Richard Flory Breaks the News: Gays and Lesbians Attend Christian Colleges!

If you don’t know Richard Flory, you should.  He’s the author of several books that explain GenX religion better than just about anything out there.  Before heading to USC, where he is the associate research professor of sociology and Director of Research in the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, he taught at Biola (that’s the Bible Institute of Los Angeles).  He’s written a post with his view on the recent NYT piece on GLBT students at Christian colleges:

At Biola University, where I taught for several years, homosexuality among students, faculty and staff members was an open secret, as it is within most evangelical organizations. But according to the university’s bylaws and public relations officials, there are no gay or lesbian students, and certainly not any staff or faculty who identify as homosexual.

The recent stories in the New York Times and other news outlets, coupled with the outward expressions of belief at Biola and other evangelical schools, suggest that evangelicals have always opposed homosexuality. That notion hinges on the fact that the guiding documents of their organizations, particularly at evangelical colleges and universities, include prohibitions against sexual behavior outside of marriage, whether hetero- or homosexual. Yet this depiction of evangelical culture doesn’t quite square with the history of the schools that serve as its intellectual anchors.

via USC Knight Chair in Media and Religion.