I am taking a detour from the road normally taken on this blog. Below you will find a letter I just sent to President Steve Hayner and the administration at Columbia Theological Seminary.
The seminary recently announced its decision to continue denying campus housing to same-sex couples-- a decision that I find to be inconsistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the school’s spirit of hospitality that I was blessed to experience as a student.
This Sunday’s lectionary text from 1 John is particularly poignant as Columbia’s community—past, present, and future—reflects on its communal life and it’s calling to behave in ways that are consistent with biblical witness and the movement of the Holy Spirit. In 3:18, the writer of the epistle implores: “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”
As the dialogue following the school’s decision unfolds, students and alumni alike will be bombarded by polite phrases and innocuous “church talk” that seeks to dissuade rightfully infuriated and hurt people from expressing their pain and demanding their equal treatment. There will be a lot of “unity” and “harmony” talk, usually coupled with a closing statement that kindly reminds the people denied full access to fellowship that they are still “invited to the Table” at the end of the day.
Although I do not have time to give a full exegesis of the text right now, having the Evangelist’s question in mind will be a helpful one for the CTS community as they move through this next week, which is sure to be tense. Briefly, I would only suggest that loving “in truth and action” and not simply “in words or speech,” is a lot harder; It requires courage and perseverance, and the willingness to make one’s self vulnerable. The decision made, and the way it was expressed, does not reveal a people committed to loving the hard way, but rather a people quick to wax eloquently about God’s justice and human dignity but unwilling to practice it.
Without further ado, here is a copy of the letter I sent to President Hayner:
Dear President Hayner,
I write with a heavy heart in regards to Columbia Theological Seminary’s recent decision to continue a discriminatory housing policy. As a proud alumna of the fine institution you are privileged to lead, it disappoints me that the administration has chosen to maintain a position that insults the dignity of many current students and countless prospective students.
Undoubtedly, in the next days and weeks, those who support the current housing policy will make statements that call for unity, suggesting that those who openly question the administration’s decision are sowing discord and division within the community. If you are inclined to agree with them, I implore you to consider this: What kind of unity exists when a significant portion of a community is denied the right to be fully present in that community?
In your memorandum you state: “As we seek to make a broader place at our educational table, our first priority is to assure that these issues can be discussed openly, carefully, faithfully and humbly. We will continue to move in this direction.”
While this is an admirable goal, its stated intent is futile as long as LGBTQ students and their families are denied the right to share in community life. Community discussions that are “open, careful, faithful, and humble” cannot be had when certain participants are aware that full expression of their personhood is not only unwelcome but systematically denied. Christian Marriage and responsibilities to a Covenant Community are indeed issues that the seminary should be discussing openly, but this should be the second priority. The first should be ensuring the equal treatment of those engaging in the discussion.
Frankly, I am surprised by the administration’s decision. When the SCC brought this issue to the school’s attention two years ago (while I was still a student), I was sure justice would be served once the formal process of discernment ended. Columbia Theological Seminary is a school that blessed and molded me in countless ways; the decision made does not reflect the faith and commitment of the people who were so instrumental in grooming my relationship with God and my ministerial gifts.
Until this decision is reversed and every student is affirmed as a full member of the CTS community not only in words but in practice, I regret to say that I will not be supporting CTS through monetary gifts, nor will I be recommending the school to prospective students without reservation. I do not intend my expression of this decision to be taken as a threat, only to make it clear that I cannot, in good conscience, support a Christian institution that chooses superficial peace over equal treatment of its students.
I will continue to hold you and CTS in prayer, and I hope that in the coming days the community will be attuned to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and healing.
Sara B. Dorrien, M.Div., 2011
Though I agree with issue and the cause. I think we as PCUSA and CTS Alum need to pull back little bit look at the whole picture. Steve Hayner salary was funded by Peach Tree Presbyterian Church when he was a Professor at CTS before he became President. Before that he was the President of Inter-Varsity. CTS hired him to become President to repair CTS budget damaged by 2008 economy. Staff lost their jobs, so students could keep their financial aid and scholarships. Steve Hayner was hired to go after the money that doesn't agree with same sex couples and homosexual ordination. That money includes Peach Tree, other churches and organizations that Steve Hayner represents or represented. The same churches and organizations that are frustrated with New FOG and homosexual ordination. If you want to change the policy at CTS then you need to find the money to replace the money that will be lost if this policy is to be changed. If this issue was reversed then I imagine opponents to same sex housing would be with holding their contributions. And by examining CTS hiring Steve Hayner as president they believe the other side has more cash. So I don't think you boycott strategy is best way to go. I think people need to raise the funds to change the policy or they need to buy a houses with in walking distance to CTS for same sex couples.
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