February 11, 2002
Baylor emphasizes policy on sexual misconduct
___WACO--Administrators at Baylor University have re-emphasized the Baptist school's policy on sexual misconduct in response to a new informal network of gay students on campus.
___The network, called Baylor Freedom, has been publicized on campus by "chalkings" written on sidewalks at night. The announcements publicize a website, www.geocities.com/baylorfreedom.
___None of the students connected to the website has identified himself or herself publicly. Articles published last week in the Waco Tribune-Herald and Baylor Lariat, the campus student newspaper, quoted several of the students and identified them by nicknames.
___The gay students have not made any formal request of Baylor administration but have said they want to create an Internet-based support group for those who feel oppressed by Baylor's religious culture that does not recognize homosexuality.
___They wish Baylor would embrace a more open attitude toward homosexuality, one more in line with current societal views, the Lariat reported.
___Baylor's official policy on sexual misconduct describes homosexuality as one of several "misuses of God's gift," along with sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sexual assault, incest, adultery and fornication.
___President Robert Sloan told the Lariat, the university will remain faithful to the truth of Scripture.
___"The question is what's right, not what's new," he said. "Current attitudes could be wrong, and their error could be the most difficult to perceive. It's a cultural given for many people that homosexual behavior is good and healthy. That's not, it seems to me, a faithful interpretation of Christian Scriptures."
___Baylor officials do not single out homosexual misconduct for special attention, Sloan said. The university's first response to any case of sexual misconduct is to be redemptive, he added.
___"Our goal is to be redemptive and help people work through these things," he told the Lariat. "The same would be true in the case of heterosexual misconduct or homosexual misconduct. We want to be redemptive to people who want to seek counseling and who want to seek help."
___Baylor has a student body of 14,000 who come from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds.
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