Is it legal for church-affiliated law schools to seek to confine student and faculty sexual activity within heterosexual marriage?

Last updated on: February 6, 2015 at 12:16 am by Dan Peterson

Is it legal for church-affiliated law schools to seek to confine student and faculty sexual activity within heterosexual marriage? 2015-02-06T00:16:47-07:00 Dan Peterson

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Mount Carmel, seen in the distance, located not too far from Haifa and the Mediterranean Sea
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Back in April, I called attention to the troubling case of the soon-to-be-opened law school at British Columbia’s Trinity Western University:

“The shape of things to come? Just substitute BYU for TWU.”

On 25 January, I posted a blog entry entitled “The war continues, now against Christian colleges and the Boy Scouts.”

Three or four days ago, I posted a blog entry specifically devoted to a brief reflection on the California State Supreme Court’s recent ruling that California judges may no longer affiliate with the Boy Scouts of America:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2015/02/if-judges-cant-join-the-boy-scouts-what-about-the-mormon-church.html

For religious believers and churches, there is now, in my judgment, very real cause for concern:

“Can America’s faith-based law schools restrict sexual activity to heterosexual marriage?”

Some assure me — some will probably comment on Facebook and on this very blog to assure me — that there’s no reason to worry, that I’m paranoid and a fear-monger.

To which I respond that the famous statement often attributed to Thomas Jefferson reads “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty” — not “eternal somnolence.”

I’m reminded of the story in 1 Kings, of Elijah and his confrontation with King Ahab of Israel after three years of severe drought. Elijah assures Ahab that drought-ending rain will now come, despite the fact that there are no visible clouds in the sky:

And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go again,” seven times. And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.’” And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. (1 Kings 18:41-45)

The time to start preparing, even to start running, is when that cloud is first visible on the horizon — “a little cloud like a man’s hand.”

In my judgment, and not in mine alone, American religious liberty is at greater risk now than it has ever been — more endangered than I had ever previously imagined that it would be — over the course of my (to some, disturbingly) long lifetime.

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