The release of a report entitled "Sex and the Seminary" is certain to attract attention -- which is no doubt why the report was produced in the first place. In this case, the report is an attempt to push the sexual revolution through institutions designed for the training of ministers. As "Sex and the Seminary" makes clear, many liberal institutions joined the sexual revolution long ago.
The report was released January 8, 2009 by the "Sexuality Education for the Formation of Religious Professionals and Clergy" project, which is jointly sponsored by Union Theological Seminary in New York City and the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing in Connecticut. As might be expected, the report calls for an overhaul of how issues of sexuality are treated within the seminary curriculum.
"At the time when many denominations and faith communities are embroiled in sexuality issues, there is an urgent need for leaders who understand the connections between religion and sexuality," the report announces.
Then:
Seminaries are not providing future religious leaders with sufficient opportunities for study, self-assessment, and ministry formation in sexuality. They are also not providing seminarians with the skills they need to minister to their congregants and communities, or to become effective advocates where sexuality issues are concerned.
As a reading of the report reveals, the entire project is really about turning seminaries into agencies for a liberal and revisionist sexual agenda. As the analysis in the report demonstrates, some of these schools embraced those agendas long ago -- and in a big way.
The study was conducted by Kate M. Ott, study director for the project, with assistance from many others. Among those most frequently acknowledged is Rev. Debra W. Haffner, director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing. Debra Haffner's name will be recognized immediately by anyone involved in issues of sexual controversy in recent decades. She is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, but previously she served as chief executive officer of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, and, among other positions, as an official with Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington. She has been pushing a radical sexual agenda for a long time.
Thirty-six seminaries cooperated with the study -- almost all on the liberal side of the theological divide. These schools were measured in light of the "Criteria for a Sexually Healthy and Responsible Seminary" document that had been "developed by a multifaith group of seminary educators, administrators, and sexuality educators."
The report found virtually all of the seminaries deficient to some degree. The report lamented the fact that half of the schools "do not have policies for full inclusion of gay and lesbian persons" and over 60% "do not have full inclusion policies for transgender persons."
While the report calls for a thorough restructuring of seminary education, it also calls upon the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada [ATS], the main accrediting agency for theological schools to require accredited schools to make sexuality issues (in terms of "sexual justice") standards for accreditation. The Religious Institute also pledged to "work with ATS member schools as they advocate for changes in and contribute to revisions of the ATS Standards for Accreditation scheduled for 2012."
