Denying Kuilema’s reappointment, the professors said, “will send a chilling signal to our community that the university is retrenching to a narrow stance that will make many feel unwelcome.”Īs they so often do for Facebook users, things for Kuilema took a turn for the worse on the platform. In a letter of support, more than 80 faculty members argued that many professors at Calvin had “concluded that there are ways for same-sex Christians to be faithful followers of Jesus that do not conform to the parameters” of the church’s stated position. But the response to Kuilema’s case suggests that, at least for some faculty members, the university’s hard-line positions on sexuality are increasingly untenable and out of step with what some professors believe and practice in their own congregations. Florida attracted national attention with its recent enactment of a new law - branded by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill - that prohibits classroom instruction about sexual orientation in some elementary-school grades.Ĭalvin bills itself as a welcoming environment for all students, while forbidding sexual intimacy outside of heterosexual marriage. State lawmakers have proposed a record number of bills that critics say would infringe on the rights of LGBTQ+ people. At the same time, many LGBTQ+ people in the United States see their rights as increasingly under threat. Seventy percent of Americans now say they support same-sex marriage, Gallup reported in 2021. Public opinion has shifted drastically on the issue. Supreme Court, in 2015, ruled that same-sex couples have the constitutional right to marry. The case at Calvin has a turn-of-the-century feel, conjuring up the contentious debates that consumed the nation’s politics before the U.S. The university accepts as “settled and binding” the church’s position that sexual relations are prohibited outside of marriage, which is defined as a “covenantal union between a man and a woman.” Same-sex marriage remains a hotly debated topic within the church, but Calvin’s board has drawn a clear line. Calvin professors must sign the “ Covenant for Faculty Members,” pledging to promote and defend the church’s core doctrines, known as confessions. The university gained some national attention, in 2017, when Betsy DeVos, an alumna, took office as the U.S. Its board members are selected by the governing body of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, a Protestant Christian denomination of about 1,000 congregations.
Those tensions are on full display at Calvin, where Kuilema’s case provoked a swift outcry from professors and staff members, who have urged the board to reappoint the professor.Ĭalvin University is a private college of about 3,300 students in Grand Rapids, Mich.
But Kuilema’s case highlights a quintessentially contemporary dilemma for Christian colleges, one that pits an institution’s conservative adherence to Scripture against the more progressive belief that people of faith should fight for marriage equality as a fundamental civil right.
Last month a professor at Oklahoma Christian University alleged that he had been fired for inviting a gay person to speak to his class. That information set off a chain of events that concluded, on April 18, with the university’s decision to not reappoint Kuilema to his untenured faculty position, a move that is likely to end his 14-year career at Calvin.ĭisagreements over sexuality are hardly new at religiously affiliated colleges. It was against this backdrop that, in December, Calvin’s provost received photos that appeared to show Kuilema officiating at a same-sex wedding. The board, in 2018, had denied Kuilema tenure, citing concerns about his “tone and strategy” on matters related to same-sex marriage. His public advocacy on LGBTQ+ issues as an assistant professor of social work at Calvin, a private college affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church, had been a source of increasing tension with administrators and trustees. Joseph Kuilema was already on thin ice at Calvin University.