Wednesday, late afternoon.

Will and Kevin, a Cruciata Campus Missionary, are quietly conferring with one another in the Campus Spiritual Life lounge. After a student exits the office of Gabriella Moreno, the Director of Spiritual Life, the two gather their things and walk over to her door. Will knocks gently.  

GABRIELLA: Hello, Will, Kevin. How are you two today? 

WILL: Doing well. Are you busy?

GABRIELLA: I’m wrapping up for the day, but I don’t need to leave for another hour or so. What can I do for you?

WILL: We were hoping to talk with you about some concerns that we’ve been discussing in our Cruciata group.

She gestures toward a pair of chairs.

GABRIELLA: Please, take a seat. What’s on your mind?

KEVIN: Over the past semester, we’ve been prayerfully reflecting on the university’s Christian identity. A number of students have shared feeling uncomfortable and unsupported.

GABRIELLA: I’m sorry to hear that. As you know, we’re committed to being hospitable and welcoming, so we strive to change and grow whenever we have missed the mark. (She crosses her legs and rests her hands on her knee.) Have the students whom you mentioned requested that you speak on their behalf?

Will looks to Kevin. 

KEVIN: No one has specifically asked, but we feel it is important to share the concerns that we’ve heard.

GABRIELLA: I see. What are the sources of concern, as you understand them? 

KEVIN: Before we begin, can I lead us in a prayer?

She uncrosses her legs. 

GABRIELLA: Of course.

All three make the sign of the cross. 

KEVIN: Christ in heaven, your apostles taught that those who are brothers in faith should graciously receive admonishment and lovingly offer caution and counsel to one another. Through the witness of our brothers, we pray that we may be transformed by your grace and grow in wisdom. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

WILL and KEVIN: Amen.

Gabriella lowers her eyes and briefly bites her lip before speaking. 

GABRIELLA: May the witness of all siblings in the faith be heard and graciously acknowledged. 

She crosses herself.

Now, what is it that you wish to bring to my attention?

WILL: The main thing is that the institution is promoting perspectives and viewpoints that are in conflict with the faith.

GABRIELLA: What specifically do you have in mind?

Will looks to Kevin who gives a slight nod, and Will pulls out a piece of paper from his pocket, unfolding it.

WILL: There are four main issues. The first is that professors in the Gender Studies, Philosophy, and Religious Studies programs have been teaching a false theory of gender, which they present as fact. The second is that the Dean of Student Life has not only approved, but also funded, student organizations which are opposed to Christian teachings, including the Secular Humanist Society, the LGBTQIA+ Alliance, and the Muslim Student Association. Finally, there are a number of professors within the faculty who are not Christian and who teach anti-Christian content. 

Gabriella slides a notepad over to the edge of her desk and hastily scribbles some notes.

GABRIELLA: I believe you also said that your peers feel unsupported. Can you say more about what you mean?

Kevin: I believe everything that Will just mentioned speaks to that point. However, I would add that there is frustration that the university has adopted a fully secularized form of hospitality in which Christ and the primacy of Christian values have been pushed to the margins. Hence, students of faith increasingly feel that the institution is inhospitable to them.

She makes a further note.

GABRIELLA: I see. I want to address each of your concerns, but I first want to ask a few questions and offer a few observations. First, can you tell me how many students are involved in the Cruciata prayer group?

KEVIN: There are about thirty students involved to some degree.

GABRIELLA: Alright. Then my first observation and suggestion is this. You should probably not understand yourselves to be speaking on behalf of all students of faith. Approximately eighty-two percent of our students identify as Christian and our data indicates that the highest concentrations of students who do not report belonging to a religion are in the Engineering and Business Schools. Within the School of Humanities, which includes the Gender Studies, Religious Studies, and Philosophy Programs, the overwhelming majority of students identify as people of faith: primarily Christian, and to a lesser extent, Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu. So, your sample size is not necessarily representative of the broader population of religious students.

KEVIN: With all due respect, I think that is only tangentially relevant. The fact remains that Christian students feel unsupported and that their beliefs and values are often maligned. 

GABRIELLA: I accept the factual claim that at least some do. I simply request that you acknowledge the limits of your concerns. 

WILL: We are concerned with the lesser, much like in the parable of the lost sheep. 

GABRIELLA: I understand, and having drawn attention to the fact that it may be a minority who feel lost, I now want to turn to the specific reasons they feel out of place, which you listed.

Am I correct in assuming that the “false theory of gender,” that your peers take umbrage with is the notion that sex and gender are distinct?

WILL: Yes, of course. Professors are repeating the false ideology that gender is socially constructed and disconnected from biological sex.

Kevin produces a book from his backpack, opening it to a dog-eared page.

KEVIN: The Church has clearly stated that this is a false teaching. In the Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis has said (reads from the book): “the various forms of an ideology of gender… ‘denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman and envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family.”¹

GABRIELLA: Yes, I am aware of the document and its contents. There are at least two things that come to mind in relation to your concern. First, it is not entirely accurate to say that “the Church” has decided that this is a false teaching. It would be more accurate to say that a part of the Church has made this claim. There are other members of the Church who dispute or criticize this assessment, including theologians, philosophers, and scientists. 

KEVIN: Those members of the Church are not charged with pronouncing on matters of faith and morals.

GABRIELLA: Formally, that is correct. However, the crux of the issue is whether sex and gender are social and biological facts and thus matters of scientific investigation. While the bishops have the authority to articulate doctrine and dogma, they do not have the power to decree matters of objective facts about our nature as biological and social beings. 

KEVIN: The Church’s guidance is rooted in proper science. The point is that the science is being skewed to fit secular social and political concerns. 

GABRIELLA: Proper science is a matter of continual discovery and revision in light of evidence; it is not simply settled by consensus, and certainly not by the consensus of people who are not scientists and who have not followed scientific developments.

WILL: I’m sorry to hear that you are not taking our concerns seriously.

GABRIELLA: I think you mischaracterize what is going on. I am taking your concerns seriously and offering equally serious considerations in response. If I were to simply affirm your prejudgment without critically scrutinizing it, that would constitute a failure on my part to take you intellectually seriously. 

Will and Kevin are visibly frustrated.

GABRIELLA: Now, it may be true that there are better ways in which the current science of gender could be presented and discussed in courses; however, that isn’t something I can determine without knowing how it is being discussed. The mere fact that the form of presentation violates some students expectations, prejudgments, and opinions is not, in itself, evidence of a problem. 

She quickly consults her notes, but without missing a beat, she continues.

Now, your second concern was that Student Life has registered and funded the Secular Humanist Society, the LGBTQIA+ Alliance, and the Muslim Student Association. I understand and appreciate that this may likely surprise some Christian students. 

KEVIN: It is more than simply surprising. It is a deviation from our Christian identity and mission. 

GABRIELLA: Your conclusion hinges on a premise that needs to be made explicit and then interrogated. Would it be fair to say that this premise is that an educational institution with a Christian identity and mission cannot, with faithful legitimacy, acknowledge, welcome, and support students who do not share that Christian identity?

KEVIN: Yes, of course. That is obvious.

GABRIELLA: I disagree that it is obvious. Firstly, there is a historical fact that we need to keep in mind: significant elements of the faith prior to the Protestant Reformation were influenced by the faculties of theology in medieval Europe learning from and incorporating Islamic and pagan philosophy. This syncretic tendency stretches back to the ancient period. Insights from Stoicism, Roman Imperial theology, and numerous other sources have shaped the faith.

WILL: Well, even so, that is very different than actively affirming people who are outside the faith and do not accept Christ as Savior, and supporting them in their faithlessness. 

GABRIELLA: Okay, so let’s interrogate the premise we isolated. The question I pose to you is why should we suppose that an educational institution with a Christian identity and mission cannot, with faithful legitimacy, acknowledge, welcome, and support students who do not share that Christian identity? In other words, what argument can be given in defense of this premise?

Kevin runs his fingers through his hair in a show of frustration.

KEVIN: Unfortunately, I think you are demonstrating exactly the problem that we came here to resolve. Rather than  acknowledging the com-mitments and principles that an institution with a Christian identity needs to embody, you are trying to challenging their legitimacy and evading the concerns we’ve raised.

GABRIELLA: I believe I am attempting to enact precisely what you prayed for earlier: through our mutual witness and respectful admonishment, we hope to be transformed by God’s grace and grow in wisdom. Furthermore, you are introducing another assumption that we have to examine; namely, that accommodating religious commitments is incompatible with raising critical questions about them. But let’s not leave the other question unanswered. What theologically sound argument can be given in defense of the claim that our institution cannot legitimately acknowledge, welcome, and support students who are not Christian?

KEVIN: The issue is that the university has followed the lead of secular institutions and decided that everyone is welcome as they are, without any expectation that they undertake Christian formation or  be educated into the Christian faith.

GABRIELLA: You are begging the question. I have effectively asked you to explain why that is wrong.

KEVIN: It is wrong because it is a failure to faithfully live out our lives as people committed to Christ as our Lord and Savior. 

GABRIELLA: Again, what is a theologically sound argument to support that claim?

WILL: Obviously, living out our faith means constantly acknowledging and insisting on Jesus’s lordship.

KEVIN: Right. Christian hospitality does not entail hiding our faith under a bushel basket.² I want to share with you an essay that our group read and found insightful. It is by Perry Glanzer from Baylor University, and it’s about how many Christian colleges have a confused understanding of hospitality. 

He reaches into his bag, this time producing two stapled print-outs. He hands one to Gabriella and flips through his own copy until finding a passage.³ He reads it aloud. 

KEVIN: As Glanzer says, when being hospitable, one shouldn’t downplay or refrain from proclaiming Christ’s supremacy. When the university treats all perspectives as worthy of support and fails to proclaim Christ’s lordship, it is not being hospitable in the authentically Christian sense.⁴

Gabriella has been listening quietly, but her eyes betray a sense of incredulity.

GABRIELLA: I have to admit, I find this reading of Luke 7 strange. And the use to which the author, and you, have put it strikes me as morally off-base. 

KEVIN: Excuse me?

GABRIELLA: Jesus’s criticism of the Pharisee is precisely that he failed to acknowledge, welcome, and support his guest in a fitting manner. The point to take from this, it seems to me, is that one should acknowledge, welcome, and support strangers, guests, and those who bear witness to the truth in ways that conflict with our own.

Kevin blinks in an exaggerated way.

KEVIN: But that doesn’t entail neglecting the proclamation of Jesus’s lordship. Glanzer’s point was that the sinful woman refused to pretend that Jesus wasn’t the Lord. 

GABRIELLA: You’re right. She not only demonstrates the basic hospitality that Simon neglected, but she goes above and beyond. She lavishes love on him in ways that express her acknowledgement of his divinity. I don’t dispute that. Moreover, I fully agree that we should always be intentionally aware of Christ’s lordship. My issue is that in some cases, the way we faithfully demonstrate our confidence in Jesus’s lordship is through our actions, specifically by displacing, decentering, and inconveniencing ourselves to accommodate and accompany others. As the saying goes, we should always “preach the Gospel and sometimes use words.”⁵ 

KEVIN: The gospel is fundamentally a spoken word. It is true that our actions matter, but they are not a substitute for evangelization.⁶ 

GABRIELLA: The question I want you to ask with respect to our institution’s decisions to be accommodating is “Why do we do so in the way that we do?” As far as I can tell, you aren’t really asking that question, but rather assuming an answer. You assume it is because we are abandoning or hiding or ashamed of our Christian identity. But that is not how I nor any of my colleagues, as far as I know, conceive of it. We allow the requests and needs of others to move us to accompany them and provide for their needs precisely as an expression of our confidence in the good news. We do not anxiously worry whether we are worthy of God’s grace, nor do we worry that we have to engage in some sort of cultural one-upmanship to be faithful people. In an important sense, I think welcoming and accommodating people with other faith perspectives as ways of lavishing love upon them, much as the woman in Luke 7 did to Jesus. 

WILL: But they are not Jesus!

GABRIELLA: I think in the relevant sense they are, at least metaphorically. We don’t encounter Jesus except through the face of the other. 

WILL: That is simply not true! We encounter Christ in the Eucharist. 

GABRIELLA: Yes. And in the face of the other.

KEVIN: We’re getting off track. Non-Christians who choose to come to our university should expect to not only encounter but be taught our faith. And we do not need to bend over backwards to accommodate their secular concerns. If they want to attend a secular university, they should have done so.

GABRIELLA: Three things: first, we do provide scholarly articulations of the faith in the required Christian Traditions courses. Second, we actively invite non-Christians to attend because, in addition to our Christian identity, we believe we have other gifts to offer, and that includes providing a welcoming and academically challenging educational environment. Third, that piece by Glanzer and the point you just made remind me of a maxim a certain church lists as one of its seven principles. To paraphrase, the principle asserts that if a guest disturbs the order of your house or is disquieting, you should turn them out. When they are in your house, they should submit to your rules. Do you know what church has this as a principle?

WILL: No, but it seems reasonable.

GABRIELLA: It is the fourth Satanic Rule from the Church of Satan. The original formulation states, “If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.”⁷ 

WILL: That is not at all the same thing!

GABRIELLA: Isn’t it? (After a pause.) When our gay, lesbian, and trans students—many of whom are Christian, by the way—ask to be recognized and accommodated, are they not asking for our mercy—our love? When we listened to our Muslim students and provided them with a prayer space, were we not being gracious and refraining from taking this as an offense to ourselves? And are you not asking that we instead think of these requests as annoyances that ought to be ignored?

KEVIN: I have to say, I am very disappointed that you are not hearing us out. 

GABRIELLA: I want to reiterate that I think you are misinterpreting me. I am hearing you out, and I am responding thoughtfully and in what I take to be a manner that is faithful to the glad tidings. I think you are mistakingly assuming that what it means to hear you out is to simply acquiesce to your perspective. That respects neither my own nor your dignity. You don’t need to be infantilized. As siblings in Christ, we can and must discuss things as adults.

WILL: This is entirely offensive! You’re now calling us children!

GABRIELLA: Hardly. I’m saying you seem to want to be treated like children and I am refusing to do so. 

KEVIN: (turning to Will) I think we are done here. I’m saddened that this has appeared to be a waste of time.

GABRIELLA: I, too, am saddened that you conceive of it in that way. I hope as you prayerfully reflect on our conversation that your assessment changes.

The men gather their bags and leave. Gabriella closes the door to her office and falls back in her chair, her hands trembling. She closes her eyes and mutters:

Sophia, give me strength.

Notes

1. Pope Francis, “‘Amoris Laetitia’: Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on Love in the Family (19 March 2016) vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_ exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-
laetitia.html.

2. Mark 4:21-25. 

3. Perry L. Glanzer, “A Major Threat to Christ-Animated Learning: Confusion about Hospitality to Non-Christians at Christian Universities.” Christian Scholar’s Review (blog), November 3, 2023. christianscholars.com/the-major-threat-to-christ-animated-learning-confusion-about-hospitality-to-non-christians-at-christian-universities/.

4. Ibid.

5. This is often attributed to Francis of Assisi, though it is not clear that he said it. 

6. This is a point made by, among others, Cole Huffman, He Made the Stars Also: Seven Stories That Had to Be Told (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2019).

7. Anton Szandor LaVey, “The Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth” (1967), available at churchofsatan.com/eleven-rules-of-earth.