Gay rights stand at evangelical college causes uproar
WENHAM, Mass. – D. Michael Lindsay thought he was on safe political ground when he signed the letter.
President Barack Obama was about to expand job protection for gays employed by federal contractors. Under the proposed changes, faith-based charities with federal grants worried they could lose the right to hire and fire according to their religious beliefs. Religious leaders flooded the White House with pleas to maintain or broaden the exemption.
Among them was one endorsed by Lindsay, president of Gordon College, a small evangelical school, and 13 evangelical and Roman Catholic leaders.
In the end, Obama left the existing exemption in place. But it was no victory for Lindsay.
His stand last July came at a cost – to him and the school – that he never anticipated: broken relationships with nearby cities, the loss of a key backer for a federal grant, a review by the regional college accrediting agency, and campus protest and alumni pushback over whether the school should maintain its ban on “homosexual practice” as part of its life and conduct standards.
“I signed the letter as a way of trying to show my personal support,” Lindsay said during an interview at the Wenham campus, about 25 miles north of Boston. “Obviously, if I had known the response that in particular Gordon College would receive, I wouldn’t sign.”
Lindsay had learned the hard way just how much gay rights had been dividing members of his own community and driving a wedge between his school and local communities.
Gordon is among the many conservative religious institutions struggling to find their place in a landscape rapidly changing in favor of gay rights. Their view of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is being challenged not only from outside, but also from within their own faith communities, and once-comfortable partnerships with public organizations are being re-evaluated.
After coming under fire for its ban on hiring faculty in same-sex relationships, Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia decided this year to delay a decision on whether to uphold the policy, which means it won’t be enforced for now. World Vision, a Christian international relief agency based in Washington state, said last March it would hire employees in gay marriages but quickly backtracked after drawing condemnation from evangelical leaders and losing thousands of donors.
The uproar over Lindsay’s letter prompted local community leaders to take another look at Gordon’s policies. The college hires gays and lesbians, but because of the ban on “homosexual practice,” it effectively requires them to be celibate. Mayor Kim Driscoll of Salem responded by ending Gordon’s contract to manage the city’s Old Town Hall. Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum ended its academic relationship with the school and withdrew support for Gordon’s grant application to the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Tucked into a forested corner of a small town, Gordon is known for staying out of public fights on divisive social issues. When the Massachusetts Supreme Court recognized same-sex marriage in 2003, making the state the first in the country to do so, then- Gordon President Judson Carlberg issued no public statement.
Among its peers in Christian higher education, Gordon sits on the liberal end of the spectrum. The college upholds the Bible as the authoritative word of God while providing the “freedom to offer constructive criticism of this tradition.” Evolution is taught in the science program. Draped nude models are used for art students learning to draw the body – unusual in Christian art programs. An alcohol ban is only for campus and school events, instead of the blanket prohibition sometimes found at other evangelical schools. The 1,700 or so undergraduates are encouraged to respect different views of what it means to be Christian.
“I’m OK in civil society for there to be civil unions, insurance rights, domestic partnerships, all those kinds of things,” Lindsay said. “But the difference here I think we need to pay attention to – this is a religious institution that presumably might be asked to betray one of its core convictions.”
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 3, 2014, AND THEREAFTER- In this Sept. 10, 2014 photo, students walk into the campus chapel at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass. Gordon is among the many conservative religious institutions struggling to find their place in a landscape rapidly changing in favor of gay rights. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 3, 2014, AND THEREAFTER- In this Sept. 10, 2014 photo, Gordon College President D. Michael Lindsay poses for a photo in his office on campus in Wenham, Mass. Gordon College is among the many conservative religious institutions struggling to find their place in a landscape rapidly changing in favor of gay rights. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 3, 2014, AND THEREAFTER- In this Sept. 10, 2014 photo, Gordon College President D. Michael Lindsay poses for a photo on campus in Wenham, Mass. Gordon College is among the many conservative religious institutions struggling to find their place in a landscape rapidly changing in favor of gay rights. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 3, 2014, AND THEREAFTER- In this Sept. 10, 2014 photo, a student reads on campus at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass. Gordon is among the many conservative religious institutions struggling to find their place in a landscape rapidly changing in favor of gay rights. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 3, 2014, AND THEREAFTER- In this Sept. 10, 2014 photo, a mission statement is displayed near the entrance to Gordon College in Wenham, Mass. Gordon College is among the many conservative religious institutions struggling to find their place in a landscape rapidly changing in favor of gay rights. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 3, 2014, AND THEREAFTER- In this Sept. 11, 2014 photo, seated at a table painted with soaring eagles created in their art studio, Gordon College alumni Matthew and Margot Rogers speak during an interview in Beverly, Mass. The couple spoke about their reaction to Gordon College joining a plea for a religious exemption from a nondiscrimination rule protecting gay, lesbian and transgendered people who worked for federal contractors. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 3, 2014, AND THEREAFTER- In this Sept. 11, 2014 photo, Paul O. Miller, a 2008 Gordon College graduate and founder of OneGordon, an LGBT rights group, speaks during an interview in Boston. “There should be the same sexual ethic for GLBT and heterosexual students,” said Miller. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, NOV. 3, 2014, AND THEREAFTER- In this Sept. 10, 2014 photo, a man walks by the campus chapel and bell at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass. Gordon College is among the many conservative religious institutions struggling to find their place in a landscape rapidly changing in favor of gay rights. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)