NY Times: A Christian University Fired Two Employees For Including Pronouns In Their Email Signatures

New York Times, A University Fired 2 Employees for Including Their Pronouns in Emails:

When Raegan Zelaya and Shua Wilmot decided to include their pronouns at the end of their work emails, they thought they were doing a good thing: following what they viewed as an emerging professional standard, and also sending a message of inclusivity at the Christian university where they worked.

But their bosses at Houghton University, in upstate New York, saw the matter very differently.

Administrators at Houghton, which was founded and is now owned by a conservative denomination that branched off from the Methodist Church, asked Ms. Zelaya and Mr. Wilmot, two residence hall directors, to remove the words “she/her” and “he/him” from their email signatures, saying they violated a new policy. When they refused to do so, both employees were fired, just weeks before the end of the semester.

Houghton’s firing of the two staff members has dismayed some of its alumni, nearly 600 of whom signed a petition in protest. And it comes as gender and sexuality have become major fault lines in an increasingly divided nation, and after other faith-based organizations, including Yeshiva University in Manhattan, have argued that First Amendment protections of religious freedom allow them to treat gay and transgender people differently than others. ...

With fewer than 1,000 students, Houghton is smaller and off the beaten track, but it has made other recent moves that put it in line with its conservative Christian peers, and that have alarmed some alumni. Since 2021, it has closed a multicultural student center and an environmental sustainability program and rescinded its recognition of an on-campus L.G.B.T.Q. club after the club declined to promote more conservative views on sex and gender.

“I think it boils down to: They want to be trans-exclusive and they want to communicate that to potential students and the parents of potential students,” Mr. Wilmot said of his firing. ...

Michael Blankenship, a university spokesman, said in a statement that Houghton “has never terminated an employment relationship based solely on the use of pronouns in staff email signatures.”

“Over the past years, we’ve required anything extraneous be removed from email signatures, including Scripture quotes,” he said. ...

Houghton University is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church, which teaches that “gender confusion and dysphoria are ultimately the biological, psychological, social and spiritual consequences of the human race’s fallen condition.” It views “adult gender nonconformity as a violation of the sanctity of human life.”

The university maintains a public declaration of its beliefs, describing itself as “solidly Biblical” and saying the teachings of the Wesleyan Church are “central everywhere” on campus.

“Sometimes, this means affirming positions currently called conservative,” Houghton’s statement of belief says. “For example, we privilege the understanding of marriage as between a man and a woman, and the sanctity of life from conception to natural death.”

But Houghton’s statement of belief also expresses some positions that conservatives might disagree with, including an acceptance of women into the priesthood and the belief “that we have significant work to do in healing the scars of racism in America.”

Some alumni said open debate and respect for differing views was what they valued about their time at Houghton. Almost 600 signed an open letter at the end of April protesting the termination of Ms. Zelaya and Mr. Wilmot, as well as other recent university decisions. ...

Earlier this month, the university president, Wayne D. Lewis Jr., replied to the alumni letter. ... [W]hile he did not address the firing of Ms. Zelaya and Mr. Wilmot, he did reaffirm the university’s commitment to the teachings of the Wesleyan Church.

“Houghton unapologetically privileges an orthodox Christian worldview, rooted in the Wesleyan theological tradition,” the president wrote. He also noted that university employees were required to reaffirm their “understanding of and agreement to these commitments” at the start of each year. ...

• Los Angeles Times, Two Christian College Employees Used Pronouns in Their Email Signatures. Then They Were Fired:
• New York Post, Christian NY University Reportedly Fires 2 Employees For Using Pronouns in Email Signatures

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