lauren farmer

Pepperdine Admin Halts Creation of LGBT Club on Campus, Says It's Against 'God's Will'

From the administration’s perspective, the issue remains how Reach OUT will align with the Pepperdine mission and tradition. While Davis acknowledged that the relationship with the Churches of Christ is important, more central is honoring the biblical conviction that sexual activity should be reserved for a husband-wife relationship.

“Pepperdine seeks to be faithful to this teaching because we believe it is God’s will,” Davis said, “and therefore we cannot endorse another view or take a neutral position on sexual morality. Although Reach OUT stated in its application that it has no position on sexual activity, we do not believe it is possible for a LGBT student organization to maintain a neutral position.”

I spent 4 years at beautiful (but painfully conservative) Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Much of me loved it, I can’t deny the benefits of going to college on the beach but I also wish that, as a non-Christian, I had chosen a school that would have exposed me to different ideas, views, religions and people, which Pepperdine did not.  

This latest move by Pepperdine is unacceptably embarrassing. University administration have “denied a student application to make gay-straight alliance “Reach OUT” an official university club.” 

Please consider signing this change.org petition, which already has more signatures than the total of undergrad students at the university.