Harding University President Issues Statement Against HU Queer Press

I am always boggled that gays and lesbians even bother with Christianity; it should be clear by now that Christianity is a bigot’s wet dream.

I wish the name Christianity was so offensive nobody could say it.

He probably finds it offensive because the word has been somewhat re-appropriated and is freely used by especially younger people, either as a catch-all term for all kinds of orientations or as a synonym to “gay”. Though the tone and how uses it should make the meaning pretty clear.

Maybe it’s because I’m British and there’s something I’m missing here, but why is this acceptable in a ‘private’ institution? At what point does the law on equality get suspended to the point where to be openly gay means you risk being expelled?

He says that they had to block it, because it says bad things about them. What kind of respect for open discourse can you have if the university blocks criticism of itself willy-nilly?

@Ethalsar

why is this acceptable in a ‘private’ institution?

Firstly, in the US, there is no federal non-discrimination law that covers non-government (private) institutions and also covers sexual orientation. None. So unless there’s a local or state law involved, there’s nothing to stop any GLBT people from being fired, expelled, refused housing, or suffering other forms of discrimination in public accommodations.

There is an act (ENDA) that is attempting to fix this, and give the same federal protections to sexual orientation as to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, and disability. It has been stuck in Congress for some time and who knows when it will pass, if ever.

Secondly, even if there was such a law, private schools are still protected under the First Amendment. Freedom of religion+association is understood to mean that private schools with a particular religious agenda can discriminate using any criteria they want, including sexuality, religion, or even race. However, they may lose tax-exempt status if involved in race or gender discrimination.

(BTW, whatever bad things might be said about Colorado, we do have such non-discrimination laws, despite having had to escalate a case all the way to the Supreme Court to keep them. Also trying to get civil unions; I’m going to a meeting of our state senate’s judiciary committee tomorrow where they will discuss this.)

It isn’t a real Christian University. There’s nothing on their website about going to hell.

After he proclaimed that while some people believe the bible to have been written by bronze-aged desert dwellers seeking to control others, and that he does not share that notion, stating that he believes God “breathed” the words into the bible, and how it is God’s will, not the will of a modern democratic society that we must follow, I would love to immediately have been able to ask him about the parts of the bible that call for slavery, genocide, homicide, rape etc… with quoted passages! Let’s see if he’s willing to go all the way on this notion that we must follow the word of God and not our own will, or the modern standards of a democratic society.

Yes, I am a student at Harding University. We sign a contract and must abide by it. We say we will remain sexually pure, no sex of any kind. The school doesn’t discriminate homosexuals alone. ANYONE who does anything involving sex is expelled (unless they are married), even if it’s just oral sex. There are kids who the students know to be gay and I haven’t heard of them being bullied.
Another point I’d like to bring up is the fact that these students know what they are getting into before they are a student of Harding. Each student must read the rulebook before being allowed in, and in the handbook it states no sexual immorality, none. They still choose to go here.

@harding student.

These students might not engage in sexual activities with others; however, that doesn’t change their sexual orientation. Part of the abuse they complain about is that Harding University is not factual about homosexuality. It teaches that it is the fault of the parents, though current research shows this is not so. This must be distressing to those gay students whose parents are deeply loving.

As for choosing to attend, students might be obeying their parents (I assume that is a virtue at Harding) or they might have hoped that Harding would have a ‘cure’ for their sexual orientation (about as likely as curing someone of left-handedness). I hope that the students do find security, perhaps within humanism, perhaps within more accepting Christian denominations. Perhaps they will marry though the person will be the same sex as them.

BTW have you read their web site or are you just taking the words of others?

The school doesn’t discriminate homosexuals alone. ANYONE who does anything involving sex is expelled (unless they are married)

Except that a) if they mean “legally married”, they are letting the state discriminate for them (rather cowardly), and b) if they would not recognize a same-sex marriage, regardless of its legal status, then they are, actually, discriminating against GLBTs by not granting them the marriage exemption to this policy. If you’re going to discriminate against gay people, and you don’t have the conviction to admit to it, it’s hard to find much that’s worthy of respect in that.

these students know what they are getting into before they are a student of Harding.

Besides the fact that some people don’t really come to terms with being gay before entering college, it’s actually not true that they “know what they are getting into”. Before attending Harding, they probably don’t understand all that well what the attitudes and culture are like, or how difficult it might be to face the daily choice of either continuing lies of omission in the closet, or facing rejection by everyone around them. They are 18-year-olds who haven’t been in that situation; there’s no way that most of them are making a well-informed choice.

Each student must read the rulebook before being allowed in, and in the handbook it states no sexual immorality, none.

That’s a funny policy. One does wonder what proportion of Harding students have premarital(/extramarital) sex anyway, and what proportion of those get caught. That kind of policing seems hard to take seriously.

More to the point, does the handbook also say that the university will not tolerate criticism of how it approaches gay issues? That a serious treatment of the problems that its students encounter, can be dismissed as “offensive”? Because the stand it’s taking here is not just against homosexuality, but also about the ability to discuss the subject openly.

Does the handbook say “We will lie to you about homosexuality, promoting theories that were debunked decades ago and junk research, and if you try to correct us we will block your website and denounce your measured criticism as offensive and degrading (without, of course, explaining why it’s degrading)”? I somehow doubt that the handbook really covers everything at issue here.

This is amazing to me. How is it that a Christian University doesn’t get to have standards and opinions but everyone else does? Even if their view on homosexuality, beastiality, pornography, affairs, etc. are only opinions (which they aren’t’ they are more than that, they are beliefs), why is it that they don’t get to have those opinions and everyone else does.?

It seems that in order to be “open-minded” you have to believe that homosexuality is right and that you don’t have a “choice” about being defined by your sexuality. Why is that? I would much rather have the choice then not.

I’m still trying to come at this open-minded, but as I read this is what I see. Someone want to help me out?

Just because you have an opinion doesn’t mean it’s valid or legit. Especially if that “opinion” results in actions that actively hurt people. Like in this case – for example by forcing them to be in the closet, constantly telling them there is something wrong with them or by subjecting them to “therapy” (as told in the magazine)

Also, Christians (or believers in general) have this strange notion that just because an opinion is based on religious conviction, it magically becomes exempt from criticism. The opposite is the case. It deserves more scrutiny that one arrived at through thought and logic.

now unless things have changed private institutions can discriminate however they please. The Southern Baptist school I attended for 8th-9th grade only allowed whites, as did several other private schools. They recieved not State or Federal funds so they could do as they pleased. If you compare this to the Citidel and VMI cases and their banning females, the Citidel was a federal landmark which somehow made the exclusion illegal and VMI recieved federal funds so it also was illegal. Things may have changed since I was there, but that was the law of the land in the 80’s.

Anon, grow a brain. There are just as many homosexuals at Harding, percentage wise, as there are at any of those state schools that you seem to think are crawling with heathens and sinners. You are regurgitating the brainwashing of the Harding administration! Every day in chapel, we were told about how horrible that state colleges supposedly were. I’ve met nicer people with better morals at state schools than I ever met at Harding.

You think Harding is filled with love and a supportive environment. Well, Harding is definitely not a supportive or loving environment for women, minorities or gays. Although I’m sure its a fine environment if you happen to be a white, heterosexual Republican male. I went there, I know. As a woman, I was told all the time I was inferior to men and my only job was to find a husband at college.

Quit talking about how wonderful Harding is. Many of us out here know better, and we will continue to challenge those who tell lies about this supposedly wonderful Christian school.