Someone with a connection to Trinity Academy — a private Christian high school in Wichita, Kansas — sent me a document yesterday with the school’s Statement of Understanding. It’s not available on the website, but it’s the form students and their parents have to sign before they can be admitted.

Most of it’s standard stuff. You have to believe the Bible is inerrant, that belief in the divinity of Jesus is the only path to salvation, that pre-marital sex is a no-no…

But the very last bulletpoint is one I’ve never seen before, even at fundamentalist Christian schools:

Given the debate and confusion in our society about marriage and human sexuality it is vital that Trinity families agree with and support the school’s traditional, Christian understanding of those issues. Therefore, when the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home is counter to the school’s understanding of a biblical lifestyle, including the practice or promotion of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) lifestyle or alternative gender identity, the school should have the right, in its sole discretion, to deny the admission of an applicant or discontinue enrollment of a current student.

In other words, if you have a gay sibling at home who doesn’t even attend Trinity, the school could theoretically kick you out for being part of a family that isn’t appalled by what’s going on.

It wouldn’t even be enough that the sibling was celibate, by this rule; the fact that someone gay lives at home could be a deal-breaker. (I wonder if this applies to gay relatives, too.)

Again, most Christian schools these days allow celibate gay students to attend without a problem.

So… did I miss something? Is this Trinity rule the norm now? Are Christians done with “loving the sinner”? There are a lot of reasons not to send your kids to a school like this, but this is a new one even for me.



