Gay christian college freshman harassed by students, professors
Openly gay freshman Isaiah Thomas has discovered Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., is not quite a good fit.
John C. Whitehead, The Patriot-NewsIsaiah Thomas
According toPennLive, the student has been through hell at the Christian College — from having his wallet, room key and student ID stolen just a month after school started to having a professor call him “an abomination” in class, to receiving a death threat on his Facebook page.
Isaiah has decided to transfer at the end of the semester.
The Christian College requires all students to sign a “Community Covenant” which forbids homosexual behavior, according to school provost Randy Bassinger. He also claimed the school had a very strict harassment policy and has investigated the claims from Isaiah, but they refuse to release the results of any of those findings.
What we find most interesting about Isaiah though is not that he was harassed and is leaving, but he actively worked to change the school’s policies.
Good for him for trying, and I'm glad he's headed somewhere friendlier. Messiah says on its website that it is "committed to an embracing evangelical spirit rooted in the Anabaptist, Pietist and Wesleyan traditions of the Christian Church"; I'm not sure about the Pietist tradition, but Anabaptists and Wesleyans were often out in front when it comes to social justice (e.g. antislavery). And in my book an "embracing evangelical spirit" would include recognizing homosexuality as one more part of God's good creation. I suspect they'll come around eventually; in the meantime, I'm glad he is in a position to leave. I worry about the gay students there (and I'm sure there are some) who, for whatever reason, don't feel they can follow suit; at least his speaking out may have helped them just a bit.
ReplyDeleteTrue Christians would not have harassed him like that. It sounds like their salt has lost its saltiness.
ReplyDeleteA former girlfriend of mine attended a very conservative Church of Christ-affiliated university. It's the sort of place at which male and female students can't be in the same dorm room without the door being open, and gay students are expelled. Even so, there's apparently quite the gay underground scene.
ReplyDelete"It's the sort of place at which male and female students can't be in the same dorm room without the door being open, ***and gay students are expelled.*** "
ReplyDeleteIsn't that illegal? I see no difference between that and a business denying entry to all African-American customers (which I suspect *is* illegal)
@Stew: not yet. Sexual orientation isn't yet a protected class (except maybe in a few states. But it's not federally protected).
ReplyDeleteI see a discrepancy here - at these "themed" colleges it is BEHAVIOUR that is regulated. So, they can stick in the code of conduct that you can't engage in "homosexual behaviour", but it is a different kettle of fish to discipline the student simply for being gay. Akin to that good ole' line 'Love the sinner, hate the sin.' Cuz we're ALL sinners...
ReplyDelete@Prof Poopiehead
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it then becomes 'Love the sinner, and hate the sin. Therefore hate the sinner...'
p^~p all over again.
For background, this is the college that Monica Goodling (the person behind the 2006 US attorney dismissal) graduated from before she went on to law school. Bill Maher called it "the home of the Fighting Christies."
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Unlike some of the nuttier Fundamentalist colleges, Messsiah looks like it actually has accreditation and it predates WWI, so the founders no longer have any pull over the institution (unlike Pensacola Christian College, or Hyles-Anderson College before 2001.) Signing some sort of "morals clause" is very common at these schools, both for the students and the faculty. Control is the name of the game, and I would not be suprised if students were monitored by some sort of magnetic card system (PCC does this) or they had to sign some sort of log to enter and leave the campus. It has been alleged that PCC actually sorts their students' mail, illegally throwing out bulk mailings they consider "un-Godly" (mostly magazine subscriptions.)
Isaiah Thomas would be better off in a state school.
I always wanted a bumper sticker that said "Your God hates me."
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