Baylor affirms LGBTQ inclusivity

OPINION:

Last week, Baylor University announced that it had received a grant of approximately $700,000 from the Baugh Foundation to promote LGBTQ inclusivity on its campus. Baylor’s motto is “For the Church, For Texas, For the World.” It describes itself as a Christian university and is a proud member of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, otherwise known as the CCCU.

What exactly is the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities?

The CCCU includes about 170 colleges and universities that self-identify as “Christ-centered.” These schools represent approximately 525,000 students, 96,000 faculty and over 11 million alumni around the world. The CCCU’s mission is “to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help our institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth.”

Now, in reading this mission statement, you might think that the CCCU would be biblically conservative, but you’d be wrong. 

Consider the following.

In 2015, after the Supreme Court issued its ruling on Obergefell vs. Hodges, Dr. Shirley Hoogstra, then president of the CCCU, sent a note to all member college and university presidents — of which I was one — saying it was a time for us to have “conversation” about the inclusion of homosexual faculty on our campuses.

I immediately called Dr. Hoogstra on the phone and I told her I was confused by her letter. I proceeded to say that I felt it was time for a “decision and not dialogue.” “It’s time for us to demonstrate our commitment to biblical clarity,” I said. “After all, Scripture is unequivocal on this issue.”

Dr. Hoogstra’s (and thus, the official response from the CCCU) was as follows.

“Dr. Piper,” she said, “The CCCU is a broad multi-denominational organization that has members who disagree on a variety of issues, such as speaking in tongues and methods of baptism.” She went on. “In the same spirit that we disagree on these denominational differences, we need to have a conversation about this issue of homosexuality and gay marriage and decide how to respond to member institutions who have already decided to hire monogamous, married LGBTQ faculty.”

After telling Dr. Hoogstra that I took great umbrage with her attempt to conflate a disagreement over whether we should be dunked or sprinkled with a biblically prohibited sexual act, I went further to say that I didn’t see anywhere in Scripture where we are told to sit around and have a “conversation” about sin.

“Exactly where is it that Jesus tells us to engage in ’dialogue’ and ’consultation’ about sodomy?” I asked. “I see him, as well as Paul, Peter, and Jude, telling us in Scripture to confess it, but I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where it tells us to have a ’conversation’ about it.”

I concluded by telling Dr. Hoogstra that if she did not take a biblically consistent position on the issue, my university could not remain a member of the CCCU in good faith. When she refused to alter her position, I sent her a letter immediately withdrawing my school’s membership. At the time, only four other schools in the entire organization did the same.

That’s right — of 170 Christian universities that advertise themselves as being biblically faithful and “Christ-centered,” only five saw fit to take a stand on this issue. Only five believed it was essential to say the church, not the government, defines marriage, and that the Bible — not you, me or the CCU thorugh collective dialogue — defines sexual morality.

Now, it should be noted that after Dr. Hoogstra’s lengthy time of “consultation” with the other 170 university presidents, the CCCU officially changed its membership criteria to include a third category known as “collaborative partners.” This additional classification was specifically created to welcome institutions that affirmed homosexual behavior and gay marriage into the CCCU ranks while pretending that such schools were only “partners” and not full voting “members.”

This is hogwash! If you don’t see that the amoral camel has just stuck his nose in the tent, and that his butt will inevitably follow, bringing with it all the consequent mess, you’re simply not paying attention.

And this brings us back to Baylor University and its new $700,000 program aimed at promoting LGBTQ inclusivity on its campus. In the context of my tale about the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, dare I say, “I told you so”?

Any church, organization or university that is more interested in being “inclusive” of sin than in preaching and teaching that we need to confess it is not biblical and — yes, I’m going to say it — is not Christian.

Do not send your kids to such a school. Wolves in sheep’s clothing are dangerous, but wolves in shepherds’ clothing are downright deadly. 

• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery). He can be reached at epiper@dreverettpiper.com.