Lesbian kicked out of school: help and sign the petition

[rrhill]

Grace University: Don't force my wife to pay back college scholarships because she's gay

My wife, Danielle Powell, was kicked out of Grace University because she is gay. As if that's not bad enough, now the school is forcing her to pay back her scholarship money, because they say she wasn't "moral" enough to deserve that scholarship.
Danielle dreamed of completing her degree at Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska and becoming the first person in her family to graduate from college. She earned scholarships to cover her tuition and, for 3 ½ years, contributed to the school both academically and in extracurricular activities, including playing on the volleyball team and starting an on-campus homeless outreach in Omaha’s downtown area.

In the spring 2011, that dream came to an end when university officials found out Danielle was in a same-sex relationship and expelled her from school just one semester short of graduation. She was told, “…it would be impossible for the faculty of Grace University to affirm your Christian character, a requirement for degree conferral.” Danielle’s life was completely turned upside down and her academic career ended simply because she fell in love with another woman.

Being kicked out of school for being gay would have been awful enough -- but Danielle’s nightmare didn’t end there. In addition to being expelled, school officials revoked her scholarships and are hounding her for $6000 in back due tuition for the final semester -- which she was never allowed to complete -- that her scholarships would have covered.

I’m asking for your help in petitioning Grace University to drop all tuition fees owed for the Spring Semester of 2011. We are a young, recently married couple and this lingering debt -- which Danielle should not have to pay and Grace University has no right to demand -- is holding her back from achieving her dreams and putting us in a perilous financial situation. Please sign this petition and join us in demanding at least a shred of “grace” from Grace University.

Clilck here to sign the petition

source: https://www.change.org/petitions/gr...y-back-college-scholarships-because-she-s-gay

 

[grace17]

So sad that this type of discrimination still exists. How can love be considered immoral?

 

[Donner]

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING AND COMPLETELY REPREHENSIBLE AND BACKWARD THINKING!!! These university officials should be censured and strongly reprimanded for their actions. YOU BET YOUR ASS I SIGNED THIS PETITION AND HOPEFULLY SO WILL ALL OF YOU!! Speaking of UNamerican!!!!!!!

 

[rrhill]

Danielle Powell's sad story appeared even in the Dutch news.

Hope that some of you will sign this girls petition.

 

[tampa24]

I signed it.

 

[KellyG]

signed. This is disgusting

 

[keylow365]

I do not see this as discrimination though Grace University is a christian college and any student found immoral is expelled. The fact is this school is based on christian values no pre marital sex,drinking,drugs and the list goes on anyone enrolling in a Christian college must sign. I know this because I went one for a semester you have to attend church and bible study and the handbook and agreement you sign clearly states no pre marital sex . Read the following article.


The Huffington Post storyabout a lesbian student's fight with a Christian university—complete with headlines that focus on her expulsion and resulting tuition bill—may get reader clicks, but it doesn't tell the whole truth.*Grace University in Omaha, Neb., expelled former student Danielle Powell last spring after a yearlong restoration period. The school discovered Powell’s same-sex relationship in early 2011 and began the same probation process that all students face if they break the student code, which covers academics and behavior.*

“Any sexual activity outside of marriage is prohibited,” Michael James, the school’s executive vice president, told WORLD.

James said that all students understand the policy, since all students receive the handbook and sign a statement saying they agree to live by the guidelines. If students break those rules, they face probation and possibly a “judiciary hearing” made up of faculty and students who discuss the case.

“This situation has been handled no differently than any other violation of our code of conduct,” James said. “It’s a situation where the rules were very clear, the consequences were very clear, and everything has played out as the policy said it should. There are no surprises here.”

Powell had finished less than 60 percent of the semester when probation began. According to Title IV government requirements, when a student withdraws before that mark, the school must return government scholarship money. For Powell, that means she has an outstanding $6,300 to pay for spring 2011. James said the school doesn’t use collection agencies—it sends a letter every six months asking the student to pay: “There are no other repercussions for the student.”

According to The Huffington Post, the school asked Powell “why she did what she did and whether she was remorseful.” The article added that “Powell said that the university told her she could participate in a restoration program, involving counseling and regular church attendance, to get readmitted.”

She began that process in the summer of 2011, but shortly before the start of the spring 2012 semester, Grace expelled her because she was still dating women.

“Our goal is to restore all our students to the body of Christ,” James said. “Fundamental to that restoration is recognition and repentance of sin. If they don’t acknowledge that, we can’t restore them to our community.”

In the year since Grace expelled Powell, she has married Michelle Rogers and wants to finish her degree. The Huffington Post reported that the school refused transcripts until she paid, but James denies those allegations: “The letter that they referred to in [the article] clearly stated that we were clearly willing to provide transcripts and help the student transfer to another university.”

Rogers has started a petition on Change.org asking Grace University to forgive Powell’s debt. It has garnered more than 17,000 signatures, with the number quickly rising.

James expressed no animosity toward Powell: “We are not telling anybody else how to live their life.” But he also remained firm: “This is an important policy of ours and it’s not going to change.”

 

[Blue011]

Gay Discrimination and Racial Segregation

I find the defense that the institution involved is christian and therefore should be able to do what it wants to be naive and disingenuous.

Until recently, southern white Baptist denominations opposed the mixing of the races and supported some form of segregation.

Public policy should allow vigorous debate on all issues; but, as a matter of course, the same public policy should prohibit discrimination in any form.

So, the christian college can teach what it likes; but, its actions can not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed or sexual orientation.

The actions of the college clearly do so to the student involved and some public authority ought to step in and required the college to refund the money paid to it (as a minimum).

 

[rrhill]

Rob's bible class

The bible is not an anti-gay book at all.

Even anti-gay bible researchers agree that the Old Testament context of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 is Molech worship and shrine prostitution. What Leviticus says is not about gay people that love each other, in a relationship at all. It's about a second God, a Pagan God called Molech. Gay sex was used in Pagan rituals those days. They abused slaves sexually, paedophiles, foreigners got raped in pagan fertility rites.

The word Sodomites? 48 times the bible mentions Sodom. Not once in all 48 versus God connects homosexuality to Sodom. These anti-gay Christians abuse the bible!

Jesus mentions Sodom in Matthew 10:15 and 11:23, Mark 6:11, Luke 10:12 and 17:29 - and guess, not once he speaks of gays in connection with Sodom. If gay people were that sinful he would have!

Gay haters just wish that Jesus at least would have bothered to condemn homosexuality once. But the truth is Jesus never said one bad word about gays at all!

2000 years ago, in the Aramaic language one did not use the word gay, or homosexual. The bible addresses gays as Eunuchs or Saris (Eunuch in Hebrew)

There is one thing Jesus says in the bible about us gays.

Matthew 19:11-12

[SUP]11 [/SUP]Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. [SUP]12 [/SUP]For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

This chapter is about marriage. In this particular verse Jesus explains to his disciples that there are three natural groups that are not bound to the covenant of Adam and Eve. Natural born gays, people with birth defects or castrated people, and third priests; like Jesus himself did not marry for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus was a Eunuch too! What he says is that gays do not have to marry a woman, nor those with a physical problem, or priests. They are exempted by nature from a marriage with a woman.

 

[keylow365]

I see that you did not read the article at all I posted. I did not use the school being christian as a defense I used the fact that she willingly signed the agreement stating she would not have pre marital sex with the university. Blue001 I was born and raised down south and trust me it is not just white southern Baptist that do not believe in race mixing. I simply stated facts from personal experience as I have been to a christian college and had to sign the same agreement. But as usual you prefer to get on a soapbox without all the facts.

 

[keylow365]

The bible did mention that but what he meant by eunuchs has been debated for years some think it refers to homosexuals while others think he meant a birth defect where one could not get erect.

 

[Blue011]

Keylow: I read "acceptance" in your post

I see that you did not read the article at all I posted. I did not use the school being christian as a defense I used the fact that she willingly signed the agreement stating she would not have pre marital sex with the university. Blue001 I was born and raised down south and trust me it is not just white southern Baptist that do not believe in race mixing. I simply stated facts from personal experience as I have been to a christian college and had to sign the same agreement. But as usual you prefer to get on a soapbox without all the facts.

I do apologize keylow if I misinterpreted your post.

What I saw the in post was a sort of an explanation of "and that is the way it works in the south."

That is what I meant by "a defense" because that is what I thought I saw in your post -- an acceptance that the sort of treatment the student received was just "normal" or "the way things work."

I believe that as a matter of law and public policy, such agreement or contract provisions are, and ought to be, ineffective and thus null and void.

I still find it a disturbing argument sometimes echoed by what I hear from my many friends who live and work in the south when dealing with cultural and sexual matters.

I had read the article in the Huffington Post and read a couple more elsewhere before I read your post. I knew exactly what you were talking about although only your post could provide the context in what you were writing about.

There is a great quote which is normally attributed to Edmund Burke or Frederick Douglas which I think applies here.

"All that is required for Evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

In the South, while males have been doing nothing for a very long time. It is appropriate to call them out on it.

 

[keylow365]

No problem Blue I would have normally agreed but personal experience going to a christian college stopped me. The student handbook states what is prohibited which is basically anything young people think is fun which is why I made it one semester and left if you leave before that you have to pay the tuition. She willingly signed the contract and continued going her being lesbian has nothing to do with it. While many things people do in the bible belt irks me she could have transferred at any time.