But the response to Kuilema’s case suggests that, at least for some faculty members, the university’s hard-line positions on sexuality are increasingly untenable and out of step with what some professors believe and practice in their own congregations. Florida attracted national attention with its recent enactment of a new law - branded by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill - that prohibits classroom instruction about sexual orientation in some elementary-school grades.Ĭalvin bills itself as a welcoming environment for all students, while forbidding sexual intimacy outside of heterosexual marriage. State lawmakers have proposed a record number of bills that critics say would infringe on the rights of LGBTQ+ people. At the same time, many LGBTQ+ people in the United States see their rights as increasingly under threat.
Seventy percent of Americans now say they support same-sex marriage, Gallup reported in 2021. Public opinion has shifted drastically on the issue. Supreme Court, in 2015, ruled that same-sex couples have the constitutional right to marry. The case at Calvin has a turn-of-the-century feel, conjuring up the contentious debates that consumed the nation’s politics before the U.S. The university accepts as “settled and binding” the church’s position that sexual relations are prohibited outside of marriage, which is defined as a “covenantal union between a man and a woman.” Same-sex marriage remains a hotly debated topic within the church, but Calvin’s board has drawn a clear line. Calvin professors must sign the “ Covenant for Faculty Members,” pledging to promote and defend the church’s core doctrines, known as confessions. The university gained some national attention, in 2017, when Betsy DeVos, an alumna, took office as the U.S. Its board members are selected by the governing body of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, a Protestant Christian denomination of about 1,000 congregations.
Those tensions are on full display at Calvin, where Kuilema’s case provoked a swift outcry from professors and staff members, who have urged the board to reappoint the professor.Ĭalvin University is a private college of about 3,300 students in Grand Rapids, Mich. But Kuilema’s case highlights a quintessentially contemporary dilemma for Christian colleges, one that pits an institution’s conservative adherence to Scripture against the more progressive belief that people of faith should fight for marriage equality as a fundamental civil right. Last month a professor at Oklahoma Christian University alleged that he had been fired for inviting a gay person to speak to his class. That information set off a chain of events that concluded, on April 18, with the university’s decision to not reappoint Kuilema to his untenured faculty position, a move that is likely to end his 14-year career at Calvin.ĭisagreements over sexuality are hardly new at religiously affiliated colleges.
It was against this backdrop that, in December, Calvin’s provost received photos that appeared to show Kuilema officiating at a same-sex wedding. The board, in 2018, had denied Kuilema tenure, citing concerns about his “tone and strategy” on matters related to same-sex marriage. His public advocacy on LGBTQ+ issues as an assistant professor of social work at Calvin, a private college affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church, had been a source of increasing tension with administrators and trustees. When using a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo check the safe search settings where you can exclude adult content sites from your search results Īsk your internet service provider if they offer additional filters īe responsible, know what your children are doing online.Joseph Kuilema was already on thin ice at Calvin University. Use family filters of your operating systems and/or browsers Other steps you can take to protect your children are: More information about the RTA Label and compatible services can be found here. Parental tools that are compatible with the RTA label will block access to this site. We use the "Restricted To Adults" (RTA) website label to better enable parental filtering. Protect your children from adult content and block access to this site by using parental controls. PARENTS, PLEASE BE ADVISED: If you are a parent, it is your responsibility to keep any age-restricted content from being displayed to your children or wards. Furthermore, you represent and warrant that you will not allow any minor access to this site or services. This website should only be accessed if you are at least 18 years old or of legal age to view such material in your local jurisdiction, whichever is greater. You are about to enter a website that contains explicit material (pornography).