Recent debates across the United States between groups, organizations and individuals about issues related to homosexuality are challenging the stances of private Christian universities.
Most Christian universities have similar policies on homosexuality, that is, that students usually are reprimanded for committing homosexual acts.
At Union, for instance, the Student Handbook states in section I, number 3: “Sexual impropriety includes but is not limited to participation in or appearance of engaging in premarital sex, extramarital sex, homosexuality, homosexual activities, or cohabitation on-campus or off-campus.”
Union does have policies in place for all students to maintain behavior expectations. Students agree to these expectations by signing a contract when they officially enroll at Union.
The contract binds them to the rules and regulations supported and enforced by the school.
“As a private, religious school, the university is legally able to set forward community values that are in conformity to our faith,” said Kimberly Thornbury, senior vice president for student services and dean of students. “[Therefore,] students are asked to go to counseling, and they do have several options to choose from. We seek to connect the student [to counselors] who can provide holistic counseling. It is important that the student be connected with someone that they trust.”
Also, “counseling is suggested to allow a student help in maintaining behavior expectations,” Thornbury said. “However, if the student refuses formal counseling, we would still require ongoing mentoring and accountability with a caring staff or faculty member.”
While it would be difficult to measure how successful counseling is, it is the university’s hope “that a student with same-sex attraction feels cared for within a layered context of community, including counseling,” Thornbury added.
Some schools enforce less stringent policies. For instance, Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., does not list anything regarding homosexuality in its online policy handbook but holds to views similar to those stated in Union’s policy.
In 2007, that university was visited by the group Soulforce in its Equality Ride, during which the organization’s members travel to schools nationwide which, according to the Soulforce website, “openly discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals and their allies.”
According to its website, Soulforce is an organization that “is committed to relentless nonviolent resistance to bring freedom to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people from religious and political oppression.”
According to the Equality Ride report following that visit, Samford welcomed the individuals onto its campus.
Members of Soulforce visited Union March 18, 2006, and a report written by the organization following the visit states the individuals were escorted to “a dirt mound” some distance from campus, where they could interact with students.
Prior to Soulforce’s March 18 visit, University President David Dockery notified current students in a letter about the upcoming visit.
In November 2008, members of Soulforce revisited Union and received permission to gather in Luther Hall. According to a Baptist Press article, a private donor offered to supply the individuals with food during their time at Union.
However, three members of the group were arrested for trespassing on campus after rejecting accommodations provided by university officials.
Belmont University, a Christian institution affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention in Nashville, has added sexual orientation to the school’s non-discrimination policy.
In 2011, Belmont officially recognized the student group Bridge Builders, which seeks to “examine the intersection of Christian faith and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community-related issues through group discussion.”
Christian Brothers University in Memphis created a CBU Gay-Straight Alliance three years ago, sponsoring events such as “Free Hug Day.”
“When CBU’s annual Vanderhaar Symposium speaker was a reverend who married a gay couple, CBU cancelled the speaker based on their Catholic views,” said Kelly Jeu, 2012 graduate of CBU. “They got a lot of criticism from the community for it, so it seems like they contradict themselves at first. But they stand by their Catholic views on homosexuality and embrace a club that supposedly promotes peacefulness between gays and straights.”
The symposium invites a noted scholar and/or activist to the CBU campus annually to address a social and moral issue related to peace and justice and/or Catholic social teaching.
However, one former student tells a different story about his experience as a homosexual while at Union.
“I went to Union for all four years of my university experience,” said a 2010 graduate who is homosexual and asked to remain anonymous. “I made incredible friends and was instructed under some of the finest teachers [on] this side of the Mississippi.”
The student added he almost committed suicide during his junior year.
“This [wasn’t] because of an external problem that was later resolved by friends or the staff of Union, [but] because of ‘friends’ and staff at Union, whose ‘help’ only made matters worse,” he said.
The graduate went on to say that after he confided in someone about his homosexuality, that person told him that if he did not tell the dean of students, she would.
“I went to Union because I thought that it might help cure me of my homosexuality,” he said. “At the time, my father had cancer, and I was having an especially difficult year. I went to Dean Thornbury and told her what was going on, and she told me that I had two options: number one, leave Union or, number two, go to mandatory therapy sessions with Exodus Ministries.”
Thornbury, who does not recall the incident, said that while Union no longer recommends Exodus Ministries as a treatment source, the university’s stance on homosexuality remains unchanged.
“It is true that Union’s policies will not change to allow for same-sex dating behaviors, and I suppose that it is difficult for many to accept,” Thornbury said. “But we will work with students toward graduation and work to provide resources that help stay within our behavioral guidelines while at Union.”
The student said he chose to return to corrective therapy because he was so close to finishing his undergraduate career.
“They knew I was about to graduate so I guess they just swept me under the rug and silently said ‘good riddance’ as I accepted my diploma,” the student said. “I will say that I’m grateful for going to Union. I met the man of my dreams and now I’m happier than ever. I was told a lie countless times while at Union, by friends and staff.
The “lie,” he said, was: “‘You’ll never be happy as a homosexual; no one can be happy while living in that kind of lifestyle.’ Well, Union, I’m happy, healthy, successful and a homosexual.”
Union is unapologetic about its behavioral standards, Thornbury said, “but the standards are also held within the context of a grace-filled community. Students are always encouraged to seek help and behavioral accountability for real-world struggles.
