Christian university drops sex ban

LANGLEY — A Christian university in B.C. will no longer require students to adhere to a covenant forbidding sex outside of heterosexual marriage.

The board of governors at Trinity Western University in Langley voted Thursday to make the school’s “community covenant” voluntary for students beginning this school year.

The private institution had applied to provincial law societies for accreditation of a law school but was denied in British Columbia and Ontario because of the covenant.

In June, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that requiring a person to behave contrary to their sexual identity is “degrading and disrespectful” in two landmark decisions that said law societies have the right to deny accreditation to the proposed law school.

The high court said law societies in Ontario and British Columbia were entitled to ensure equal access to the bar, support diversity and prevent harm to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students.

The legal action pitted two significant societal values – freedom of religion and promotion of equality – against one another.

The motion passed Thursday said the intention behind it was to maintain Trinity Western as a “thriving community of Christian believers that is inclusive of all students wishing to learn from a Christian viewpoint and underlying philosophy.”

Trinity Western will also work to determine ways in which its Christian identity can continue to be strengthened while welcoming the unique value of each member of its diverse student body, the university said in a statement issued Tuesday.

“Let there be no confusion regarding the board of governors’ resolution; our mission remains the same. We will remain a biblically based, mission-focused, academically excellent university, fully committed to our foundational evangelical Christian principles,” president Robert Kuhn said in the statement.

“We will continue to be a Christ-centred community...”