By Pete Chagnon

After eight hours of deliberations, a Michigan college has decided to let a controversial memo stand. The Board of Trustees at CalvinCollege has come under fire for releasing a memo on the Advocacy of Homosexual Practice and Same-Sex Marriage. The memo basically reiterated the Christian college’s stance on the issues and instructed faculty members to refrain from endorsing homosexuality. Faculty members became upset when some thought they were being denied a voice on the issue.

That prompted lengthy meetings that were held October 22-24 in order to clarify the meaning of the memo. Following the meetings, another memo was released informing faculty members that the original memo still stands, although “The Board deeply regrets the confusion and distress” that it caused.

During the meetings the board met with representatives from the Faculty Senate, the Homosexuality and Community Life Working Group, and representatives from a student-led GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) support group.

Board members stated in the newly-released memo that “while awkwardly begun,” the conversation started was “overdue.”

The Calvin College website contains a section of Frequently Asked Questions on Homosexuality which explains their policy in more details.

Read more here.

[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]