In the organization registration form that must be completed for a club to be officially recognized, that club must explain how its purpose aligns with the mission and values of PUC.
Mission of PUC:
“Pacific Union College is a Seventh-day Adventist learning community offering an excellent Christ-centered education that prepares its students for productive lives of useful human service and uncompromising personal integrity.”
Purpose of GASP:
“GASP (Gay and Straight People) is an entirely unofficial student-run, non-partisan group at Pacific Union College. Our sole purpose is to be a resource for students facing adversity because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identification and to foster understanding within the Christ-centered Adventist community at PUC.
“GASP seeks to provide open discussion of issues facing LGBTQ students at PUC and encourages community both with other LGBTQ students and with supportive allies at PUC. All those interested in supportive conversations about the issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning students at PUC are welcome.”
- Seventh-Day Adventist learning community:
GASP seeks to foster understanding of the LGBTQ+ community in the context of a Christ-centered educational environment of PUC. We can learn from from GASP about how to have thoughtful and respectful conversations with real LGBTQIA+ people and get to know them as human beings. We can learn about the issues these individuals face and play an important role in moving the Adventist church forward in how it approaches the LGBTQIA+ community.
- Preparation for productive lives of useful human service and uncompromising personal integrity:
GASP provides a supportive and safe space for one of the most marginalized populations in the Adventist church. In the life of Jesus we recognize the calling to serve the least among us. While Jesus lived among humanity he surrounded himself with the outcast and those the church rejected. He didn’t look down on them in judgment but invited them to eat and serve with him and offered rest. GASP offers a place for safety where students can maintain their integrity while exploring difficult questions about themselves and their faith.
Our sister institution, Andrews University, established “a confidential, members-only group that will minister spiritually and emotionally to a select number of students with the influence and care of faithful Adventist mentors” called Haven. This group is explicitly differentiated from being a student club or Gay-Straight Alliance and “forbids students from advocating or instigating views or behaviors that are inconsistent with the biblical teachings of the Adventist church.”
PUC is an Adventist institution of higher education like Andrews. The college adheres to the tenets and teachings of the Adventist church and its students abide by a code of conduct that reflects these beliefs and practices. PUC and other Adventist institutions use their status as a nonprofit religious corporation to claim religious exemption to aspects of Title IX that allows for discrimination against certain groups. This exemption allows PUC to block official recognition of GASP simply on the basis that its members, both gay and straight people, might express support for or even endorse views contrary to the teachings of the church and the group provides a space for and encourages these conversations to happen.
Institutions of higher learning are meant to be places where young people can explore life’s tough questions. At an Adventist institution of higher learning, students do so in the context of a Christ-centered atmosphere, allowing for a rigorous testing of not only our understanding of the world but also our faith. If PUC desires to prepare students for lives of uncompromising personal integrity, it must first allow students to fully live their truth without judgment. GASP provides this avenue for LGBTQIA+ people and supportive allies at PUC.
Photo credit: Naked Pastor