In Brief

Staff Reports

Georgia Christian College Staff Told To Reject Homosexuality Or Be Fired

ROME, GEORGIA -- Shorter University has announced a policy which will require its more than 200 employees to sign a “Personal Lifestyle Statement” rejecting homosexuality. The university's president, Don Dowless, made it clear any staffer not signing faces immediate termination. The statement also requires staffers to reject premarital sex and adultery as well as not using alcoholic beverages in front of students or attending university events within six hours of drinking them.

In an interview with a local television station Dowless said:

“I think that anybody who adheres to a lifestyle that is outside of what the biblical mandate is and of what the board has passed, including the president, would not be allowed to continue here."

New employees will have to sign the statement and existing employees will have to sign it to renew their contracts. “Failure to adhere to this statement may result in disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination,” the statement says.

According to one gay employee who works at Shorter who told The GA Voice:

"We now will live in fear that someone who doesn't like us personally or someone who has had a bad day will report that we've been drinking or that we are suspected of being gay," said the employee, who declined to reveal his name due to the policy.

The Personal Lifestyle Statement was adopted by the Board of Trustees last Friday, October 21 and presented to employees on Monday, October 24. The Personal Lifestyle Statement was one of several approved by the Board of Trustees. The others include a “Policy for Christian Education,” “Biblical Principles on the Integration of Faith and Learning” and a “Statement of Faith.”

A Shorter student who didn’t want to be identified said "that the university is judging others, contrary to what the Bible teaches." Students, however, are not required to sign the policy.

”Anything outside that is not biblical, we do not accept," Dowless told the television station. “We have a right to hire only Christians."