
Located in St. Davids, a suburb of Philadelphia, Eastern has leaned left on the evangelical spectrum for some time. Among its faculty are Tony Campolo and the late Ron Sider, two evangelicals who urged social action and justice on behalf of the poor.
It would be good to note that Campelo’s evangelical views clearly evolved on LGBTQ issues, in ways that would be approved by RNS and others. However, Sider remained committed to centuries of Christian doctrine on marriage and sex. Putting both those men in the same context, in a story like this, is misleading.
Meanwhile, here is another essential piece of information about this drama:
A spokesperson for the CCCU board confirmed that Eastern’s membership is on “hiatus” during this school year.
In 2015, two Mennonite schools in the CCCU, Eastern Mennonite University and Goshen College, amended their policies to allow the hiring of LGBTQ faculty. A subsequent discussion about giving the two schools affiliate status prompted the exodus of two of the more conservative schools from the CCCU, Oklahoma Wesleyan University and Union University, in Tennessee. Ultimately, the two Mennonite schools voluntarily departed the association, making the discussion of affiliate status moot.
John Fea, a professor of American history at Messiah College, said Eastern is the first non-Mennonite school to change its policies on LGBTQ people, but it may be a harbinger of what’s to come.
“There are growing numbers of LGBTQ-friendly students and even more LGBTQ-friendly faculty that will push their college in this direction,” Fea said. “I’d hate to be a college president right now.”
Here’s another essential question: What is the new doctrinal stance that defines life at Eastern?
Until this semester, Eastern welcomed LGBTQ students and allowed a student-led club, Refuge, to advocate for the LGBTQ students. But its student handbook banned “inappropriate displays of affection” and “sexual intimacy … outside of marriage between a man and a woman.”
That has now been amended. Sex outside of marriage is still prohibited, but marriage is no longer defined as the union of a man and a woman. The new policy states:
“It is the University’s position that sexual intimacy is prohibited outside the commitment and bond of marriage. The University reserves the right to take action under the Code of Conduct for students found in violation of this policy.”
Note to reporters: It might be interesting to check the university’s policies about life in its dorms and also any rules shaping off-campus housing for full-time Eastern students. Just saying.
Now, what is my point in this post?
I simply want to say that, as a private university, Eastern has every right to change and enforce the doctrines that define — thinking freedom of association here — the boundaries of it’s faith-based community. Progressive (hello James Davison Hunter) schools get to do that.
At the same time, private schools that remain in the CCCU have every right to defend and enforce the doctrines that define their faith-based communities. Small-o orthodox schools of various kinds get to do that, too. At least, they get to do that until the U.S. Supreme Court states otherwise.
That is all.
Could journalists in mainstream newsrooms PLEASE take these legal facts into account when doing hard-news stories about faith-based private schools and, maybe, address these facts through interviews with people on both sides of this important conflict? I am (#triggerwarning) assuming that the goal here is solid, fair, accurate journalism.
FIRST IMAGE: “Rainbow Bible” illustration on the website of St. Paul’s on-the-hill Episcopal Church in Winchester, Virginia.