The Jesuit-run Marquette University has punished a Christian group for dismissing an officer after he revealed himself as a practicing homosexual.
Last Friday, Marquette Political science professor John McAdams blogged
about the outrage of the Jesuit run Catholic university initially
suspending its InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter.
The suspension
has now been changed to a probation.
McAdams indicated the suspension was imposed because of the chapter’s
dismissal of “an officer who ‘came out’ of the closet as homosexual,
said he was involved in a homosexual affair which he would continue”,
and made it clear that he disagreed with the organization’s
interpretation of Christian teaching about homosexuality.
Director of University Communications Kate Venne confirmed to
LifeSiteNews why the campus chapter was placed on probation.
“The probation results from a finding that the chapter violated its
own policies and procedures in dealing with a complaint,” Venne said.
“This failure and the lack of clear communication regarding why action
was taken caused significant personal hurt and resulted in allegations
of discrimination.”
She added, “Marquette expects all student organizations to adhere to
the university’s Statement on Human Dignity which ‘recognizes and
cherishes the dignity of each individual regardless of age, culture,
faith, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, language, disability
or social class.’”
In his Friday blog post, McAdams said that Dean of Students Stephanie Quade has reversed
the initial decision to suspend the campus chapter.
In addition to the
current one-year probation for upholding Christian moral principles,
McAdams reported that InterVarsity Christian Fellowship will have to
submit to a review of their constitution.
The Harvard University alumnus said that the InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship mobilized a letter writing campaign in support of its
actions.
While Quade acknowledged receiving a large number of emails,
she denied that they had a role in her decision to reverse the
suspension.
McAdams credits conservative Milwaukee radio personality Mark Belling for breaking the story last Tuesday.
“It’s good that Marquette backed away from punishing a group for
insisting that its officers adhere to Christian standards of sexual
conduct,” McAdams told LSN. “But there is such a thing as a ‘chilling
effect.’ Other student groups are likely to back away from anything
that is disapproved by the gay lobby because they simply don’t want the
hassle. Only a minority of students enjoy doing battle.”
Since the suspension was overturned, McAdams suggested that the
consequences of the university’s decision for Catholic higher education
are “perhaps not much.”
“But,” he said, “had it been upheld, other
‘Catholic’ universities would have been emboldened to do the same.”
As previously reported
by LifeSiteNews, Marquette University made national headlines last
spring when it withdrew its offer to Dr. Jodi O’Brien to be Dean of the
university’s College of Arts and Sciences.
University officials
explained that the candidate, an open lesbian, published sexually
explicit scholarly work out of keeping with the school’s Catholic
identity.
In June, Marquette University theology professor and prominent Catholic dissident Daniel Maguire
criticized New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan for his “rabid” stance
against same-sex “marriage” in a blog posted on the liberal online
magazine Religion Dispatches.