Rick Wilking/Reuters – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shakes hands with Jerry Falwell Jr, president of Liberty University at a campaign town hall in Davenport, Iowa earlier this year.
More than 100 Christian colleges have been named on a “shame list” of the “absolute worst” for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
The Campus Pride list includes Liberty University, whose president Jerry Falwell Jr has controversially endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Institutions such as Kentucky Mountain Bible College, which believes the Bible is the true, inerrant word of God, are criticised in particular for applying for an exemption to Title XI of US education law which states that no federally-funded education institution can discriminate against anyone on the basis of sex.
It is under Title XI that the President Barack Obama administration has told schools they must allow transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
The list is published for the first time this week and is expected to be updated annually.
Other institutions cited include Bob Jones University, East Texas Baptist University, Gordon College, Wheaton College, Union University and Lancaster Bible College, which was exempted from Title IX as long ago as 1992. Lancaster has recently requested an extension to this exemption. Louisiana College also already is expected from Title XI.
Life Pacific College is on the list because it donated $18,000 in opposition to a California bill designed to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination at their Christian college or university, and also released a statement opposing the bill. Trinity Law School, Santa Clarita and William Jessup University are also listed for opposing the same bill.
Wheaton College told Chicago Tribune in a statement that the school “strives to treat all people with respect. As part of joining the campus community, students, faculty, and staff affirm our Community Covenant. This voluntary social compact expresses the commitments and values consistent with the community’s shared Christian faith, which includes biblical teaching on sexual morality.”
Sexual immorality in the covenant includes homosexual behaviour.
The statement continues: “The College is committed to a Christian sexual ethic that upholds chastity among the unmarried and the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman. Some perceive our commitment to this Christian sexual ethic as unfriendly toward the LGBTQ community. Our aim is to stand respectfully and graciously for God’s truth revealed in the Scriptures, and to be a caring, encouraging and biblically faithful community.”
Campus Pride’s “Best of the Best” colleges for LGBT students includes Princeton, Penn State University and Williams College in Massachusetts.
