One indication of how dramatically religious based hostility to LGBT people and opposition to same – sex relationships is being undermined, is the rapid expansion of LGBT support groups on college campuses, including Catholic and other Christian institutions. Here’s one example from a conservative, evangelical campus:
Fuller Theological Seminary’s Acceptance Of LGBT Group, OneTable, Creates Ripples
In this Wednesday, June 12, 2013 photo, straight and gay members of OneTable, from left, Samantha Curley, Chelsea McInturff, faculty adviser Glen Stassen, Marissa Nunes and Nick Palacios walk on the campus of the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. bisexual and transgendered students earlier this year. Attempts to sta
Nick Palacios struggled to get his conservative Pentecostal parents to accept him as a gay evangelical Christian for nearly a decade before his family found a common ground through faith.
Now, as an openly gay seminarian, the 29-year-old hopes to carve out a similar acceptance for other gays in the broader evangelical community through his role as president of the nation’s first LGBT student club sanctioned by a major evangelical seminary. The group, called OneTable, formed last fall at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, one of the world’s largest multi-denominational seminaries, and has attracted about three dozen students.
“It quickly became apparent to me that I was going to be OK and that I wasn’t going to have to forsake my faith for my sexuality,” Palacios said of his struggle for acceptance.
“I really hope that people will see Fuller and OneTable as a model of what the body of the church is supposed to do in this situation.”
Fuller’s stance has created ripples in the larger world of Christian colleges and seminaries, where a growing number of gay evangelical students are asserting their dual identities with underground clubs and nascent political activism. Last year, for example, a group called the Biola Queer Underground was quashed by Biola University, a small, conservative Christian school in nearby Orange County.
-continue reading at Huffington Post
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- Surprise? Fuller Theological Seminary Accepts LGBT Group (standupforthetruth.com)
