A private Christian college in South Carolina, after two gay athletes came out in the media, has very publicly banned homosexuality, and issued a threatening statement.
Last year volleyball players Drew Davis and Juan Varona, both openly gay at Erskine, a rural South Carolina private Christian college founded in 1839, were featured in a very intimate Outsports article. The piece detailed how Davis was inadvertently outed by his ex-boyfriend, how his father disowned him and his mother told him he’d be unemployed for the rest of his life, and how he attempted suicide. It also told of the strong support Davis and Varona have received from their fellow teammates.
This year, under the leadership of Dr. Paul Kooistra (photo), the school’s new president, Erskine has just released a damning policy statement that bans homosexuality, labeling it “sin and contrary to the will of the Creator.”
Under a section titled “In Action,” the Erskine policy notes, “We believe the Bible teaches that all sexual activity outside the covenant of marriage is sinful and therefore ultimately destructive to the parties involved.”
The policy statement is also foreboding and threatening, commanding, “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.”
How are Erskine’s two openly-gay students expected to interpret that statement, that “institutional decisions will be made in light of this position,” and how are the students who are LGBTQ expected to feel safe in that environment?
That’s not an extreme question.
Hidden at the bottom of a financial report to the college’s trustees, a statement on the school’s website reads, “the Student Services and Athletic Committee submitted and the full board approved a Statement on Human Sexuality. The administration will add the statement to its official manuals and determine how it will be integrated into campus culture and procedures.”
Doesn’t that sound like the school is targeting its two gay players?
Varona told Outsports’ Cyd Zeigler he is “disappointed” by his school’s statement, “sad and worried for other gay people,” and added it took him “by surprise.” He says, “the school took several steps back instead of progressing towards a future where everyone can be treated as an equal.”
“I understand the religious stand on adultery, which is part of the Ten Commandments in the Bible, and that would apply to heterosexual and homosexual people.”
Zeigler has a few thoughts for Erskine College’s leadership.
It’s insightful that Varona would mention the Ten Commandments. There’s another Commandment among the 10 that’s given higher priority in all versions of the Bible: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
We’re assuming this means that Erskine College will also ban all of its athletic teams from practicing or competing on Sundays. That’s unfortunate, because on Sunday, April 19, the men’s volleyball, men’s golf and women’s golf teams have tournament games scheduled. The following Sunday four teams – softball, women’s lacrosse, women’s tennis and men’s tennis – have matches scheduled.
For the school to ban homosexuality but not ban these competitions on the sabbath would be the highest form of hypocrisy.
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Editor’s note – 03.01.15: Links to Erskine’s anti-LGBT statement have been updated after the college moved it in an apparent attempt to hide it from media reports.
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