Christian College Won’t Let Student Earn Last 6 Credits Because He’s Gay

[phands]

That good old true-xtian love and tolerance showing it's face again.....

A fundamentalist Christian college has dismissed a student for being gay. Not for engaging in “same-sex romantic or sexual relationships,” mind you, as the student handbook prohibits.
Clarks Summit University in Pennsylvania just kicked him out for being gay… which is odd, considering how most Christian schools (even the more conservative ones) only frown on the action part these days. Struggling with the sin, as they put it, is different from acting on it.
But not in this case.
As The Citizens’ Voice explained it, Gary Campbell was all set to take classes at the Christian school this fall. He had previously earned 109 credits there (from 2001-2003), taken a long detour in life, and hoped to earn the last 6 credits he needed to complete his bachelor’s degree — as well as a job in which he would work with recovering addicts. (Campbell struggled with alcoholism while in the Navy but he’s now 19 months sober.)
His family even loaned him $700 to help cover his tuition costs.
But none of that mattered to the school, which found out (somehow) that Campbell is gay. With that revelation, the school didn’t want him there:

In late August, school officials contacted him after learning he was gay and told him he was no longer welcome as a student. In an email to Theodore Boykin, associate dean of students, Campbell asked the school to reconsider.
“One of my top goals being in recovery was to finish my bachelor’s degree. Having a degree is much more to me than a certificate, it’s a culmination of hard work, sweat and tears, and I owe it to myself and to my recovery to accomplish this goal,” he wrote.
“I ask that you not view me only as a homosexual, but as a determined, compassionate, hard-working man who is of good moral character. My goal again is to assist my community and help those who are struggling in the grip of addiction.”
The university denied his request.
​

Campbell said he feels betrayed — and he should feel that way! Unless he isn’t telling the whole truth, or the school has information the public doesn’t know about, Gary wasn’t involved in a same-sex relationship. Christians who typically oppose LGBTQ rights tend to view being gay the same way they view a struggle with alcohol — it’s not the temptation that’s the problem; it’s giving in to it. Even according to that logic — which I disagree with, but still — Campbell didn’t do anything wrong.

http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/...-student-earn-last-6-credits-because-hes-gay/

 

[steve_bank]

If a gay person chooses Christianity that is his or hers choice. That being said if you accept the bible as the inspired word of god then IMO you can not be Christian and gay.

You can't be Christian and divorced or a fornicator as well.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

If a gay person chooses Christianity that is his or hers choice. That being said if you accept the bible as the inspired word of god then IMO you can not be Christian and gay.

You can't be Christian and divorced or a fornicator as well.

I'm sure there are a large number of gay, divorced and fornicating Christians who would disagree with your official pronouncement of what their religion is. There are zero people who accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God who don't cherry pick and reinterpret whatever passages they happen to disagree with, so the ones who ignore these parts are absolutely no different than every other Christian on the planet and therefore have just as much right to call themselves one.

This is just a case of the college administrators being a group of dicks.

 

[Keith&Co.]

This is just a case of the college administrators being a group of dicks.

Yeah, it's not even about who is or isn't Christain.
It's about whether he broke the rules they published.
He didn't, but they are still punishing him.

 

[Politesse]

If a gay person chooses Christianity that is his or hers choice. That being said if you accept the bible as the inspired word of god then IMO you can not be Christian and gay.

You can't be Christian and divorced or a fornicator as well.

Why not? The Bible doesn't say anything about who is or is not a Christian, aside from noting that a particular church in Antioch was called by that term.

 

[steve_bank]

If a gay person chooses Christianity that is his or hers choice. That being said if you accept the bible as the inspired word of god then IMO you can not be Christian and gay.

You can't be Christian and divorced or a fornicator as well.

Why not? The Bible doesn't say anything about who is or is not a Christian, aside from noting that a particular church in Antioch was called by that term.

At first there were no Christians, it was a heretical Jewish sect. It was not until later in the first century after gentile urbanization that a separate identity emerged. and Jewish scripture was coopted as belonging to Christians. And that began the enmity between Christians and Jews. Different sects of Christianity could be violent against each other.

Again it is a personal choice regardless of sexuality. It is clear in Leviticus and one of Paul's writings homosexuality is mot accepted.

The problem there is no clear definition in the gospels on what a Christian is. Unlike Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims who have basic articles of behavior and expression of faith.

A Christian is anyone who says they are a Christian for any reason. The Chinese menu faith, pick one from column A and one from column B so to speak. The close-set thing to a coherent theology is the Sermon On The Mount. The rest is a Hodge podge of sound bites attributed to JC. He was after all a Jewish rabbi perching to Jews.

For the life of me I can not understand why a gay person would want to associate with a religion which has in its scriptures a prohibition against them and a long history of abuse, let alone go to a small Christian college. A glutton for punishment.

 

[Keith&Co.]

The fish in the loaves and fish miracle were perch?

 

[Rhea]

For the life of me I can not understand why a gay person would want to associate with a religion which has in its scriptures a prohibition against them and a long history of abuse, let alone go to a small Christian college. A glutton for punishment.

MAybe he got the first 9/10 of his egree while he was still christian and perhaps not openly gay or even denying it to himself. What he wants now is to finish he degree - and he needs to go bck to the place he started it.

That may be why he does it.

 

[Politesse]

If a gay person chooses Christianity that is his or hers choice. That being said if you accept the bible as the inspired word of god then IMO you can not be Christian and gay.

You can't be Christian and divorced or a fornicator as well.

Why not? The Bible doesn't say anything about who is or is not a Christian, aside from noting that a particular church in Antioch was called by that term.

At first there were no Christians, it was a heretical Jewish sect. It was not until later in the first century after gentile urbanization that a separate identity emerged. and Jewish scripture was coopted as belonging to Christians. And that began the enmity between Christians and Jews. Different sects of Christianity could be violent against each other.

Again it is a personal choice regardless of sexuality. It is clear in Leviticus and one of Paul's writings homosexuality is mot accepted.

The problem there is no clear definition in the gospels on what a Christian is. Unlike Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims who have basic articles of behavior and expression of faith.

A Christian is anyone who says they are a Christian for any reason. The Chinese menu faith, pick one from column A and one from column B so to speak. The close-set thing to a coherent theology is the Sermon On The Mount. The rest is a Hodge podge of sound bites attributed to JC. He was after all a Jewish rabbi perching to Jews.

For the life of me I can not understand why a gay person would want to associate with a religion which has in its scriptures a prohibition against them and a long history of abuse, let alone go to a small Christian college. A glutton for punishment.

Well, I'm a gay guy who also goes to church. Not that kind of church though, and I see your point about going to that sort of college. It doesn't sound as though the kid was actually a "practicing homosexual" as it were, who knows what his actual views are. I have also met some fairly self-loathing, even masochistic, conservative gays in my time.

 

[steve_bank]

At first there were no Christians, it was a heretical Jewish sect. It was not until later in the first century after gentile urbanization that a separate identity emerged. and Jewish scripture was coopted as belonging to Christians. And that began the enmity between Christians and Jews. Different sects of Christianity could be violent against each other.

Again it is a personal choice regardless of sexuality. It is clear in Leviticus and one of Paul's writings homosexuality is mot accepted.

The problem there is no clear definition in the gospels on what a Christian is. Unlike Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims who have basic articles of behavior and expression of faith.

A Christian is anyone who says they are a Christian for any reason. The Chinese menu faith, pick one from column A and one from column B so to speak. The close-set thing to a coherent theology is the Sermon On The Mount. The rest is a Hodge podge of sound bites attributed to JC. He was after all a Jewish rabbi perching to Jews.

For the life of me I can not understand why a gay person would want to associate with a religion which has in its scriptures a prohibition against them and a long history of abuse, let alone go to a small Christian college. A glutton for punishment.

Well, I'm a gay guy who also goes to church. Not that kind of church though, and I see your point about going to that sort of college. It doesn't sound as though the kid was actually a "practicing homosexual" as it were, who knows what his actual views are. I have also met some fairly self-loathing, even masochistic, conservative gays in my time.

I appreciate the response. The Universal Unitarians over here as I understand require a simple belief in god. Everyone accepted. I looked into a local church. They have morality classes for kids, their version of Sunday school.