A Tennessee university's women's soccer coach resigned this week after telling team members that she was pregnant (update 12/4 9:34 AM CST) and her partner were expecting a child.
The university issued a release Thursday night with Athletics Director Mike Strickland stating that Howe decided to resign on her own without offering further explanation.
However, several members of the soccer team say Howe told them she was pressured into resigning after telling school administrators and the team she and her same-sex partner were having a baby.
Howe, who has been at Belmont six seasons, informed the team Thursday that she had resigned. She could not be reached for comment but is quoted in the release as saying, "I am at a point in my life where I am satisfied to move on."
I think hell may be populated with Baptist homophobes who are stunned to find that their sins are just as sinful as the sins of the gay people they hate.
The Family Research Council was added to the list of hate groups created by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The fact that they are homophobic political organizers is not news. Not surprisingly, the FRC issued a scathing retort, claiming that SPLC was engaging in "character assassination" because the group was "losing the debate over ideas". (Shorter Tony Perkins: "Kettle, this is Family Research Council. You're black.")
Don't Ask Don't Tell is just the tip of the political iceberg, where the Republicans are making their latest in a series of Custer's Last Stands, determined to delay change that is inevitable and supported by the majority of Americans. But Belmont University's situation is even more telling because it involves a Christian university, recently detached from official relationship with the Tennessee Baptist Association, and an institution moving in an ostensibly progressive direction.
George Marsden's amazing historical review, The Soul of the American University, outlines a series of historical trends where American Christian higher education has tended to move in a direction that is more liberal, accepting, tolerant of differences, and open to non-Christian ideas. Marsden, as a Christian scholar, laments the movement of American higher education from a specifically religious purpose to what he calls "established nonbelief" - an official agnosticism as university policy.
Christian colleges and universities have seen Marsden's work as a wake-up call not to lose "distinctiveness" in a higher education environment that privileges agnosticism. For many Christian institutions, the acceptance of openly gay students and staff raises deep concerns about the loss of a core Christian commitment. At Wheaton College in Illinois, Dr. Stanton Jones became provost of the Christian college after a long-standing feud with the American Psychological Association over the mental health status of homosexuality and the possibilities of research into "ex-gay therapy", which was perceived as inherently countertherapeutic by the APA. Jones, who has taken a strong stance against homosexual behavior while trying to maintain a "love the sinner" approach, has made opposition to the sin of homosexual behavior a core value within the Evangelical subculture. His stance was in part responsible for a major rift in the alumni and faculty community, leading to the defection and resignation of several faculty members and the devastation of collegial relationships. Bridges were burned. People were hurt. Families were torn apart. Faculty were fired. Others resigned. The damage continues.
The question of how to "love the sinner and hate the sin" is exacerbated by the fact that, in order to "love the sinner," you must recognize that sinfulness is at the core of the human identity. Sin is not something we do - it's part of who we are as fallen human beings born into a fallen world to fallen parents. Sin is not something we can avoid, because all have sinned (Romans 3:23). Sin, in some ways, is the great equalizer in the Christian faith.
Of course, Jesus never taught anyone to hate or fear the homosexual. Homophobia is never part of the teaching of Christ, but rather comes in later as part of the teaching of the apostle Paul (particularly in Romans 1, but also in I Corinthians, Ephesians, and elsewhere). And where Paul teaches about it, he does so to illustrate the core point that no one is without sin and that sin is something that keeps us separated from proper relationship. "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself" (Romans 2:1).
Belmont University is a school that seeks to share the love of Christ and has as part of its mission statement that it "empowers men and women of diverse backgrounds to engage and transform the world". To "uphold Jesus as the Christ and as the measure of all things," you must live as Jesus lived and love as Jesus loved. As far as I can tell, Jesus spent a lot more time harping on the hypocritical Pharisees than he spent attacking the vulnerable, poor, or sinful. Healthy people don't need a doctor. That's what Jesus taught. It's the sick, not the healthy, who need a doctor. And if we're all sinful, then we're all sick. The purpose of Christian love is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" by reminding all people of our common humanity, our common sinfulness, and our common identity as "very good" persons created in God's image.
I don't think it's very loving to tell a pregnant woman that she's going to lose her job because she decided to tell her students a story about who she is and what she cares about. If the issue was about this woman's pregnancy, then certainly this coach wasn't the first woman at Belmont to engage in less-than-perfect "sinful" sexual conduct. If the issue was her sexual orientation, then we have to ask ourselves, "What does love look like in this situation?" If the issue was her relationship as a coparent with a same-sex partner, we should ask ourselves how this is different from a married couple who adopt a child or a married couple who use donor sperm or asexual reproduction (like in vitro) to conceive. For those who are "pro-life," how do we celebrate this unborn child and the mother's decision to carry her baby to full term? For those who are committed to the love of Christ, what is the message that we're sending if we ostracize and condemn a woman because of who she is? And can any of us claim the perfect love that sinless perfection demands? (The answer is an emphatic no.)
This is a learning moment for America. The LGBT community, for the most part, is either doing the best that they can or just don't care to be part of a religion that tells them that who they are is irretrievably unacceptable. It's easy to point fingers and condemn. But where is the love that can cover over a multitude of wrongs? Where is the hope that can redeem the broken relationship and heal the broken heart? Where is the faith that can move mountains and change the world?
I'm afraid I'm not finding that faith, hope, and love in the American church this holiday season. I pray that this changes.