Official Defends University's Decision to Dismiss Homosexual Student
by Jim Brown
February 1, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Former John Brown University student Michael Guinn claims he was kicked out of the Christian school after the administration raised questions about his homosexuality and imposed restrictions on his campus life.
Guinn admits the private school in northwest Arkansas dismissed him for violating campus lifestyle guidelines. However, he says he was asked to adhere to behavior codes not required of other students.
Dr. David Brisben, who chairs John Brown University's Biblical Studies Department, says although Guinn was a professing homosexual when he enrolled at the school, he agreed to remain celibate and to abide by the school's "Community Covenant," which forbids sexual immorality.
"That would be the expectation that students agree to," Brisben notes, "and so practicing homosexuality would be sex outside of marriage. And [JBU students] agree not to practice sex outside of marriage."
According to Guinn, he was instructed not to "broadcast" his lifestyle or dress in women's clothing. Nor, he says, was he to hug or shake hands with other men for too long, and he was even advised to refrain from certain kinds of congratulatory physicality with other members of a sports team, should he choose to play on such a team.
The former JBU student states that he was also told not to reveal his sexual orientation to other students until he knew them well. He says it was difficult for him to make friends under all these restrictions.
But Dr. Brisben says while the school did not condone Guinn's homosexual behavior, it tried to help him deal with "his struggle" against it.
"Students who struggle with that sin are, in one sense, no different than students who struggle with any other sin," the faculty official says. "And so we try to work with students on an individual basis. First of all, they have to be willing to ask for help and admit that they have a struggle in a certain area of their life, a certain part of their life."
Brisben notes that the "Community Covenant" at John Brown University urges students to refrain from numerous unhealthy, morally illicit or dangerous practices. Besides encouraging JBU scholars to eschew homosexual sin, he says the university asks its students to avoid practices such as the occult, any sort of sex outside marriage, and theft.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
