March 4, 2016 (CardinalNewmanSociety) — Saint Mary’s College of California hosted a roundtable discussion on Monday night “exploring the intersections of LGBT, Religion, Race, Gender and Ethnicity” featuring four activists for legalized same-sex marriage with an understanding of human sexuality not in alignment with Catholic Church teaching, causing a theology professor at the College to severely criticize the one-sided, anti-Catholic nature of the event.
“It seems to me, at a place that claims on some level to still be faith-based, we owe the students more than this,” Father David Gentry-Akin, professor of theology at Saint Mary’s, told The Cardinal Newman Society. Fr. Gentry-Akin said if the College is going to allow students to be exposed to points of view that contradict Church teaching, then event organizers “need to make sure there’s someone there who can speak credibly about the tradition of the Church on these questions.”
The panel discussion featured three speakers from the Pacific School of Religion, Dr. Justin Tanis, Dr. Bernie Schlager and Janice Sommerville, along with Lisbeth Melendez Rivera, the coordinator of Catholic and Latina programming for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
The event was co-sponsored by a number of Saint Mary’s departments and campus initiatives, including: Women’s and Gender Studies, Theology and Religious Studies, Communication and The Roy E. and Patricia Disney Forum, The Intercultural Center, CILSA, Ethnic Studies, English, History, Women’s Resource Center, Justice, Community and Leadership, Anthropology, Global and Regional Studies, Mission and Ministry Center, Student Engagement and Academic Success, and PRIDE.
Each of the speakers has a history of publicly condoning same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage. And Rivera’s employer, the HRC, actively works to undermine Church teaching on marriage and human sexuality across the country.
The Newman Society contacted the professor hosting the discussion, Dr. Scott Schönfeldt-Aultman, to ask if anyone would be presenting Catholic Church teaching on the discussion topics of the roundtable and how the event furthers the Catholic mission of the College. No response was received by press time.
College administrators were also contacted and asked how the discussion is being “conducted in a fashion worthy of a community of learning” per the External Speaker and Public Event policy when the entire panel is openly opposed to Catholic Church teaching on human sexuality. No response was received.
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Tanis is on record arguing in support of the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. Tanis has also been public about having a “transgender identity” and wrote in the book Trans-Gendered: Theology, Ministry and Communities of Faith, “Rather than simply being a fluke, an oddity, or a source of shame, gender variance comes to be seen as part of our God-given identities. Even more than that, it becomes our spiritual responsibility to explore fully the nature that God has given to us.”
Schlager wrote an article praising Catholic politicians who support legalizing same-sex marriage in 2012, and criticized U.S. bishops who defend Church teaching on marriage in the same article. In a separate 2012 piece, Schlager specifically criticized Archbishop John Nienstedt of Minnesota for calling on the faithful in his diocese to pray for the defense of marriage. Schlager issued a mock prayer in response to the archbishop asking God to lead people to embrace same-sex relationships.
Sommerville has been public about condoning the same-sex marriage of a clergy member of the United Church of Christ where she was involved.
Rivera’s work at the HRC not only supports the legalization of same-sex marriage, but a misrepresentation of the Catholic faith. The organization focuses on “Catholic initiatives” that present the Catholic faith as supporting same-sex relationships. HRC also promotes dissident Catholic groups in pushing its false narrative of the faith, such as Catholics for Choice, which supports abortion and contraception.
By organizing such a one-sided panel, one in which any exploration of the teaching of the Church on human sexuality is actually excluded, Fr. Gentry-Akin said that “we are abusing the authority entrusted to us as educators at a Catholic institution.”
Father Gentry-Akin was quick to note that he understands and takes seriously “our obligation to accompany our gay and lesbian students in their human, spiritual, and intellectual journeys, to help them in discerning what their sexual orientation means and how they can integrate that dimension of who they are into their search for meaningful lives.” But, in his view, this requires a much more thoughtful and nuanced approach, and one that — at a Catholic institution — should draw significantly on the wisdom of the Catholic tradition.
“This event is indoctrination, not education,” he said of the panel, “because only one point of view is being entertained. Even in the most secular of environments, even in an environment that claims not to espouse any particular tradition, that would not be education because it’s not an event that entertains all sides of a question.”
Even if both sides of the issues were presented, Fr. Gentry-Akin added: “This institution exists for advancing a certain perspective on these questions, therefore we have the right, and many of us would say the obligation, to use our resources to advance that perspective, and not one that goes against the teaching of the Church.”
Reprinted with permission from The Cardinal Newman Society.