Thank you for your response. It strikes me, that if I cannot be a christian woman in a committed same-sex relationship and be allowed to teach there (even if my credentials are superb), that they may not have a “heart towards gay people.” They see me as a sinner, which is unfortunate. For both the school (in attempting to attract the “best and brightest”), and for the messages that are innoculated into the youth that attend. They never see that there is even a possibility of being a gay christian.

Truth is, there are gay Christian youth who attend there. They are going through the same dating rituals as everyone else, and to be made to feel stigmatized and not accepted into the faith community as they are is quite unfortunate – it seems to go against the “neutrality” that is so talked about on the forum.

For the most part (and please correct me if I’m wrong), it seems that people have the stated belief on this forum that you can be both gay and christian – at this school, that is not the case. It’s the reason that I see so many gay and lesbian people abandoning the faith community.

I appreciate when you said “where you draw the line, I don’t know.” I don’t know either. But if you think about it the other way around – telling someone that their “heterosexuality” is a sin but “having a heart towards heterosexuals” is a difficult thing to balance…if it can, be arguably balanced at all.

You also stated “But it’s not as black and white as gay-friendly and gay-unfriendly.” I agree, yet disagree with this. This was a notation (not being friendly towards GLBT individuals) given by the students themselves, and that is what concerns me. These ratings are not done by scholars (who may look into the practices of the professors, etc..), they are done by polling the students. I wonder why students feel it is so unwelcoming?

My approach is different that the schools, but I suppose it is a part of the pipe-dream that Christianity begins to welcome its gay members as equals, begins to see that many same-sex couples can and do live solid Christian lives, and letting gay youth know that you can live a good life, find an amazing partner, and don’t have to change anything about yourself to be loved by God. It’s not so black-and-white…you can either be gay OR be a christian…you can be both.

By keeping the school Christian, allowing faculty to be gay, or the students – it would be revolutionary to have a community of people much like this forum. There are gays, ex-gays, and never-been-gays…I think we all come from the place of Christian values – and sure, we debate, but what a wonderful model.

Why be exclusionary…and why not just hold everyone – gay and straight – to the same behavioral standards. No pre-marital sex, substance abuse, etc…

Because they believe that the behavior is sin, I can’t imagine them allowing public (or private) displays of gay affection.

I regret that our only choice seems to be to define that in terms of ‘friendliness’. Reminds me of a child that thinks mom hates him because she scolded, corrected or said ‘no’. The mom sees a behavior that she finds unacceptable and makes her feelings known…yet she loves the child.

I have proof that the school does not live up the Princeton Review ‘unfriendly’ label…it’s Warren. Yeah, they may believe that its sin but it’s clear that they have a heart towards gay people. Where you draw the line, I don’t know. But it’s not as black and white as gay-friendly and gay-unfriendly.

Sorry to speak ‘for Warren’…I figure, if I’m off-base he can speak up. I believe he blogged yesterday that although he’s keeping the blog open, he may not even have time to read–much less respond.

“I also suspect that young heterosexuals who are dating are not completely free regarding Public Displays of Affection.”

I would wonder if they are equally free. I have been to the campus many times, and I have seen at that school, many heterosexual couples holding hands, kissing before departure, etc…but I wonder if the same would be okay for same-sex couples who are dating as well?

Any thoughts to clear this up Warren?

The fact that this school was rated to be unfriendly by the students themselves is what gave me a bad taste in my mouth, and makes me wonder about the culture of the school and what values it is promoting about their fellow citizens.

I guess I understood the comparison of gay students to poker clubs as I’ve understood some evangelical comparisons of gay people to alcoholics and pedophiles in the past – I saw it as in the same vein. My apologies if I was wrong – I really don’t think that was what you were going for, but that’s how it felt – to me anyway!

I got what you were saying though. And yes, the fact that Warren’s school is a more conservative Christian School is exactly why it was rated as being very unfriendly to gay students.

Yes, we are on the same page about it being subjective and not a blanket statement – thanks for your post – no need to apologize though, you did nothing wrong and I appreciated the dialogue 🙂