That's the title of a new piece in First Things by the distinguished New Testament scholar Dr. Robert Gagnon. Dr. Gagnon, a professor at Pittsburg Theological Seminary, spoke at FRC on the Bible's teaching on homosexuality last year and we honor him for his careful, judicious, and thorough teaching concerning what Scripture says about human sexuality.
Today he reports that California's Fuller Seminary has "decided not to offer tenure to a New Testament professor, J. R. Daniel Kirk, whose view of marriage does not comport with Jesus's view." He notes that while this must not have been an easy decision, it was an important and necessary one: "Had Fuller set a precedent of embracing faculty whose position toward sexual ethics was so at odds with Jesus's own, it would soon have ceased to be an evangelical institution."
He is right. And despite calls by some on the Left that schools like Fuller should lose accreditation, federal student loan eligibility, or even tax exempt status, Dr. Gagnon reminds us that the cost of following Jesus is such that any temporal loss is worth accepting if it comes as a result of following Him faithfully. As he writes:
"American Evangelical, Orthodox, and Catholic colleges and seminaries will face greater challenges in the not-too-distant future if they do not bend the proverbial knee to the unconstitutional, new state definition of marriage. They will be threatened with lawsuits and loss of accreditation. Their students will be denied access to federal student loans. This will happen for 'discriminating' not only against faculty supporters of 'gay marriage' but also against homosexually active job applicants. Eventually sanctions may be imposed even for permitting faculty to teach or write against homosexual practice. Yet no matter what comes, we must heed Jesus's exhortation to 'estimate the cost' of being his faithful disciple and of 'carrying one's own cross' (Luke 14:27-28)."