Accreditation is a process used to verify that a particular institution meets the standards set by the accrediting board. Seems simple enough. Does the institution meet its stated mission? Does it meet its objectives and goals? Does it properly service its students? Does its education meet the standards of quality? Is the faculty reputable? Oh, yes, and does the institution demand the embracing of a licentious homosexual lifestyle? Because, you see, if it does not, the educational standards of that particular institution do not satisfy the accreditation requirements.
"What's that?" you say. "How does the policy of allowing homosexual practices among students on campus affect the quality of education?" Well, I would think that would be a very good question ... one I can't answer. But apparently the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) is ready to discredit Gordon College, a small Christian college north of Boston, for its longstanding, traditional inclusion of "homosexual practice" as a forbidden activity. The college, touting itself as a multidenominational Christian college "that retains its roots in the Christian faith" and maintaining a Statement of Faith on its website, includes a couple of rules not held at other colleges. Since "It is our hope and prayer that at Gordon College we are able to — as Paul phrased it in Colossians 1:28 — present our graduates 'mature in Christ' so they are prepared to serve as Christian leaders wherever God may place them", this would be no surprise. Based on their "identity as a Christian academic community" and "biblical principles of Christian conduct", they have established behavioral standards for the students, faculty, and staff. So they don't allow tobacco products or alcoholic beverages on the campus. They don't operate on Sunday. All well and good. No one is complaining. Oh, and "Those words and actions which are expressly forbidden in Scripture, including but not limited to blasphemy, profanity, dishonesty, theft, drunkenness, sexual relations outside marriage, and homosexual practice, will not be tolerated in the lives of Gordon community members, either on or off campus."
Okay. Let's see. Dishonesty? Check. Blasphemy? Check. Drunkenness? Check. No, we're all good with those. Sexual relations outside marriage? No, no, move on. This is all standard stuff and we don't have a problem with a Christian college that claims a biblical standard having rules like this. Next? Homosexual practices. Wait ... what? Look, if you want to ban blasphemy on or off campus and forbid students to engage in sexual relations outside of marriage, that's all well and good, but if you're going to forbid someone with same-sex attraction from indulging their desires, now you've gone too far! What kind of a quality education can they get? This (according to the NEASC) is discrimination!
This is a Christian university, predicated on a biblical standard, aimed at producing graduates mature in Christ. The simple fact that one gay student was forced to go there against his will ... oh, wait ... no one forced him? Okay, now I'm confused.
We've certainly arrived at an odd place in our society when a quality education requires permissive sexual behavior for a singular extreme minority without even a question of the lack of permission for the indulgence of the sexual behavior of the majority. We've come to a strange point in our country when accreditation — the affirmation of an institution meeting the educational standards — is based the embrace of licentiousness in a single minute corner of society without regard for either the rest of society or the stated aims of the institution. And we are really a confused country when "nondiscriminatory" means "homosexuals can practice their sexual desires whenever they wish, but heterosexuals can't" and "we wish to avoid discrimination, so we will not allow a college to have its standards" (which, by definition, is discrimination) "or Christians to have equal access to university campuses." I remember when Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago, stated categorically that he would never allow a Chick-Fil-A to be built in his city because Chicago was an "all-inclusive" city and the owners of Chick-Fil-A had a definition of marriage different than his, and no one seemed to notice the insanity of "all-inclusive" alongside "not here". Indeed, it seems that, more and more, our society is immersing itself in this "non-discriminatory" insanity that includes genuine and conscious discrimination. In short, our society is embracing insanity and calling it "good".
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jer 17:9)I guess God proves true again.
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