The CCCU board of directors predicted that most of its 120 North American members would agree that EMU and Goshen’s new positions on homosexuality “placed them outside the bounds of the CCCU’s membership.” But it also believed that a demotion to affiliate status would be a permissible level of partnership.

The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) has again lost two member schools. This time, it’s the ones which now permit faculty and staff in same-sex marriages.

Earlier this year, Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) and Goshen College added sexual orientation to their nondiscrimination policies. In response, two other member schools—Union University and Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OKWU)—quit the CCCU in protest.

The debate: Whether the CCCU could remain an effective advocate in Washington, D.C., for the rights of Christian colleges if its members were no longer united on what biblical sexuality entails.

The CCCU board of directors predicted that most of its 120 North American members would agree that EMU and Goshen’s new positions on homosexuality “placed them outside the bounds of the CCCU’s membership.” But it also believed that a demotion to affiliate status would be a permissible level of partnership.

However, the two Mennonite schools decided to voluntarily withdraw from membership in order to spare “significant division” within the consortium. This “render[s] the question of affiliate status moot,” the CCCU announced today [full statement below].

According to the CCCU, approximately 75 percent of member presidents did favor the demotion of EMU and Goshen to affiliate status. Meanwhile, approximately 20 percent favored that the schools retain full membership, and approximately 25 percent felt the schools should have no type of membership. (Some presidents favored multiple options.)

During the survey, the CCCU found that “the affiliate category was widely confusing,” said CCCU president Shirley V. Hoogstra in a press conference.

Given that “lack of clarity, purpose, and common understanding” about its membership categories, the CCCU has formed a task force led by Biola University president Barry H. Corey and Wheaton College president Phil G. Ryken. The task force will “explore how the Council will remain rooted in historic Christianity while also fruitfully engaging with other institutions seeking to advance the cause of Christian higher education or religious freedom.”

If any other CCCU member “changes its hiring policies relative to the historic Christian view of marriage” before the task force finishes its work in January, the school will be moved to a “pending” status of membership.

The CCCU also announced the resignation from the board of Loren Swartzendruber, president of EMU, who had recused himself from the the council’s “deliberative and consultative” process.

The CCCU board is trying to balance the needs of member schools from 35 different denominations. Those denominations disagree on a wide range of issues, from baptism and communion to contraception and human origins, said Hoogstra in an earlier statement.

“Until very recently,” Hoogstra said, “there was not a divergence of opinion regarding hiring same-sex married persons. Now there is.”

At the same time, there is a desire for unity, she said today. “There’s a biblical principle for unity. In John 17 Jesus prays for unity for those in the world and not of it. Our presidents are deeply faithful Christians. If there was a way for the CCCU to remain strong and advocating for the kinds of liberties we need to fulfill our mission, that was a primary goal for our presidents.”

While it has “never adopted specific creedal or doctrinal tests for its members and affiliates,” the CCCU stated it “only advocates for ‘principles of religious freedom, which allow Christian colleges to hire based on religion and to only employ individuals who practice sexual relations within the boundaries of marriage between a man and a woman.'”

“Following a good and respectful process does not mean that we do not recognize the importance of this issue in our current cultural climate,” Hoogstra stated earlier. “[W]e do, and as such, CCCU is advocating vigorously on behalf of schools that hold the orthodox view of marriage, and we will continue to do so both for our members and for others who hold that view but are no longer members.”

OKWU believes the CCCU’s “deliberate and consultative process” of seeking one-on-one reactions from all member schools is harmful “ambivalence.”

“We believe in missional clarity and view the defense of the biblical definition of marriage as an issue of critical importance,” said Everett Piper, president of the Bartlesville, Okla., school, in an earlier press release. “The CCCU’s reluctance to make a swift decision sends a message of confusion rather than conviction.”

“The fact that this is not unanimous damages our witness,” Union president Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver wrote earlier to the CCCU. “The reason we are passionate about this is because what we are talking about is not a secondary or tertiary theological issue—marriage is at the heart of the Gospel. To deny the Bible’s concept of marriage is to deny the authority of Scripture.”

CT previously noted how EMU debated and delayed its decision on hiring faculty in same-sex marriages.

Both Goshen and EMU expect celibacy of unmarried students, faculty, and staff.

“We seek forbearance and grace amidst our differences. We deeply affirm the goodness of marriage, singleness, celibacy, sexual intimacy within marriage, and a life of faithfulness before God for all people,” Goshen president James Brenneman stated in announcing the school’s new policy. “… We affirm the equal value and worth of each unique member of our community as a beloved child of God, and we seek to be a hospitable community for all—including those who disagree with this decision—as Christ modeled to us.”

Read More