Recently, a petition was filed on the social action site change.org in support of Danielle Powell, a would-be graduate of Grace University – a private Christian institution in Omaha, Nebraska. The author of the petition, Michelle Rogers, who also happens to be Danielle’s wife, makes a number of contentions.  First, that Ms. Powell “…was kicked out of Grace University because she is gay”.  Second, that “…school officials revoked her scholarships and are hounding her for $6000 in back due tuition for the final semester — which she was never allowed to complete — that her scholarships would have covered”.  In drafting the petition, Ms. Rogers hopes to bring enough public support to bear against Grace’s demands such that the debt, which would have been covered by scholarships awarded to Ms. Powell has she not have been expelled, will be forgiven.

As to the first point, I don’t think there’s much room for debate.  Danielle and Michelle claim to be women and, as of December 2012, are married.  Yes, Virginia, in the absence of other mitigating factors, such as a history of overexposure to “Ellen”, it may be safely assumed that Danielle is indeed gay.  It is also clear that Grace University doesn’t exactly welcome practitioners of alternative lifestyles or, for that matter, anyone who likes to have their dessert before the marriage course.

Neither is the second point terribly in dispute.  As Grace’s Executive Vice President, Michael James stated, “This situation has been handled no differently than any other violation of our code of conduct,” James said. “It’s a situation where the rules were very clear, the consequences were very clear, and everything has played out as the policy said it should. There are no surprises here.”

As of the rules to which Mr. James refers, it only takes the briefest of perusals in the University’s Student Handbook to understand that Grace is one institution that takes its religious conservatism seriously.  By comparison, my alma mater, Gardner-Webb University (née College), a conservative Southern Baptist enclave, was a veritable Sodom way back in 1983.  By now, GWU is probably awash in multiple translations of the Good Book (the 1611 Authorized Version is the Official Word of God, mind you), while Grace frowns upon HBO and the temptation of the rock and roll chord E.

And that’s the problem.

No, not that Grace is so rigidly legalistic that the average Pharisee would be made to feel unclean on campus, but that the expectations of behavior are clearly defined in the school’s publications and online materials. Ms. Powell simply chose not to follow them.

As a disclaimer, despite my own Southern Baptist background, I am a proud member of the LGBT community and find even religiously-sourced discrimination to be odious.  I disagree with most of what Grace University holds dear in their vision of morality, but I do not disagree with their right as a private organization to require those who CHOOSE to associate with the University to respect their tenets.

It’s that CHOICE thing.  Danielle was a psychology major, not training to become the next messiah.  Admittedly, I don’t know what led her to choose Grace, but at first blush it does not appear that she had to matriculate at Stalag 3:16 obtain a degree in her chosen discipline. As Danielle commented when the petition went viral, “I shouldn’t have this debt hanging over me from a school that clearly didn’t want me,”.  As much as it disgusts me to say, Ms. Powell, you’ve hit the nail on the head.  Grace University did not want you…and you should have known that.

When I chose to enroll at Gardner-Webb College, I did so mostly based upon my assessment of its Information Systems curriculum, not its Baptist pedigree.  And while I wasn’t nearly as engaged as high schoolers are today in judging the merits of prospective colleges, I knew that Amy Grant was held in higher esteem than Oingo Boingo at GWC; further, that strong drink and loose women were veboten. While I clumsily dabbled in the former and scaled the heights of mediocrity in the latter, I did realize that my infractions could result in fire and brimstone.  One incident in particular could have resulted in my own academic Waterloo, had it come to light.  But in my own instance, I just can’t see that I would have expected netizens to come to my rescue.  Even if I had, my parents would have probably smacked me on the back of the head for claiming the mantle of victim.

Ms. Powell, please don’t think that I say these things in judgement of your sexual preference. I couldn’t, even if I didn’t support same-sex relations (which I do), without committing the grossest hypocrisy against my own gender preference.  If you had been ejected from a state-supported institution that was beholden to a public charter  in which sexual preference was no consideration of merit, I would be the first to sign your petition.  But you weren’t.

We may fight for change in the laws to which we must submit (e.g., marriage rights), but we can’t presume to force change on private institutions which hold certain truths to be sacred.  To do so is the true measure of intolerance.