× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Liberty University special-ordered a psychology textbook to omit a section on sexual motivation and orientation, raising concerns among some students that the decision perpetuates a bias toward the gay community.

The Liberty instructor teaching the online class told students by email that the content was deleted only for the Psychology 101 course “due to our inability to scaffold learning and discussion on this section given the format of this course.”

“A few people reviewed the content from the module, and it was decided that the way it was presented could be misinterpreted,” the email from Heather Elaine Medvedenko said. “We didn’t want the focus of this chapter to end up being sexual motivation, and to leave the content without adding discussion and videos would not do justice to the topic.”

The news office for the university, an evangelical institution in Lynchburg, issued “a general statement” that said textbook customization “creates significant savings for students and creates a course designed specifically to meet the predetermined course and program outcomes” as part of the accreditation process.

Deleted content is reviewed to ensure that it is covered by other courses “which provide more in-depth content on the topic of human sexuality,” the statement said.