Despite threat to accreditation, college rejects homosexuality

WENHAM, Mass. (Christian Examiner) – Gordon College has reaffirmed its stance against homosexuality after a nine-month study about it.

A 20-person workgroup of students, faculty, alumni and board members who studied the issue of human sexuality in light of the college's nondenominational theological underpinnings reported their findings to the college's board of trustees. 

"The Board ... is not making any change at this time to the College's Life and Conduct Statement," according to a statement released by Gordon College. "At the same time, the Board believes that a fuller statement on the College's understanding of sexuality should be articulated ... and they have begun work toward this objective."

This all started last summer, when Gordon College President D. Michael Lindsay along with others signed a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama asking the president to exempt faith-based organizations that receive federal funding from being forced to hire people who may be in same-sex relationships.

Students, faculty and staff at the college agree to sign a Life and Conduct Statement which includes the declaration that sex should be reserved for a marriage between a man and a woman. The statement has been signed for the last five decades by generations of those attached to the Christian college which is located 25 miles north of Boston and dates to 1889.

The college announced last year that it was going to explore the theology behind the issue of homosexuality, and also look at how the school responds to students who struggle with sexual identity. Media coverage led to an announcement last September from the accrediting agency New England Association of Schools and Colleges that it was considering whether the school's ban on homosexual practice was contrary to acceptable standards of accreditation.

"My sense is that Gordon has been at the tip of the spear of a very significant cultural conversation," Lindsay told The Blaze. "And the kind of conversations and issues that we have faced over the past nine months are coming in every single Christian institution in this country in the days ahead."