Richmond Times-Dispatch 04/14/2004
By Calvin R. Trice

The Mennonite Church has the right to discriminate against homosexual conduct based on its beliefs, says the president of a church college here.

Eastern Mennonite University President Loren E. Swartzendruber emphasized, however, that bigotry, name-calling and vilification are unacceptable at the school.

Swartzendruber spoke about church beliefs yesterday at a forum he called to address concerns about perceived hostility toward homosexuals at the university. The event drew an audience of several hundred.

In strong terms, Swartzendruber affirmed that the Mennonite Church has the prerogative to hire or fire based on its beliefs, which were reaffirmed in a 1995 church conference.

The pacifist church, which owns and runs EMU, also discriminates against people who advocate for or participate in the military, Swartzendruber pointed out.

Likewise, the school is within its rights to discipline those who don’t comply with church belief that sexual relationships are reserved for a man and a woman in marriage, he said.

“While it can legitimately be argued that these are statements which may be superseded at some future point by a similar church process, this is where the Mennonite Church U.S.A. officially stands as of April 2004,” he said.

Response to demonstrations Swartzendruber called the forum in response to campus demonstrations asking the school to end what organizers consider anti-gay policies.

Demonstrators were upset that two instructors were fired last year for homosexual conduct, which Swartzendruber confirmed this week.

They also were concerned that another teacher’s contract was not being renewed because he is gay, but Swartzendruber denied this. One EMU teacher has resigned to protest what she considers pervasive tolerance of anti-gay conduct.

The Mennonite church, a Christian denomination, believes in justice, reconciliation and peaceful nonresistance even in the face of violence and war.

About half the crowd applauded Swartzendruber’s opening speech. Most audience members who subsequently spoke, though, questioned school policies toward gay sex.

Ruby S. Lehman, a Harrisonburg resident, recounted how her son was forced to leave EMU about 20 years ago and attend his last semester at another college for revealing that he’s gay.

Administrators warned him that if he “came out of the closet,” he might not be able to graduate, she said. He received an EMU degree by attending another school and transferring his credits for his final semester, Lehman said.

Hope for future “My hope is that somewhere in the near future, a person’s sexual orientation will not enter into the picture,” she said.

Erica Kraybill, an EMU junior, thanked Swartzendruber for holding the forum and urged him and other church leaders to approach homosexuality with a more inclusive attitude based on the query, “What would Jesus do?”

“I think that we often get caught up on what the church thinks and what the conference thinks, and we forget about that question,” Kraybill said.

Swartzendruber responded that, while Jesus was very inclusive in his ministry regarding those who could follow him, he did uphold standards of conduct. People are mistaken if they believe Jesus accepted anyone no matter how they behaved, he said.

“I just don’t see that in the Scriptures,” the president said.

After the forum, he said he thought the discussion was respectful. He is especially concerned about the perception that gay students, faculty and staff are unsafe on campus, he said.

“I really do want people to feel safe,” Swartzendruber said, emphasizing also that he wants civility to prevail on campus.

Michael Shank, who helped to organize this month’s demonstrations, said later that he was surprised to see so many at EMU come out in support of changing the school’s policies on gays.

Twice this month, about 50 people appeared near the center of campus to roll out a 100-by-20-foot, rainbow-colored gay-pride flag, he said.

“I really hope [the dialogue] continues,” Shank said after the forum. “We’re in this for the long haul.”

Copyright 2004 Richmond Newspapers, Inc.
Record Number: 0404140159
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