My eyes popped out of my head when I read this story.
In my opinion, this only causes division and society which already perceives that Church of Christ means stodgy, legalistic, and inclusive; well this confirms that!
I hate this type of control with every ounce of my being.
What is your take on this?
Wed January 11, 2006
Divorce can mean loss of job at university
By Susan Simpson
The Oklahoman
Staff and faculty members at Oklahoma Christian University could get fired if they get divorced, according to a policy the private school plans to implement next month.
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The policy, endorsed by regents in October, gives President Mike O'Neal authority to terminate any employee who separates or divorces for reasons that don't meet "limited scriptural grounds."
"The university promotes the sanctity and preservation of marriage," he said. "The university must retain the responsibility to make judgments about whether an individual working at the university is supportive of that."
The change puts an unstated policy into writing, he said. Several employees have been asked to resign after they failed to uphold the university's values.
The policy also applies to prospective employees, who may not be hired if they've been divorced. He said current employees who have been divorced won't be fired.
A termination can be appealed to a three-member committee of the regents.
O'Neal thinks it will be rare for the university to terminate workers for divorce or separation. He said he will consider each case individually and urge a reconciliation if the marriage might be saved.
The policy will cause great emotional harm to people facing divorce, said a faculty member who asked not to be identified.
"It's not related to job performance, and it just adds to the pain of someone having a divorce," said the professor, who's been married for many years and questioned the legality of such a policy.
The policy does not list accepted grounds for divorce, but O'Neal said they could include adultery, physical or emotional violence, or efforts by the university-employed spouse to preserve the marriage.
He said decisions about termination will be made with great care and compassion.
"No one has said living a Christian life is an easy thing."
Several legal experts said the policy could stand in court.
"There's a lot of discretion in this policy," said employment law attorney Audra Hamilton of Tulsa. "The question will be whether the discretion is handled even-handedly."
Sheldon Steinbach, a lawyer for the American Council on Education, said the policy could lead to legal jockeying.
"It gives the party that would like to leave the marriage an enormous bargaining tool," he said, because the nonemployee could make unfair demands in exchange for agreeing to divorce on scriptural grounds.
Bob Andringa, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, said such a written policy on divorce would be rare on campuses, but not unexpected.
"Many campus policies are reflections of the doctrine/theology of the supporting churches," Andringa said. "Most conservative denominations do put limits on leadership roles within the church for those who are divorced."
Oklahoma Christian, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, employs about 250 people who would be subject to the policy, O'Neal said.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Lessons in Legalism 101
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11 comments:
My first thought was that OCU is setting themselves up for a lawsuit. The perception that this kind of policy generates is that OCU is a Bob Jones type of university -- not very grace oriented.
I am an alum/former faculty memeber at OC--all the press releases are biased in my opinion. Dr. Mike is an attorney himself--a very bright one--I don't think he will let anything go to court.
There's a history to this is you all want to specifics.
I would like to say, once again in my opinion--this is the media trying to make Christians look bad by taking a story out of context.
I know it looks bad--but I would ask that you find out the details (not from the media) before you decide what's really going on here.
OC and ACU and Harding and every other Christian type organization has issues. In my opinion, this is such a media-induced story.
Most of the faculty/staff at OC know much about grace!
For my part in this, I am praying that God can be glorified through some bad mis-information.
**member
can't proofread!
please forgive!
My first impression is that it's wrong. No questions asked.
But, I just read JB's comment, and I'd love to know why this could be okay.
Now see, I think that if you want to teach at the school, you have to be willing to follow the mandates or go find another place to work. I'm a little tired of anyone or anything that isn't "up to speed" or "politically correct" getting blackballed or labeled as archaic. They're grandfathering in the people on staff and just doing what they think best represents the values of their denomination. I can't fault them for that. And it's still their call!
All comments are good.
My take on it is, I am divorced.
How can anyone know what goes on behind bedroom doors? How can an employer know the professor at the college is not addicted to porn?
What if the wife does and chooses to divorce the professor? I know I am speaking hypothetical, and the college can make their mandates as they please. I feel it closes the door to potential good employees not working there because of something that happened in their lives that is no fault of their own. That is what troubles me about this policy.
I just read on Mike Cope's blog OC has rescinded this policy.
Good for them!
You're right about that!! You don't know what people are really like until you've lived with them. I think if I were in charge, I'd take it on a case by case policy. I've known some good people blindsided by being served divorce papers and, like you said, there ARE times when divorce isn't necessarily an option. I still think private schools have the right to decide what their own rules for teachers/students/policies should be.
Hey! I think this is totally fine. The Church of Christ does have problems, but not it's insistence that divorce is bad. It's CoC school, and I think it has every right to try its best to have teachers that believe and follow the Bible.
It's not being graceless to try to do that. They aren't saying that you can't be forgiven. Just that you can't be hired.
Seems if people get divorced unscipturally, they can apply at any other school they want.
What do you think?
(And I'm not even CoC!)
Oh, I just saw that you said they rescinded the policy.
However, the professor being addicted to porn is not the issue. Yes, someone could be a liar, or have bad thoughts, or cheat on their taxes... there are many sins that are hidden.
And your point is well-taken that they'd miss out on qualified candidates. However, SO many people try to get jobs at colleges, I think they'd be fine.
Just like Catholic colleges can only hire Catholics if they chose. Yes, they lose out on qualified people, but they think it's worth the loss to maintain a certain environment.
There is always forgiveness for all who want it, obviosly.
If it is a private school, without federal funding, I think they have a right to have there own rules. One thing that would make this better is to make judgements on a case by case basis. There should be some kind of appeal process also. When you sign a contract with the university, then you need to follow their rules. It's really hard to say.
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