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(RNS) — Members of Seattle Pacific College’s board of trustees are asking a Washington state courtroom to dismiss a lawsuit introduced in opposition to the physique by a bunch of scholars and college on the faculty, arguing that the swimsuit is an effort to “intimidate and punish leaders of a non secular establishment for the train of protected First Modification rights.”
Seattle Pacific is a 130-year-old non-public Christian college related to the Free Methodist Church, which teaches that “gay conduct can’t be seen as a part of God’s meant position for human sexual expression, no matter an individual’s attraction, and which doesn’t settle for marriage between folks of the identical intercourse.”
The college and college students sued the board in September in Washington’s superior courtroom for persevering with to uphold a coverage that bars folks in same-sex relationships from being employed to full-time positions on the faculty. The plaintiffs declare the coverage threatens to hurt SPU’s repute and worsen an already shrinking enrollment. By presumably jeopardizing the college’s future, they argue, the board is breaching its fiduciary responsibility.
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The board members stated the lawsuit constitutes nothing greater than an try and punish them for exercising their duties as trustees, which incorporates “assembling and talking about institutional spiritual beliefs, insurance policies, and church affiliations.”
They famous that three board members are volunteers “with clear statutory immunity.” The fourth, the college’s interim president, Pete Menjares, is a former volunteer “who accepted the decision to guide SPU as interim president throughout a tough season.”
“For his or her service, they’re being focused for litigation to punish them for the ‘unsuitable’ spiritual beliefs and to ship a message to different potential volunteers: the unsuitable spiritual beliefs will get you sued,” they stated of their submitting.
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In the meantime, a collective of scholars, alumni, school and employees generally known as Seattle Pacific LGBTQ+ Protest, are persevering with to boost cash to fund the lawsuit.
Up to now, greater than $75,000 has been raised, with funds going to the alumni-organized Our Neighborhood LLC that was created to pay authorized charges for this case, in response to the GoFundMe website.
“This started as a neighborhood protest, and we’ve to maintain it going as a neighborhood. That signifies that we’re all preventing for queer rights, collectively,” the group stated.
The movement for dismissal was filed Nov. 28 by board members Matthew Whitehead, Mark Mason, Dean Kato and Menjares. A courtroom date has been set for Feb. 17.
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