Words are fascinating. I ask you to bear with me for a moment as I write about words, what they mean and how they are used. This is important, as we shall see.
Let’s take the word discriminate. The word means to distinguish between differences of things and based on those differences to have a preference. For instance, my favorite color is blue. My preference for blue is readily apparent in my choice of apparel. I am very discriminating when it comes to the color of clothing that I buy and wear. This type of discrimination is neutral, neither good nor bad.
Promiscuous means to be indiscriminate. The exact opposite of discriminate. Because I am married, I am not promiscuous. I am very discriminating when it comes to whom I have sex with. My wife thinks this kind of discrimination is good, and I agree.
It took the Civil Rights Movement in this country to awaken our nation’s conscience to the fact that discrimination based on racial prejudice is bad, immoral. Sadly, we are still learning that lesson today. So in this sense discrimination is bad.
This brings us to the case of Christian Ortega. Ortega began attending Biola University, a private Christian university in Southern California, in 2010. In 2014, Ortega took a position at another place and suspended his educational pursuits for a semester. During this time away from Biola, Ortega came out as gay on social media.
When Ortega tried to reapply as a student, his reapplication met a snag. Evidently, he hid his homosexuality when he first came to Biola, and now his very public acknowledgement of his homosexuality is in direct conflict with the university’s clearly worded doctrinal statement. It reads, “Biblical marriage consists only of a faithful, heterosexual union between one genetic male and one genetic female, and biblical marriage is the only legitimate and acceptable context for a sexual relationship.”
Despite the fact that he deceived Biola of his homosexuality when he first began his studies, he feels he is being treated unfairly because he is not being allowed to resume his education there. He thinks his deceit should be ignored and rewarded with reinstatement.
One protester said, “Freedom of religion is not freedom to discriminate.” That is untrue. Freedom of religion gives one the right to discriminate as to which god he worships and what practices or behavior are righteous and sinful. Freedom of religion inherently means the right to pursue one’s beliefs and practices without being forced to follow another’s beliefs and practices.
“Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below, there is no other,” Deuteronomy 4:39. Either freedom of religion is the right to discriminate which god one worships and which god’s commandments one follows, or it is no freedom at all.
Biola University is not forcing its heterosexuality on Ortega, and he should not be allowed to force his homosexuality on Biola.
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