Baylor President 'Outraged' Over Student Editorial Defending Gay Marriage

The president of Baylor University, the world's largest Baptist school, said Tuesday he is "justifiably outraged" over an editorial in the Waco, Texas, university's student newspaper that defended same-sex marriages. The editorial last week in the Baylor Lariat supported San Francisco's lawsuit against the state of California seeking to continue performing gay marriages.

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The president of Baylor University, the world’s largest Baptist school, said Tuesday he is “justifiably outraged” over an editorial in the student newspaper that defended same-sex marriages. The editorial last week in the Baylor Lariat supported San Francisco’s lawsuit against the state of California seeking to continue performing gay marriages. “Taking into account equal protection under the law, gay couples should be granted the same equal rights to legal marriage as heterosexual couples,” the editorial said. It also likened discrimination against gays to racial or religious intolerance. President Robert B. Sloan Jr. denounced the editorial in a strongly worded statement that appeared in the newspaper Tuesday. “We have already heard from a number of students, alumni and parents who are, as am I, justifiably outraged over this editorial,” Sloan wrote. “Espousing in a Baylor publication a view that is so out of touch with traditional Christian teachings is not only unwelcome, it comes dangerously close to violating university policy, as published in the student handbook, prohibiting the advocacy of any understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching,” Sloan wrote. The paper also published a statement Tuesday by the student publications board, a group of faculty and administrators overseeing the newspaper, calling Friday’s editorial a violation of student publications policy. The policy says student publications should not “attack the basic tenets of Christian theology or of Christian morality.” Lariat Editor Lacy Elwood has said the editorial took a legal rather than a moral stance on the issue. Richard George, the Lariat news director, said Monday he made a judgment error and the editorial should not have been published. Publications board member Larry Brumley told The Associated Press on Tuesday that no staffers or students at the Waco, Texas, school would be punished. Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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