The College Fix

Erskine College is an unremarkable evangelical school.

It was founded by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in 1839, and is still listed on the denomination’s home page, so presumably the South Carolina school agrees with the church that “God’s Word clearly forbids homosexual practice as a sin against God” and calls homosexuals to “repentance, cleansing, and deliverance in the saving power of Jesus Christ.”

So why the hell is everyone flipping out after the school released a one-page “statement on human sexuality” last month?

We believe the Bible teaches that monogamous marriage between a man and a woman is God’s intended design for humanity and that sexual intimacy has its proper place only within the context of marriage. …

As a Christian academic community, and in light of our institutional mission, members of the Erskine community are expected to follow the teachings of scripture concerning matters of human sexuality and institutional decisions will be made in light of this position.

Here’s the deal, courtesy of The New York Times: It has two male volleyball teammates who came out as gay a year ago on a national sports website for gay athletes. A female volleyball player is dating a female lacrosse player. And courtesy of judicial diktat last fall, gay marriage is recognized in South Carolina.

Maybe it was a good time, however clumsily (“institutional decisions”?), for Erskine to reiterate that it stands by its beliefs, even if they were last restated in 1977, when influential gay thinkers argued against marriage (some of them today continue opposing it). The school claims it’s been working on a restatement for two-and-a-half years:

Paul Kooistra, who was named Erskine’s president in July, said the college felt it was necessary to issue a statement on sexuality because “there was some confusion about us as a Christian institution — what did we believe?”

Students are reacting as if they suddenly realized they attend a socially conservative evangelical college with – shocker! – doctrinal statements that oppose homosexual practices. And some of them are going a little loony:

“It was really surprising to hear from the administration a hateful statement,” said Alanna Carvalho, 18, a freshman lacrosse player at Erskine who is openly gay. “It’s a bit threatening. It’s scary. I’m going to have to watch my back, maybe?” …

Caitlin Bullock, 22, a senior who starred on the Erskine women’s volleyball team and is dating Ms. Carvalho, said she found it “kind of sad that people still think the way they do and are so close-minded.”

Of course, these gay students have nothing but glowing things to say about how the Erskine community has treated them. If the administration hates gays, it’s the dark matter of hatred – imperceptible to the senses.

The student government president doesn’t seem to know the student body that well, if the reaction of these gay students is common, because he said the school’s statement “seemed unnecessary, given that everyone at the college knew what the Bible said.”

Then why the hell are they complaining?

The school certainly seems to worry that its own students aren’t aware of biblical references to sexuality, because it larded the statement with verses from Genesis 1 through the epistles while tripping over itself to tell students not to pick on the gay kids:

Erskine recognizes the complexity of current issues regarding sexual morality, marriage, and other expressions of human sexuality such as same-sex attraction, gender identity, and sex outside the covenant of marriage. Therefore, the Erskine community is advised to practice humility and prayerfulness when engaging in any conversations or other actions related to these topics.

It panicked enough after reaction to the first statement to release a second one saying that gay students aren’t going to be punished:

This statement describes a position. It does not prescribe a policy and does not ‘ban’ any individual or class of individuals from attending Erskine. No students have been asked to leave Erskine based on this statement. …

Given the theological traditions and interpretations of the Christian scriptures in the broader evangelical church and the ARP Church, this is not an unusual or unexpected position on human sexuality.

Clearly these issues are sensitive. Opinions, convictions, philosophies, and approaches vary widely in the larger culture, within the broader evangelical Christian community, and even within the Erskine community itself, both on and off campus.

Asking students to recognize that views “vary widely” – and yet they chose this school for their education – may be a lost cause.

Perhaps Christian college students are just as myopic and “closed-minded” as their secular-school counterparts in thinking they are right about everything at 19 and that disagreement is raw bigotry.

Greg Piper is an assistant editor at The College Fix. (@GregPiper)

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