I waited a few days to compose this post because I didn’t want to write from unfiltered emotion. Nevertheless, ever since I read about a private Christian school in Tennessee that essentially banned any discussion of homosexuality among its students and faculty, I have felt shocked and indignant. Here’s the text of the school’s new policy:
“Homosexuality is forbidden in scripture (Romans 1:27, Leviticus 18:22). A staff member or student who promotes, engages in, or identifies himself/herself with such activity through any word or action shall be in violation of this policy. Should the administration determine a violation of this policy, the person involved will be subject to disciplinary action with the possibility of permanent dismissal. Any applicant who is not in compliance with this policy will not be admitted.”
The school in question is Rossville Christian Academy, which serves about 300 K-12 students and whose mission is, according to its website, “to challenge a diverse student body through high academic standards, seeking to instill and inspire Christian virtues in a safe and nurturing environment.” I only know as much about this situation as I could gather from internet news stories, so perhaps I should take it with a grain of salt, but the very idea of the policy struck a nerve with me.
Policies like these are not how the church is to go about training children up in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6). Nor are they how the church is to help children avoid conforming to the patterns of this world (Romans 12:2). Policies like these are how those with authority convince people like me that we’re freakish, unlovable, and alone. They’re how people like me learn that the church is no place for us to talk about our experiences of sexuality and that there’s no room for us in God’s family unless we can privately eliminate our desires. They treat homosexuality differently from all other behaviors considered sinful, which is entirely inconsistent with the scriptural picture of holiness and immorality. They’re worse than overt homophobia, in my opinion, because they try to pretend homosexuality does not exist and thereby dismiss and silence the experiences of countless individuals. Lest we try to point too big a finger at Rossville, let’s not ignore the countless other churches, Christian institutions, and even social circles in which the exact same policy is the unwritten, de facto law.
The worst part of the story is that the policy is evidently reacting to one particular student, and I can’t imagine how the policy is affecting him/her and his/her fledgling identity formation. I’m certainly not naive enough to believe this rule will actually prevent kids from talking about the issues, but its very existence sends a clear message about what the school believes (and what it wants its children to believe). I know it’s difficult to talk about sexuality, and I know we want to raise our children with particular values, and I know many of us simply haven’t had enough time to give the homosexuality issue the attention it deserves. But a policy that uniquely outlaws discussions of homosexuality—in any institution—is misguided, inconsistent, and deeply toxic.
