ROME, Ga. (ABP) – Shorter University has adopted a new faith statement that affirms biblical inerrancy and is requiring faculty and staff to sign a pledge rejecting homosexuality.
A new mandatory “personal lifestyle statement” asks employees to agree to “be loyal to the mission of Shorter University as a Christ-centered institution affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention” and pledge not to use or sell illegal drugs.
The pledge includes the statement: “I reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality.
It does not require that employees be teetotalers but forbids use of alcoholic beverages in the presence of students or in public settings like restaurants, concerts or sporting events. Employees must not attend any university-sponsored event if they have consumed alcohol in the last six hours and pledge not to “promote or encourage the use of alcohol.”
Donald Dowless
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Joe Frank Harris Jr., chairman-elect of the board of trustees, said the statement approved by the board Oct. 21 was needed for faculty and staff “to understand the mission of Shorter, understand that we are a school of Baptist heritage, and that we are an institution of the Georgia Baptist Convention.”
“They must understand the environment in which they work, and they must be loyal to that environment,” Harris said.
Shorter President Donald Dowless said in an interview with the Rome News-Tribune that employees who do not abide by the personal lifestyle statement "may be subject to termination."
Board chairman Nelson Price declined to discuss with the newspaper about what might happen if a staff or faculty member is homosexual or if they are living with someone of the opposite sex, calling it a "hypothetical situation" that the university would face if it has to.
A Sirius-XM news blog, however, quoted an anonymous Shorter employee who said he was drawn to the religious institution as a gay Christian and that sexuality was not an issue when he was hired. Since the announcement, he said, the environment at the school has gotten “more tense,” particularly among colleagues he knew to be gay.
“Whereas it used to be that you could make friendly eye contact with a lot of people, and we knew we were all gay, now there’s a lot more averted eyes, a lot more fear of even talking to one another,” he said.
The employee said he hopes he doesn’t have to sign the lifestyle statement and is looking for another job just in case, but depending on the economy he may have to adhere to the new policy and sign the statement.
The personal lifestyle pledge is one of four new policy statements adopted by the board of trustees. Others include a statement on the philosophy of Christian education and “Biblical Principles on the Integration of Faith and Learning.”
A new Shorter University Statement of Faith begins with the Bible: “We believe the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, is the inerrant and infallible Word of God. It was given by inspiration of God and is the only certain and authoritative rule of every aspect of the Christian life.”
It ends with a statement on “life of the believer” that reads: “We believe that Christians should be consistent with Scripture in their character and in their conduct. We believe that the Bible is our supreme authority and that it provides the moral and ethical principles for personal conduct within and outside the academic community.”
Shorter accepts students who are non-Christians, but employees are expected to be active members of a local church.
Dowless took over as Shorter’s 19th president in June 2011. He succeeded Harold Newman, Shorter’s longtime provost who became president in 2006 after the state Supreme Court gave the Georgia Baptist Convention complete control over trustee selection, ending a long legal battle over a trustee vote in 2003 to create a self-perpetuating board of trustees.
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Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.