Faculty turns against Christian University trustees who abide by Biblical standards
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Nearly three-quarters of faculty at the historically Christian Seattle Pacific University (SPU) voted ‘no confidence’ in the school’s board of trustees because the board affirmed the college’s expectation that hired faculty will live by Biblical standards on sexuality, Christian Headlines reports. The faculty vote was triggered after adjunct nursing professor Jéaux Rinedah claimed in January that he was denied a full time teaching position at the school because he is gay.
SPU was founded as a Christian college by the Free Methodist Church in 1891; its mission statement describes the school as a “Christian university fully committed to engaging the culture.” Accordingly, the employee’s handbook says faculty are “expected to refrain from … sexually immoral behavior that is inconsistent with Biblical standards, including cohabitation and extramarital sexual activity,” Christian Headlines reports.
Moreover, the university’s “Statement on Human Sexuality” reads: “We affirm that sexual experience is intended between a man and a woman.”
The vote was cast last week, after the trustees defended the college’s practice of expecting hired faculty to refrain from sexually immoral behavior, Christian Headlines said. Around 90% of the faculty voted, with only 22% voting in favor of the board. Seventy-two percent of faculty voted no confidence in the trustees.
In a statement Monday the SPU faculty Senate said: “The Board’s decision to maintain SPU’s discriminatory hiring policy related to human sexuality, as well as its manner of delivering that decision, have regrettably compelled the faculty of SPU to pass a vote of no confidence in the SPU Board of Trustees.”