{"id":2443,"date":"2011-01-28T16:35:32","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T16:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2011\/01\/after-controversy-christian-un.php"},"modified":"2011-01-28T16:35:32","modified_gmt":"2011-01-28T16:35:32","slug":"after-controversy-christian-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/01\/after-controversy-christian-un","title":{"rendered":"After Controversy, Christian University Changes Gay Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Christian university in Nashville, Tenn., has amended its nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation after a recent controversy involving a lesbian former soccer coach.<br \/>\n&#8220;We are a Christian community that is welcoming, loving and inclusive of everyone,&#8221; said Belmont University President Bob Fisher in a Wednesday (Jan. 26) statement.<br \/>\nThe change comes a month after the university&#8217;s soccer coach, Lisa Howe, left her position after revealing that she and her lesbian partner were expecting a child.<br \/>\nIn his announcement, Fisher said that sexual orientation was not a consideration in &#8220;hiring, promotion, salary or dismissal decisions&#8221; during the 11 years he has been president.<br \/>\nHowe hailed the policy change in a statement reported by <em>The Tennessean<\/em>.<br \/>\n&#8220;Significant change does not happen without sacrifice and without some people getting hurt along the way,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;However, in my opinion, everyone is a winner today.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, however, said he was &#8220;saddened&#8221; by the school&#8217;s decision, the Nashville newspaper reported.<br \/>\n&#8220;It sounds very much like a compromise of a traditional biblical worldview and the mores of the day,&#8221; said the Rev. Randy Davis, whose Southern Baptist state convention severed ties with Belmont in 2007.<br \/>\n<strong>&#8212; Adelle M. Banks<\/strong>, <em>Religion News Service<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Christian university in Nashville, Tenn., has amended its nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation after a recent controversy involving a lesbian former soccer coach. &#8220;We are a Christian community that is welcoming, loving and inclusive of everyone,&#8221; said Belmont University President Bob Fisher in a Wednesday (Jan. 26) statement. The change comes a month&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":264,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-rns"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>After Controversy, Christian University Changes Gay Policy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/01\/after-controversy-christian-un\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After Controversy, Christian University Changes Gay Policy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Christian university in Nashville, Tenn., has amended its nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation after a recent controversy involving a lesbian former soccer coach. &#8220;We are a Christian community that is welcoming, loving and inclusive of everyone,&#8221; said Belmont University President Bob Fisher in a Wednesday (Jan. 26) statement. The change comes a month&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/01\/after-controversy-christian-un\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-28T16:35:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"After Controversy, Christian University Changes Gay Policy","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/01\/after-controversy-christian-un","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"After Controversy, Christian University Changes Gay Policy","og_description":"A Christian university in Nashville, Tenn., has amended its nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation after a recent controversy involving a lesbian former soccer coach. &#8220;We are a Christian community that is welcoming, loving and inclusive of everyone,&#8221; said Belmont University President Bob Fisher in a Wednesday (Jan. 26) statement. 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