Mennonite School Defends Policy After Firing Homosexual Professor

by Jim Brown
April 19, 2004

(AgapePress) - The president of Eastern Mennonite University has met with students to discuss the firing of one professor for living a homosexual lifestyle and the resignation of another in protest.

Students and faculty at the Christian school in Harrisonburg, Virginia, agree to a community lifestyle commitment that includes abstaining "from sexual relationships outside of marriage." Nevertheless, EMU president Loren Swartzendruber says no Christian campus is immune to the sin of homosexuality.

"If anyone tells me that they don't face this issue, they're either in denial, or they're simply not confronting the fact that young people do face many issues with respect to sexuality and sexual behavior -- it's part of the developmental process," Swartzendruber says.

Still, the community lifestyle code forbids any kind of extramarital sex. At the same time, however, EMU's president says the school has standards in place that create a safe environment for homosexuals. Even so, a faculty Bible and Religion instructor, Kathleen Temple, recently resigned from her position in protest of what she called "harassment" of homosexuals on campus.

But according to Swartzendruber, the school is not only concerned with discouraging homosexual behavior but also with protecting the sanctity of marriage. His response to those taking issue with EMU's policy is simply "to outline the process that the church has gone through and underscore that we are accountable to the Mennonite Church," he says, adding, "while not everyone will agree with those standards, those are the ones that we currently endorse."

Swartzendruber notes that in the past five years, one faculty member and one staff member have been dismissed for homosexual acts, and two staff members have been fired for heterosexual violations of the school's code of conduct.