Marquette administration going Catholic?

Marquette InterVarsity

First we have this incident:

Apparently, an officer of the Marquette Intervarsity Christian Fellowship came “out of the closet” as gay. He made it quite clear that he disagreed with the organization’s interpretation of Christian teaching about homosexuality (which happens to be essentially identical to Catholic teaching about homosexuality).

He admitted to having a homosexual affair with another male, and made it clear that he did not intend to break it off. He was dismissed as an officer.

He complained to Student Affairs at Marquette, apparently claiming he was discriminated against because of his sexual orientation.

Belling reported that the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship has been suspended at Marquette on the basis of this complaint.

But low and behold someone in the Marquette administration upheld the rights of a Christian group by overruling two lower admins:

The decision was appealed to Dean of Students Stephanie Quade who just this morning reversed the ruling and lifted the suspension.

The group will be on probation for a year for violating a narrow clause of their constitution specifying the procedures for dismissing an officer. The organization will also have to submit to a review of their constitution. It is unclear, at the moment, what changes (if any) might be required in that document.

It appears, however, that Marquette has conceded the right of a campus Christian organization to hold officers to Christian standards of sexual conduct.

LifeSiteNews picked up the story as well and quoted Marquette Warrior

McAdams credits conservative Milwaukee radio personality Mark Belling for breaking the story last Tuesday.

“It’s good that Marquette backed away from punishing a group for insisting that its officers adhere to Christian standards of sexual conduct,” McAdams told LSN. “But there is such a thing as a ‘chilling effect.’ Other student groups are likely to back away from anything that is disapproved by the gay lobby because they simply don’t want the hassle. Only a minority of students enjoy doing battle.”

Since the suspension was overturned, McAdams suggested that the consequences of the university’s decision for Catholic higher education are “perhaps not much.” “But,” he said, “had it been upheld, other ‘Catholic’ universities would have been emboldened to do the same.”