In today’s edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, there is an article about Rev. Dennis Dease, the President of St. Thomas University here in St. Paul. Recently some faculty at St. Thomas had been upset about the university’s policy of not allowing unmarried faculty who are romantically involved to share a hotel room when on college trips. Dease responded by pointing out that “St. Thomas, as a Catholic institution, could not turn a blind eye to blatant disregard for Catholic principles about sex outside of marriage—at least on school-sponsored trips with students.” Some 130 faculty and staff made known their disagreement with Dease by labeling his position as “discriminatory” and “intolerable.” Dease held his ground and refused to amend the policy.
The columnist of this article states, “These professors claim to act in the name of diversity. In fact, they aim to impose a secular vision that would make the sexual ethic at St. Thomas hard to distinguish from the permissive orthodoxy that reigns supreme on almost all college campuses…We can’t have this broader diversity if we insist that every campus conform to a narrow interpretation of ‘diversity,’ which reflects nothing more than the cultural trends of the day.”
So what do you all think? Is a Christian college who commits to living out its distinctively Christian mission an example of “broader diversity?”
the article: http://www.startribune.com/191/story/388386.html
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Hmmm, I think this is an interesting argument. On the one hand, I respect the mission of the school and that it wants to uphold a certain (religious) standard. What I can see as the side of "diversity" however, is that we confine all relationships to the boundaries of marriage. At what point do we say, marriage is not the end all of relationships? Why must we strive toward marriage, and allow only certain levels of relational intimacy (physical or emotional) to be expressed within it? I know what the Biblical argument is, but socially we need to lay off the expectation that all relationships will and must result in marriage. We do not put any emotional boundaries on relationships, and yet physical intimacy is a huge taboo. I think it is unfair to presume that all couples dating, who would share a room, would be engaging in sexual activity. I have several friends who have LIVED with their significant other (for various reasons) and maintained their "purity" if that's what we're striving for. It's a tough argument, because while I respect the professional aspect of it, I don't agree with the limitations it puts on defining a relationship. Rachel F.
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