Christian Campus Group: Supporters of Same-Sex Relationships Shouldn't Work Here

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, an interdenominational evangelical Christian ministry with a presence on hundreds of college campuses, is telling employees that those who disagree with its position on human sexuality -- including same-sex relationships -- probably shouldn't work there.

Still, InterVarsity officials deny that these employees are being fired and are decrying a Time article on the process as inaccurate.

In March 2015, InterVarsity released a position paper on sexuality and circulated it to staff, giving them 18 months to study it and decide whether they agree. The paper reiterates what the fellowship has long believed, officials say -- that sexual activity is reserved for the marriage of a man and a woman, that premarital and extramarital sex are wrong, that divorce is allowable only in limited circumstances, and that sexual activity between people of the same sex is never acceptable. Outside of heterosexual marriage, "every other sexual practice is outside of God's plan and therefore is a distortion of God's loving design for humanity," the paper states.

"Staffers are not being required to sign a document agreeing with the group's position, and supervisors are not proactively asking employees to verbally affirm it," Time reports. "Instead, staffers are being asked to come forward voluntarily if they disagree with the theological position. When they inform their supervisor of their disagreement, a two-week period is triggered, concluding in their last day." InterVarsity sent employees a letter about this in July, and the process will begin November 11, according to Time.

"We internally categorize these as involuntary terminations due to misalignment with InterVarsity ministry principles, which is a category we use for people who leave for theological and philosophy of ministry disagreements," Greg Jao, an InterVarsity vice president and director of campus engagement, told Time via email. In an interview with the publication, he added, "Our goal is not to go, 'Oh, we want you to do the dirty work of firing yourself.' I think our thing is, if you are in disagreement, then we are going to ask you, with integrity, to identify that and leave."

Time's story, published online Thursday, says InterVarsity "has told its 1,300 staff members they will be fired if they personally support gay marriage or otherwise disagree with its newly detailed positions on sexuality." The use of the word "fired" may have been what aroused the ire of InterVarsity, which posted a response on its website Friday.

"No InterVarsity employee will be fired for their views on gay marriage," the InterVarsity response asserted. It also carried another quote from Jao: "We have always expected employees to reflect the ministry's theological beliefs, as would be true for any church, synagogue, mosque, or religious organization. We recognize employees who disagree, or whose beliefs have changed over time, will leave employment because we have reiterated our beliefs."

The statement also says InterVarsity's beliefs about sexuality have not changed in its 75-year history. Jao told Time the group issued the paper because of requests for clarification of those beliefs, with many of those coming from students. The organization also asserts that it has members and employees who are LGBT, queer, or intersex and still adhere to its beliefs on sexuality. And it tweeted that no employee will be let go because of beliefs on civil marriage, separate from Christian marriage -- which sounds like splitting hairs to some.

Even in evangelical circles, beliefs about same-sex marriage (civil or religious) and other LGBT issues are changing, especially among young people. "One in four white evangelicals supports gay marriage, according to the Pew Research Center, more than double the support from 10 years ago, and nearly half of millennial evangelicals favor or strongly favor gay marriage," Time notes.

Some LGBT-affirming evangelicals quickly objected to InterVarsity's stance. Among them were officials with the Reformation Project, which is seeking to promote full acceptance of LGBT people within evangelical Christianity. It posted several tweets on the subject and retweeted several others.

And Matthew Vines, founder and executive director of the Reformation Project, didn't think much of InterVarsity's response to the Time article.

InterVarsity has a presence on 667 college campuses, with 1,000 chapters overall in the U.S. Its presence at some colleges has been in dispute because of its objection to LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies.