DUE WEST, S.C. — It has been a year since Juan Varona and Andrew Davis, volleyball teammates at Erskine College, a conservative Christian school, came out as gay in an interview with Outsports.com.

During that time, Mr. Varona said, he has been embraced by teammates, coaches, teachers and fellow students. The president of Erskine’s student government association called Mr. Varona and Mr. Davis “some of the most-liked guys on campus” at the rural liberal arts college, which has about 600 undergraduates and was founded 176 years ago by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

So it was jarring to many last week when Erskine publicly condemned same-sex relationships, calling them sinful, in what was widely interpreted as a direct or indirect response to the two volleyball players.

Hayley Rogers, 21, the editor of Erskine’s student paper, The Mirror, said that if she were in the position of Mr. Varona and Mr. Davis, she would have felt “personally attacked” and “discriminated against,” even if that was not the college’s intention.