Some years ago I was asked to deliver a lecture at Wheaton College in Illinois, perhaps the premier evangelical university in North America. My particular areas of expertise were the authors C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. As it happens, beyond their genius these men were also heavy drinkers but the college was teetotal and I had to agree not to drink any alcohol on campus or bring any onto the premises. Odd, perhaps inconsistent, even hypocritical.

I mention this because of the ongoing case of Trinity Western University in British Columbia and the evangelical Christian college’s proposed law school. Various bar associations have refused to recognize any future graduates because of the college’s rules about sex and effective ban on gay students. Now the Canadian Bar Association has asked for intervenor status in a case to argue against Trinity Western.

The college’s Community Covenant that has caused the problem speaks of Biblical principles and outlines some often entirely admirable if intrusive ways of life for students. It does, however, spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with issues of sex and while careful not to specifically name homosexuality the meaning is obvious. There are at least three references.

The first says students must “observe modesty, purity and appropriate intimacy in all relationships, reserve sexual expressions of intimacy for marriage, and within marriage take every reasonable step to resolve conflict and avoid divorce.” The second forbids “sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.” And a third states, “According to the Bible, sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage between one man and one woman, and within that marriage bond it is God’s intention that it be enjoyed as a means for marital intimacy and procreation.”

Here’s where it all becomes rather murky. Jesus never even mentions homosexuality but He does repeatedly condemn divorce in a Roman, Greek and Jewish culture that readily accepted it. So while Trinity Western — and for that matter pretty much every other evangelical university with a similar code — requests “reasonable” steps to avoid divorce it does not forbid it and divorce would be no barrier to enrolment.

It’s difficult not to conclude from this that there is something of a double standard on display and perhaps even an attempt to disguise social prejudice as religious dogma. Remember, some conservative Christians also tried to use Scripture to oppose interracial marriage, to support slavery and to fight against female equality.

The reality is that modern theology is increasingly revising the view that homosexuality is sinful and several churches in Europe and North America are not only fully accepting of openly gay people but bless and even conduct same-sex weddings. The time when certain Christians could comfortably rely on archaic and crassly literal interpretations of words written millennia ago to bolster a reactionary attitude is long gone, and I say this as a serious and committed Christian.

As much as every Canadian has a right to object to equal marriage, to refuse to attend a same-sex wedding and, in the case of churches, to refuse to hold one, an entirely different equation applies in this case. Trinity Western wants to open a law school where they will educate Canadian lawyers, whose job is to administer and uphold Canadian law. Yet the law of Canada not only approves of same-sex marriage but also includes legislation to protect gay people from discrimination.

Thus the fact that Trinity Western could demand accreditation from various bar associations while openly contradicting the very law that it is asking to teach is, quite frankly, baffling. More than this, while no evangelical is banned from attending a secular law school, even one with numerous gay staff and students, gay men and women are effectively banned from attending this proposed evangelical school. That’s not fair, not Canadian and not the law.

The truth of the matter is that very few gay students are likely to apply to Trinity Western’s law school and that many evangelicals will never change their views about homosexuality whatever the arguments and whatever the truth. But the law must apply equally to all of us whatever our faith or sexuality, and lawyers in particular must believe that sparkling reality in their minds as well as in their souls.