By Bob Allen
Two Christian colleges who added sexual orientation to their non-discrimination policies have dropped out of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
Earlier this year, Eastern Mennonite University and Goshen College sparked controversy over membership standards for the organization representing Christian institutions of higher education formed in 1976 when they changed policies to permit the hiring of faculty members who are in same-sex marriages.
Two member schools, Tennessee Baptist-affiliated Union University and Oklahoma Wesleyan University, quit in protest of the council’s failure to take disciplinary action against the two gay-affirming schools.
Presidents of the remaining member institutions were polled on how to respond. Twenty percent believed Goshen and EMU should continue in full membership, 25 percent said they should leave and 75 percent indicated some level of support for a board-recommended compromise of moving the two schools to non-member affiliate status.
In the meantime, the CCCU announced Sept. 21, both Goshen and EMU “voluntarily chose to tender their withdrawals from member status.” The council board acknowledged the withdrawals Sept. 15, “rendering the question of affiliate status moot.”
As a result of the controversy, the board appointed a task force to clarify the purpose and common understanding of the various associational categories. Members include David Dockery of Trinity International University and former president of Union University, and President Andrew Westmoreland of Baptist-affiliated Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
Part of the task force’s assignment is to “explore how the Council will remain rooted in historic Christianity while also fruitfully engaging with other institutions seeking to advance the cause of Christian higher education or religious freedom.”
The group is scheduled to bring a progress report in January and a final recommendation to the board next July.
The CCCU consists of 180 Christian institutions around the world representing 35 different Christian denominations with a wide range of theological beliefs and perspectives.
Eight of the member schools list their denominational affiliation as Southern Baptist. In addition, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of six seminaries owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, is listed in the council directory among “theological affiliates.”
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