“Each person will be loved unconditionally” but Samford University “will continue to stand on God’s word” and will not “celebrate and advocate for other expressions of sexuality than those historically supported” by the Baptist school, President Beck Taylor told students in a Sept. 30 video message.
Three weeks after news outlets, including BNG, reported on Samford’s sudden exclusion of some local ministries from a back-to-school expo, Taylor used the video to address a policy that still has not been spelled out in detail publicly but that has generated protests from 150 clergy alumni and others.
At the beginning of this semester, a campus minister at Samford denied Presbyterian Church (USA) and Episcopal Church college chaplains who asked to be included in a recent campus ministry fair. They were denied, they said, because both denominations allow same-sex marriage. Later, other local churches said they, too, were no longer welcome on campus because of their openness to the LGBTQ community.
Three weeks after BNG sought comment from university officials, no response has been received.
Although university officials have not responded to media requests for clarification, there have been a couple of emails sent to the campus community, and Taylor has replied to alumni protesters with a brief letter. Three weeks after BNG sought comment from university officials, no response has been received.
Taylor’s Friday video — which took a “hate the sin, love the sinner” approach to LGBTQ students — infuriated alumni who are LGBTQ-inclusive. Some were especially incensed that Taylor cited former President Tom Corts as setting a precedent for the current policy. Corts was widely credited with advancing the school’s ecumenical reputation.
The new policy to exclude campus ministries previously welcomed there “doesn’t mean Samford is changing, which is a popular narrative voiced by those who stand in disagreement,” Taylor said. “Presidents Corts, (Andrew) Westmoreland and I, presidents who span the last 40 years and the boards that govern Samford, have never supported anything but the traditional view of sexuality and marriage. Samford isn’t suddenly more biblically conservative on this issue. That claim is simply false.”
Critics of the current policy counter that while Samford may have been conservative in the past, it was not exclusionary.
Taylor insisted in the video that the current policy is not about exclusion: “Here is what this decision does not mean for Samford. It does not mean we are excluding whole swaths of people, students, employees, alumni and even ministry partners from denominations who have churches that differ on this topic.”
Yet at least three church-related ministries have reported they have been denied status as ministry partners exactly because their stance on “this topic” differs from the university’s.
And while two of those groups were told their rejection was related to their denominations’ stance on same-sex marriage, Taylor declared something different in the video. “One recent headline pronounced that Samford was excluding Presbyterians and Episcopalians from campus. I would never endorse something like that. Before moving back to Birmingham, Julie and I were faithful members of a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in Washington, and I led a Presbyterian-affiliated university for 11 years. This decision doesn’t mean we’re becoming less ecumenically diverse. It doesn’t mean that we don’t welcome our LGBTQ students and want to have relationships with them or that we’re closing our campus to them.”
“We at Samford will not buy into the lie that culture tries to sell us, the lie that in order to truly love someone, one must be perfectly aligned with another’s personal, theological or political beliefs.”
Taylor said Samford will continue to “hold to its scriptural beliefs on this important issue” yet will “endeavor to serve all of our students well and to engage them in the kind of relational education for which Samford is known. We at Samford will not buy into the lie that culture tries to sell us, the lie that in order to truly love someone, one must be perfectly aligned with another’s personal, theological or political beliefs.”
The president used the word “love” or “loving” 12 times in his 7-minute video. He portrayed a traditional view of sexuality as a loving response to a modern secular culture.
He began the video with this reminder: “Last year, my inaugural year as Samford’s president, I encouraged us to embrace the theme of love as a defining characteristic of this community. Loving God and loving others should be the primary ways that the world knows that we are followers of Jesus Christ.”
However, unconditional love and the truth of Scripture “compels us to meet our students and others with both grace and truth, loving them for who God has made them to be, and also encouraging them to take the word of God seriously as they apply it to their lives and to our community,” he said. “At Samford, it is within that context and with fidelity to those faithful commitments that we decided to limit Samford’s formal ministry partnerships to churches and to organizations that support Sanford’s traditional view of human sexuality and marriage.”
While claiming there has been no change in the university’s official position, he acknowledged that implementation of that position through an updated policy — not published anywhere publicly — is new.
“Although I am confident we have made the correct decision, it breaks my heart, our hearts, when we know that LGBTQ students can have vastly different experiences at Christian colleges than their peers,” he said. “Over the past two weeks, and indeed during my first 15 months as president, I’ve had many conversations with LGBTQ students and alumni, and I’ve shared with them my desire for them to flourish and how much I love them, and I’m glad that they are part of the Samford family.”
In conclusion, he reiterated “that at Sanford, each person will be loved unconditionally because that is the command our Lord gives to us. Each member of our community is a child of God and deserves our respect and love and care, and we will do that, and we will never tolerate anything less. Samford will also strive to fulfill its mission with the commitment to biblical teachings about all of the ways we do life together. And although not always popular, Sanford will continue to stand on God’s word.”
Related articles:
Samford University excludes Presbyterians and Episcopalians
Samford, how long will you remain silent? | Opinion by Mark Wingfield
I’m now banned from ministering at a place I love | Opinion by Rich Havard
We are hurt by Samford’s exclusion | Opinion by Erica Cooper
100 clergy who are Samford grads urge president to reverse exclusionary policy
Samford, how long will you remain silent? | Opinion by Mark Wingfield
Samford students organize silent protest over LGBTQ discrimination
