[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by troutman

E-mail from Law Society of Alberta:

http://www.flsc.ca/_documents/TWUNew...nal%281%29.pdf

The Federation of Law Societies of Canada has granted preliminary approval of Trinity Western University’s proposed law program. The official news release can be viewed here.

Trinity Western University (TWU) is a Christian faith-based university in Langley, British Columbia that was granted status as a university by the Government of British Columbia in 1985. TWU requires faculty, students, and staff to sign and abide by a “Community Covenant” that among other things, requests a commitment to refrain from same-sex intimacy.

No matter where a lawyer is educated, what law school they graduate from, or what their personal, political or religious beliefs are – every lawyer is bound by a duty to uphold the Rule of Law, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and human rights legislation and adhere to our Code of Conduct that prohibits lawyers from discriminating in their professional duties.

Since TWU is one of my almae matres, and since I was a faculty member there for nearly five years, I feel fairly well qualified to address the contents in the above posted bulletin. It seems to me that whoever wrote this did not do their due diligence, and has over-interpretated or simply glossed the TWU Community Covenant.

The notice expresses a concern for ensuring that members of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada adhere to a strict mandate that promotes non-discrimination, and by implication, the statement regarding TWU's policy "to refrain from same-sex intimacy" is somehow threatening to jeopardise that. Now, it's been a long time since I last signed the TWU Community Covenant (Factulty members were asked to do so only once every five years), and the statement has undergone some considerable revision in recent years, but the above assertion is not something that I ever recall seeing in any of the documents that I signed both as a student and an employee. Upon a brief glance at the current statement, my recollections appear to have been correct.

The TWU Community Covenant contains five articles:
· Article 1 is a preamble, that outlines the University's mandate: "pursue truth and excellence with grace and diligence, treat people and ideas with charity and respect, think critically and constructively about complex issues, and willingly respond to the world’s most profound needs and greatest opportunities." It affirms the school's heritage in the evangelical Protestant tradition, and asserts that the covenant is a means by which community members "strive to achieve respectful and purposeful unity that aims for the advancement of all, recognizing the diversity of viewpoints, life journeys, stages of maturity, and roles." In short, the covenant is designed to promote the university's mandate, which in part is to reflect the idealisation of unity that was promoted in Jesus's teachings, and also in the model of the early church that is expressed in the book of Acts.

· Article 2 describes what TWU defines as a "Christian community". The community ideals are founded on "acceptance of the Bible as the divinely inspired, authoritative guide for personal and community life," and suggests that the highest achievement of these are expressed through "humility, self-sacrifice, mercy and justice, and mutual submission for the good of others."

· Article 3 more specifically outlines a set of "virtues" that TWU believes best reflect their understanding of the biblical ideal. These are expressed positively as behaviours and conduct for members to aspire to, and include such qualities, as friendliness and civility, honesty and integrity, good will, cooperation, self-sacrifice, hard work, generosity, compassion and empathy, respect, value, and so forth. Among these, the sixth sub-point reads as follows:

Originally Posted by TWU Community Covenant

observe modesty, purity and appropriate intimacy in all relationships, reserve sexual expressions of intimacy for marriage, and within marriage take every reasonable step to resolve conflict and avoid divorce

This is more precisely stated negatively in the directive that community members are then asked to abstain from "sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman."

· Article 4 outlines a handful of items that it qualifies as "areas for careful discernment and sensitivity." Under the subheading "Healthy Sexuality", the statement reads as follows:

Originally Posted by TWU Community Covenant

People face significant challenges in practicing biblical sexual health within a highly sexualized culture. A biblical view of sexuality holds that a person’s decisions regarding his or her body are physically, spiritually and emotionally inseparable. Such decisions affect a person’s ability to live out God’s intention for wholeness in relationship to God, to one’s (future) spouse, to others in the community, and to oneself. Further, according to the Bible, sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage between one man and one woman, and within that marriage bond it is God’s intention that it be enjoyed as a means for marital intimacy and procreation. Honouring and upholding these principles, members of the TWU community strive for purity of thought and relationship, respectful modesty, personal responsibility for actions taken, and avoidance of contexts where temptation to compromise would be particularly strong.

Again, the important things to note are the belief that sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage, that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that it is intended for enjoyment and procreation. There is a lot in here that I do not affirm, but by the same token, it is important to note that AT NO POINT DOES THE COMMUNITY COVENANT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST THE PRACTICE OF HOMOSEXUAL INTIMACY. It DOES discriminate equally against ALL SEXES and EVERY SEXUAL ORIENTATION in that the monition is against all forms of extramarital sexual intimacy.

I will agree that the Community Covenant is puritanical with respect to its views of sexual activity, but it is virtually silent concerning sexual orientation, and for good reason. The University and its legal team understands that it cannot legislate belief, nor can it discriminate against race, religion, gender and sexual preference, etc. To that end, the TWU student body is composed of mostly evangelical Christians, but also includes Mormons, Catholics, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and atheists. To suggest that proponents of same sex relationships are being unfairly targeted by this agreement is to exaggerate both the intent and the content of the document in question. I agree that there is an implicit denunciation against same sex marriage in TWU's definition of marriage, and that is a matter of some concern. However, this is an entirely different matter than what is being claimed. Yes, the TWU Community Covenant does "request a commitment to refrain from same-sex intimacy," but this is in line with its request for a commitment to refrain from ALL extramarital sexual intimacy—be it heterosexual or homosexual—while enrolled at TWU.