Push back. . .

According to a Religious News Service report, the U.S. Department of Education has accepted Baylor University’s request for exemption from Title IX’s sexual harassment provision after the private Baptist school asked to dismiss discrimination complaints filed by LGBTQ+ students that the university said were “inconsistent” with the institution’s religious values.  

“For the first time in Title IX’s history, a federally-funded university has been given special permission, by the Biden Administration no less, to allow its LGBTQIA+ students to be sexually harassed,” wrote Paul Southwick, director of the Religious Exemption Accountability Project, in a statement.  In 2021, the nonprofit filed a Title IX complaint on behalf of former student Veronica Bonifacio Penales, in which she accused the university of tolerating sexual harassment after the school failed to address the "homophobic slurs" she claims to have received from other students on campus and social media.

Religious universities have been under increasing pressure to compromise their religious beliefs in the wake of evolving positions in culture that have become the standards adopted by the rules of accrediting agencies and government regulations such as Title IX dispositions.  Through this request, the private Christian university obtained the guarantee “that the belief in or practice of its religious tenets by the University or its students would not constitute unwelcome conduct,” as it is characterized in Title IX’s definition of sexual harassment. 

This is important news as our own Synod wrestles with the rules of the government (state and federal) as well as the requirement of accreditation agencies that put stress upon our religious convictions and our identity as a church body operating colleges and universities in a way that is consistent with our faith.  Some will pit this as one freedom against another but the reality is that the religious schools are not the exclusive providers of college and university educations but do so as agencies, indeed, missions of their sponsoring church bodies.  There will certainly be more to come but this stands as a reminder that we can push back against those who insist the religious right is secondary to the rights of the students.  Baylor is no small player in this arena and should give pause to those boards of regents and administrators who are ready to capitulate in order to survive.  The end has not yet been written for our schools and we are not without recourse as the government and accreditation agencies seek to promote their rules and regulations against what we believe, teach, and confess based on God's Word.