Trustees of Fuller Theological Seminary voted this month to reaffirm the school’s “historic theological understanding of marriage,” while acknowledging “faithful Christians” may hold other views.
David Goatley
The Pasadena, Calif.-based seminary is unique among the nation’s largest seminaries because of it has no denominational affiliation and enrolls students from 100 denominations. According to Association of Theological School data for last year, Fuller had a headcount enrollment of 1,620 students and a full-time equivalent enrollment of 713.
Fuller reports 34 full-time faculty plus an array of adjunct faculty. All faculty are required to sign Fuller’s statement of faith and agree to uphold community standards, including one that says, “Sexual union must be reserved for marriage, which is the covenant union between one man and one woman, and that sexual abstinence is required for the unmarried. The seminary believes premarital, extramarital and homosexual forms of explicit sexual conduct to be inconsistent with the teaching of Scripture.”
According to Christianity Today, the school employs more than a dozen faculty members who belong to affirming churches.
Last year, Fuller staff member Ruth Schmidt made headlines when she was fired for refusing to re-sign the school’s statement of faith. She said her beliefs about same-sex relations had changed.
In 2019 and 2020, two former students sued Fuller, alleging they were expelled for being in same-sex marriages. In October 2020, courts affirmed Fuller’s right to uphold its sexual standards policy.
Amid all this, President Goatley appointed a task force of administrators and faculty to facilitate “the community’s consideration of issues related to human sexuality.”
Goatley came to the post in 2022 from Duke Divinity School, where he served as associate dean for academic and vocational formation, research professor of theology and Christian ministry, and director of the Office of Black Church Studies. Duke Divinity is inclusive of LGBTQ Christians.
That task force reportedly considered “third way” solutions to the debate over sexual ethics but in the end chose to stick with the status quo.
“Fuller Seminary has historically shunned ideological polarities,” Goatley said. “We continue to seek another way — a Fuller way — that is a critical contribution to the church and the world.”
Board Chair Shirley Mullen told CT: “This is a signal that Fuller is Fuller, Fuller will be Fuller. Fuller has sought to be a seminary that transcends the polarization of the moment. … We will be criticized by both sides, but we want to complicate the polarization and call people to the richness of the gospel.”
Last year, one Fuller professor rocked the evangelical world when he and his well-known father published a book making a biblical case for full inclusion of LGBTQ Christians. Christopher Hays, the D. Wilson Moore Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Fuller, co-wrote The Widening of God’s Mercy with his father, Richard Hays.
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