Being a Gay Teacher at a Christian College
A reader provides a perspective from the faculty side of our discussion on same-sex attraction on campus:
I read with interest the article you published about LGBT politics at Christian colleges. I happen to be gay and teach at a member institution of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. I have written three anonymous essays for Inside Higher Ed. Here is the link to the most recent one.
The other two essays are here and here. The latter begins:
My story is neither dramatic nor a profile in courage. Raised in a conservative Christian home, I only knew that homosexuality was a very serious sin. Then in graduate school, I fell in love with someone of the same sex -- ironically enough, a conservative Christian like myself. My feelings scared me greatly. This person loved me as well, but we never articulated what those feelings were to each other until much later, when the feelings had changed. Since that time I have loved other persons of my sex, but only recently have I accepted my sexual orientation, when I am already teaching at a CCCU institution.
Our next reader, who is bisexual, attended Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. That private school’s community covenant states: “[W]e are to avoid such sinful practices as drunkenness, stealing, dishonesty, profanity, occult practices, sexual intercourse outside of marriage, homosexual behavior, and sexually exploitative or abusive behavior.” Here’s our anonymous reader:
When I signed the covenant, I was an immature home-schooled child living in a conservative Christian household. I had a closed mind, had not come to my own beliefs, and knew little of myself. It was only after years of growth while attending college that I learned to accept that I was bisexual, and that parts of Christianity could not only accept but embrace my non-heterosexuality.