Mr. Pepperdine rolls over in his grave
To the shock of many observers, a private California university is surrendering its Title IX religious exemption and embracing the Obama administration’s controversial transgender rules.
Pepperdine University, which is affiliated with the Churches of Christ, made the request in a letter sent in January to the Office for Civil Rights, a division within the U.S. Department of Education.
The university’s request was made public in a Huffington Post story, The Christian Post reported.
Pepperdine was granted its Title IX exemption in 1985, when it stated traditional beliefs about man-woman marriage and men-only roles in church.
PepperdineOuted by the Huffington Post story, a school spokesman has since said Title IX does not “not fully reflect Pepperdine’s values today.”
Pepperdine has approximately 7,600 students on its sprawling 830-acre Malibu campus.
Businessman and philanthropist George Pepperdine, father of the Western Auto store chain, founded the university in 1937 as part of his Church of Christ faith.
At the same time Pepperdine was caving, other religious-based colleges and universities in California have been fighting a state law that would strip them of the federal government’s Title IX exemption, forcing them to enroll openly homosexual students or face a lawsuit for expelling them.
OneNewsNow reported in an August 11 story that state Sen. Ricardo Lara (pictured below) has amended the legislation amid an outcry from minority students who are at risk of losing scholarships if they chose the religious-based schools.
Lara has vowed to bring the legislation back in a future legislative session.
“Pepperdine has in essence negated them as a university committed to Christianity and especially the teaching of scripture from the Bible,” complains attorney Brad Dacus with the Pacific Justice Institute.
The school’s backtracking, he says, should be a warning for parents who are considering sending their children there.
The Christian Post story noted that Pepperdine was included on a so-called “Shame List” compiled by a homosexual rights group and published last December.
CP asked Pepperdine officials if the school was motivated by the “Shame List” to withdraw its exemption but the school didn’t respond.
Leave a Reply