How Will Small Christian Colleges Navigate the Gay Issue


Christian colleges receive federal money, either directly in indirectly. Often theses colleges have policies against premarital sex and homosexuality. Young people are approaching 100% approval of both. How will these colleges navigate the new sexual tolerance with their old Middle Ages ideas?

It may not be a good parallel, but Christian colleges have bent to social change before. I recall when I arrived in the Fargo-Moorhead area in 1978 Concordia College did not allow social dancing. Then it did. There were expressions of outrage. Concordia carried on. I believe today their is a College-approved gay and lesbian club.

This conflict between what universities feel they need to teach and what those to run and finance them want taught in a never ending tension. I recall an old story about a church-sponsored college from decades ago--might not even be true. A new professor was hired to teach history. A wealthy alum cornered the young man and said, "Now, I'm expecting you to teach 'Christian history.'" The crafty young historian replied, "Sure, I will do this. First, however, you need to promise me the professor of mathematics will teach 'Christian mathematics.'"

The tension is present in state universities as well as church or private sponsored institutions. There has always been pressure of colleges of agriculture to teach students material that endorses products from large ag industries. Probably it is the same in other disciplines. In the arts, humanities and social sciences there are not industries to promote but there is the world of ideas. Plenty of state legislators do not like the ideas taught by these disciplines and efforts have been made to bring professors into line. When I was a young professor the Viet Nam war was going full throttle. A friend of mine taught poetry in the English department. He also appeared at anti war rallies and read some of his poetry. Someone somewhere was so angry about his poetry the FBI sent agents to his neighborhood. They asked his neighbors is they had seen an suspicious people coming and going from his house.

There is no way for small Christian college presidents to handle the gay/lesbian/trans issue but to welcome all such students and, if donations stop, close their institution. Churches close every week in the U.S. for various reasons and other institutions like small Christian colleges may be the victims of changing social mores as well.

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