Prompted By Poignant Letter Of One Christian Gay Man’s Struggle To Reconcile Faith With Sexual Orientation, Gay Alumni Of California Christian College Question Policy Prohibiting “Homosexual Practice”

The Los Angeles Times reports on a controversy at Westmont College, a private Christian school in Montecito, California, and an open letter authored by 31 gay and lesbian alumni to the college newspaper, the Horizon, that talked of the “doubt, loneliness and fear” they felt on a campus where homosexuality is expressly prohibited. The tiny, non-denominational school requires that incoming students sign a campus code that forbids “occult practices, sexual relations outside of marriage, homosexual practice, drunkenness, theft, profanity and dishonesty.” The letter, which was also signed by 100 fellow alumni in support, and as of last week 50 of Westmont’s 92 faculty members responded to them in a letter described as sympathetic, seeking “forgiveness for ways we might have added to your pain.” The original open letter was in fact a response to a letter published in the Horizon November 16th, 2010, by Artie Van Why, an openly gay graduate of Asbury University, in Kentucky, in 1976. That school’s paper refused to publish the letter, which was a response to the raft of recent suicides by gay youth last fall; an articulate, terribly poignant tale of one man’s struggle to reconcile supposed Christian instruction with sexual orientation. Van Why writes of the toll it took trying to change his sexual orientation, through celibacy, denial, and prayer and concludes: “As the years have passed, I’ve come to trust that God does love and accept me as an openly gay man. I do look at those scriptures in a different light. I believe God sanctions any relationship (gay or straight) that is loving, committed and monogamous. I belong to a church in one of the most conservative counties in Pennsylvania, the only openly gay man there. I was welcomed warmly by the pastor and the majority of the congregation. My presence there has generated an open dialogue within the church about homosexuality and the Bible. People have told me that their views on homosexuality have changed because of knowing me, some acknowledging I’m the first gay person, they’re aware of, that they’ve known. Our church now has an outreach ministry to let the gay community know our doors are open to them. That we not only welcome them, we also affirm them, their committed relationships and the families they are creating. Know that there are churches, and Christians, who will accept you as you are. If we are to be judged, it will be by God. Maybe at that time it won’t be a matter of who was right and who was wrong. Maybe God will look at each of us and ask if we lived our lives being true to who we were. Maybe God will assure us that He’s always loved us even during those times we were told He didn’t. It does get better. And you do have choices. The decisions you come to are between you and God. Know that, whatever you decide, there is a place for you at the table.”