Saint Mary’s College of Calif. hosts roundtable of same-sex ‘marriage’ activists
Saint Mary’s College of California hosted a roundtable
discussion on Monday night “exploring the intersections of LGBT, Religion,
Race, Gender and Ethnicity” featuring four activists for legalized same-sex
marriage with an understanding of human sexuality not in alignment with
Catholic Church teaching, causing a theology professor at the College to
severely criticize the one-sided, anti-Catholic nature of the event.
“It seems to me, at a place that claims on some level to still
be faith-based, we owe the students more than this,” Father David Gentry-Akin,
professor of theology at Saint Mary’s, told The Cardinal Newman Society. Fr.
Gentry-Akin said if the College is going to allow students to be exposed to
points of view that contradict Church teaching, then event organizers “need to
make sure there’s someone there who can speak credibly about the tradition of
the Church on these questions.”
The panel
discussion featured three speakers from the Pacific School of
Religion, Dr. Justin Tanis, Dr. Bernie Schlager and Janice
Sommerville, along with Lisbeth Melendez Rivera, the
coordinator of Catholic and Latina programming for the Human Rights Campaign
(HRC).
The event was co-sponsored by a number of Saint Mary’s
departments and campus initiatives, including: Women’s and Gender Studies,
Theology and Religious Studies, Communication and The Roy E. and Patricia
Disney Forum, The Intercultural Center, CILSA, Ethnic Studies, English,
History, Women’s Resource Center, Justice, Community and Leadership,
Anthropology, Global and Regional Studies, Mission and Ministry Center, Student
Engagement and Academic Success, and PRIDE.
Each of the speakers has a history of publicly condoning
same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage. And Rivera’s employer, the
HRC, actively
works to undermine Church teaching on marriage and human
sexuality across the country.
The Newman Society contacted the professor hosting the
discussion, Dr. Scott Schönfeldt-Aultman, to ask if anyone would be presenting
Catholic Church teaching on the discussion topics of the roundtable and how the
event furthers the Catholic mission of the College. No response was received by
press time.
College administrators were also contacted and asked how the
discussion is being “conducted in a fashion worthy of a community of learning”
per the External
Speaker and Public Event policy when the entire panel is
openly opposed to Catholic Church teaching on human sexuality. No response was
received.
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Tanis is on record arguing
in support of the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex
marriage. Tanis has also
been public about having a “transgender identity” and wrote in the
book Trans-Gendered:
Theology, Ministry and Communities of Faith, “Rather than simply
being a fluke, an oddity, or a source of shame, gender variance comes to be
seen as part of our God-given identities. Even more than that, it becomes our
spiritual responsibility to explore fully the nature that God has given to us.”
Schlager wrote an
article praising Catholic politicians who support legalizing
same-sex marriage in 2012, and criticized U.S. bishops who defend Church
teaching on marriage in the same article. In a separate
2012 piece, Schlager specifically criticized Archbishop John Nienstedt of
Minnesota for calling on the faithful in his diocese to pray for the defense of
marriage. Schlager issued a mock prayer in response to the archbishop asking
God to lead people to embrace same-sex relationships.
Sommerville has been public about
condoning the same-sex marriage of a clergy
member of the United Church of Christ where she was involved.
Rivera’s work at the HRC not only supports the legalization of
same-sex marriage, but a misrepresentation of the Catholic faith. The
organization focuses on “Catholic
initiatives” that present the Catholic faith as supporting same-sex
relationships. HRC also promotes dissident
Catholic groups in pushing its false narrative of the faith, such as Catholics
for Choice, which supports abortion and contraception.
By organizing such a one-sided panel, one in which any
exploration of the teaching of the Church on human sexuality is actually
excluded, Fr. Gentry-Akin said that “we are abusing the authority entrusted to
us as educators at a Catholic institution.”
Father Gentry-Akin was quick to note that he understands and
takes seriously “our obligation to accompany our gay and lesbian students in
their human, spiritual, and intellectual journeys, to help them in discerning
what their sexual orientation means and how they can integrate that dimension
of who they are into their search for meaningful lives.” But, in his
view, this requires a much more thoughtful and nuanced approach, and one that —
at a Catholic institution — should draw significantly on the wisdom of the
Catholic tradition.
“This event is indoctrination, not education,” he said of the
panel, “because only one point of view is being entertained. Even in the most
secular of environments, even in an environment that claims not to espouse any
particular tradition, that would not be education because it’s not an event
that entertains all sides of a question.”
Even if both sides of the issues were presented, Fr. Gentry-Akin
added: “This institution exists for advancing a certain perspective on these
questions, therefore we have the right, and many of us would say the
obligation, to use our resources to advance that perspective, and not one that
goes against the teaching of the Church.”
Reprinted with permission from The
Cardinal Newman Society.
