Andrews University’s refusal to organize a bake sale to help raise money for Project Fierce (an organization dedicated to assisting homeless LGBT youth) incited Aull4One (an unofficial pro-LGBT campus group) to launch a crowd funding campaign on IndieGoGo to raise funds for the charity instead. The goal was to raise $2000, and they have collected a whopping $8175.
Administrators suggested students donate to Night Ministry, a faith-based non-profit that serves a wide variety of Chicago’s homeless. But Eliel Cruz, co-founder and former president of Aull4One, a Christian and LGBT, and the rest of Aull4One rejected their proposal noting that the ministry does not cater to the specific needs of LGBT youth. Aull4One recommended a non-profit that works for LGBT youth, but the officials rejected that as well. Calling Andrews University’s repeated denials as unethical and not at all Christ-like, the group was forced to launch its own online fundraiser.
Andrews University officials argued that donating to Project Fierce would “conflict with the university’s mission and practices” because the school, the first in the nation started by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is officially “opposed to homosexual practices and relationships”. After the controversy, the university, the largest evangelical Christian institution of higher learning in Michigan, issued a statement justifying its decision:
Andrews University recognizes the special challenges facing LGBT youth and believes that efforts to help them are worthy. Providing care to LGBT homeless youth is compatible with our institutional mission to demonstrate God’s love to all people, and reflects our denomination’s specific call to exhibit compassion for LGBT persons.
At the same time, Andrews University has declined a student request to officially endorse a fundraising effort to raise money for an organization that may have a perceived LGBT advocacy role. This decision was made in the context of our student fundraising policy in the Student Handbook, which states that funds may be raised for non-profit organizations “whose mission and practices do not conflict with those of the University.”
So, our objection was not to the worthy goal of serving LGBT homeless youth and their transitional housing needs but to the perceived advocacy stance of the proposed organization. As a result, we can and will support LGBT homeless youth through organizations whose mission and purpose clearly align with the religious mission and purpose of our University and its sponsoring church. We invite our student clubs to find the appropriate organizations and opportunities to do just that.
In their defence, AULL4One argued on their Facebook page, that the school’s refusal flies in the face of the very faith they claim to uphold.
