A section of Bethel University’s Covenant for Life Together condemning homosexual behavior has drawn scrutiny over the past few weeks after a tweet with a picture of the agreement gained over 850 likes.

Bella Johnson tweeted her shock that the university would make students sign an agreement to not exhibit homosexual behavior in order to be a student at Bethel.

https://twitter.com/bellajohnsn/status/917081323680010241

Students, faculty and administration must sign and agree to abide by the covenant while at Bethel.

“Our covenant for life together talks about ways in which we should interact, respect, and hold each other accountable in terms of our community,” Vice President for Student Life William Washington said. “When things occur, and it comes to our attention, we take a redemptive discipline approach with our students.”

Restricted behaviors listed in the covenant include “destructive anger, malice, rage, sexual immorality, impurity, adultery, evil desires, greed, idolatry, slander, profanity, lying, homosexual behavior, drunkenness, thievery, and dishonesty.”

https://twitter.com/bellajohnsn/status/917090409268088832

The inclusion of homosexual behavior on the list of prohibited behaviors is under fire for excluding homosexual students.

“Many faith-based perspectives have been that marriage is primarily between a man and woman,” Washington said. “We are one of the institutions that agrees with that… From a religious standpoint, we’re exercising what we believe is God’s intent as outlined in the Bible as well as what other denominations also have the ability to represent as well.”

Neither homosexual students nor heterosexual students are allowed to have sex before marriage under the covenant.

“We make it very clear to our heterosexual students that sex before marriage is prohibited,” Washington said. “We hold the same true for our homosexual students or students who are struggling with same-sex attraction. The line is pretty clear and distinct that neither group should be participating in behavior that is within that realm.”

The covenant condemns racism, sexism, and discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, age and disability. However, discrimination based on sexual orientation is not included in the list.

“We are all bearers of the image of Christ and that means that they should receive the same kind of dignity, respect and love that any student receives,” Washington said. “We don’t differentiate in terms of how we treat our students.”

Junior Riley Thompson transferred to St. Thomas after spending two years at Bethel.

“I do believe that the Bethel culture promotes a sense of homophobia, sexism and racism,” Thompson said.

Thompson originally attended Bethel to play baseball, but for him, the benefits of baseball didn’t outweigh the negatives of the culture.

An African-American friend of Thompson at Bethel displayed a Black Lives Matter poster in his window, and according to Thompson the poster faced constant abuse.

“This was at the beginning of sophomore year and I swear once a week there would be some sort of vandalism towards that poster. Every week,” Thompson said. “It was just brutal. Food would be thrown at it, basically people telling him to stop, take it down.”

In a survey conducted by the Bethel administration last year about how students, faculty and the administration felt about the covenant, nearly 84 percent felt positively about it.

According to Bethel sophomore Charlie Hoaglund, the covenant is widely accepted at Bethel.

“I think the general consensus is that everything goes back to what the Bible says. That’s where we find out truth; we’re not making this up,” Hoaglund said. “The Bible has homosexuality as a sin, and if you want to live to the truth to the Bible, then you need to obey God’s commands and that’s one of his commands. I think the majority of people don’t have a problem with that.”

Solveig Rennan can be reached at renn6664@stthomas.edu.