Freedom of religion was intended by the Founding Fathers was intended to mean that no citizens would be forced to belong to an established church or profess a faith they did not support through forced attendance such as was the norm in colonial Virginia. One could freely choose one's house of worship. It was not intended to mean that one could receive public funds and then turn around and discriminate against members of the taxpaying public who did not subscribed to a particular sect's belief system. Yet that is precisely what a number of so-called Christian colleges - I view them as modern day Pharisee colleges - are seeking to do: receive public funds and grants yet openly discriminate against LGBT students and citizens. To me, the choice is clear: cease discriminating or give up the public funding. It's really that simple. Give up public, taxpayer derived funds and be free to be as bigoted and Pharisaic as one wants. A piece in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the ongoing controversy that will likely ultimately impact a number of gay hating "Christian" colleges and universities in Virginia. Here are excerpts:
His [Gordon College president D. Michael Lindsay] stand last July came at a cost — to him and the school — that he never anticipated: broken relationships with nearby cities, the loss of a key backer for a federal grant, a review by the regional college accrediting agency, and campus protest and alumni pushback over whether the school should maintain its ban on "homosexual practice" as part of its life and conduct standards.
After coming under fire for its ban on hiring faculty in same-sex relationships, Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia decided this year to delay a decision on whether to uphold the policy, which means it won't be enforced for now. World Vision, a Christian international relief agency based in Washington State, said last March it would hire employees in gay marriages, but quickly backtracked after drawing condemnation from evangelical leaders and losing thousands of donors. At several evangelical colleges, students have formed advocacy groups for gay acceptance, such as OneWheaton, at Wheaton College in Illinois.
Lindsay's support for an exemption from a civil right for gays unleashed long-simmering campus tensions over the school's assertion that it has created a safe place for lesbian and gay students, while maintaining a conduct policy that singles them out.
Mayor Kim Driscoll of Salem responded by ending Gordon's contract to manage the city's Old Town Hall. Salem's Peabody Essex Museum ended its academic relationship with the school and withdrew support for Gordon's grant application to the National Endowment for the Humanities. The New England Association of Schools & Colleges started a review of the controversy.
"He made a mistake in signing it," said James Trent, a sociologist and Gordon professor for 11 years who supports eliminating the ban on "homosexual practice." ''The middle ground begins to wear when you're oppressing people. How do you slightly oppress someone?"
Here in Virginia, Regent University and Liberty University among others need to be forced to decide whether they want public funds or to continue to practice bigotry and discrimination. They are free to decide on the latter, but the cost needs to be that the rest of the taxpaying public is not forced to indirectly subsidize it. They should not be able to have their cake and eat it too.
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