The following is a transcript of Todd’s morning commentary, heard daily on hundreds of stations around the nation. Click here to get Todd’s daily podcast.
Lee University is one of the most prominent Christian universities in the nation. And for the record, I attended Lee.
The private school is affiliated with the Church of God. And they hold to strict teachings on matters regarding sex and gender.
Lee is facing a national firestorm after the school affirmed a policy that governs how students behave on campus and online.
“No member of the Lee University community may publicly identify or behave as a gender that does not correspond to his or her biological sex,” according to a leaked draft published by the Associated Press.
“No member of the Lee University community may promote or advocate, in person, in writing, or online, for sexual acts, behaviors or lifestyles that are contrary to Scripture, this statement of belief, or any other university policy,” it says.
The newspapers and activists groups have already launched a national campaign to smear the university as homophobic and bigoted.
“I feel like this is just their last ditch effort to try to, at the very least, scare students into silence, hence why a lot of the policies within the statement are about advocacy and what you can and cannot say on public platforms in support of LGBTQ+ students and people,” said Taylor Lane, a lesbian who left the school in December, told the AP.
Why would anyone knowingly attend a private, Christian school that does not affirm or conform to your beliefs? It would be like a Methodist attending a Catholic school complaining because they had to attend Mass.
But I suspect this is not so much an attack on Lee University as it is an attack on traditional Christian teachings regarding sex and marriage.
And in the United States that’s a fair debate to be had, but at the end of the day Lee is still a private school.
So here’s what I hope will be considered a helpful resolution.
If you have a problem with the Mormon faith, don’t attend BYU. If you’ve got a problem with the Baptist doctrine, don’t go to Liberty University.
And if you’ve got a problem with the teachings of the Church of God, don’t go to Lee University.
There are plenty of public and private schools that are more than willing to accommodate students who are still coming to terms with their preferred pronouns.