Sexual Identity and the Christian College Campus

One of the things I enjoy most about directing the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity (www.sexualidentityinstitute.org) at Regent University is the opportunity to conduct original research on the topic of sexual identity in ways that are particularly relevant to the Christian community. I tend to look at how topics are studied in the mainstream gay, lesbian, and bisexual research and consider the questions that might be asked on behalf of the Christian community. Because of the ways in which the broader culture and specific organizations have engaged the topic of homosexuality and sexual identity (and fostered a kind of “culture war” approach), it has been helpful to conduct research that speaks to some of the complexities in this area. One of those questions has to do with the experiences of sexual minorities on Christian university and college campuses. (I am using the phrase “sexual minority” to simply recognize that most people do not experience same-sex attraction or have a homosexual orientation; they are in the numeric minority. I am not making a political statement or suggesting anything associated with the civil rights movement.)

On Diversity Domains

When I first came to Regent University, I taught a course on Community Psychology. I remember preparing a lecture on diversity issues and I was speaking to a staff member about it. He is from a racial minority group. He shared with me that there was no need to teach on diversity or to cover multicultural aspects if we are Christians. He proceeded to share that the story of the Tower of Babel indicates that such diversity is a result of human pride, and the current efforts to promote diversity or multiculturalism were of little to no value in light of a Christian’s primary identity in Christ, which he viewed trumping these other diversity domains. 

I recently co-conducted a diversity workshop for another Christian psychology program, and I was asked to reflect on a theology of diversity. As I began to look into it, I was surprised at how little had been written from an evangelical Christian perspective. Most of what had been written dealt with race or ethnicity but not other areas of diversity, such as age or disability, let alone the more controversial topics of sexual orientation or gender identity.