The APA's Religious Discrimination

Christian Colleges Under Fire From Psychological Association

Seventeen divisions* of the leftist American Psychological Association (APA) have signed a letter to the Department of Education urging it to “investigate allegations of harm toward LGBTQ+ students at NFCBUs [non-affirming faith-based colleges and universities], and to take appropriate actions to protect LGBTQ+ students” (emphasis in original). To make kinda, sorta, maybe clear what’s bugging the APA change agents, here’s more from their letter:

"Too many in the LGBTQ+ community are painfully aware of the ways in which they have been excluded from religious participation, condemned for their identities, and watched religion be used to oppose equity and civil rights for LGBTQ+ people all over the world. … LGBTQ+ students and employees at non-affirming faith-based colleges and universities (NFBCUs) are discriminated against in admission, retention, and employment due to a combination of restrictive policies, stigma, absence of formal social support groups, and lack of legal protections. …"

It is true that those who affirm, embrace, and celebrate behaviors identified as sin in and prohibited by Scripture are “excluded” from admission, retention, employment, and participation in various activities at theologically orthodox Protestant and Catholic colleges and universities. In other words, Christian colleges and universities create and adhere to policies informed by the words of Christ—not by the beliefs of secularists who reject Christ or Christian apostates and heretics.

Theologically orthodox Christian colleges and universities do not define “identity” as non-Christians, apostates, and heretics do. Nor do Christian colleges and universities have an obligation to do so.

Theologically orthodox Christians believe “identity” is constituted by acceptance of Christ’s substitutionary work on the cross and by the affirmation of Scripture as objectively true, including the inconvenient parts that require us to hate sin and take up our crosses daily.

An “identity” constituted by affirmation of sinful desires is antithetical to a Christ-follower’s identity. Someone who positively affirms an identity constituted by homoerotic acts and cross-sex behavior has no right to attend a school for which such a definition of “identity” is anathema.

The APA signatories have a similarly queer understanding of “civil rights.” Christian colleges and universities in America do not “use religion to oppose equity and civil rights of LGBTQ+ persons” any more than they use religion to oppose the equity and civil rights of polyamorists, sibling-lovers, or zoophiles. Rather, they hold certain behaviors to be sinful and seek to, among other things, foster obedience to Christ.

Historically, civil rights were understood to mean the right of individuals to vote, assemble, petition one’s government, own a gun, exercise their religion freely, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure. When has a Christian college or university opposed any of those rights for homosexuals or cross-sex impersonators?

The APA signatories tossed in an anemic sop to anyone who may rightly discern their religious antipathy:

"Our signing professional psychological groups affirm the importance of religious diversity and freedom of religious expression."

But then came the muscular endorsement of religious discrimination masquerading as anti-discrimination:

"While recognizing the potential benefits of religious faith and participation, our groups echo the American Psychological Association’s (APA) statement that ‘prejudice based on or derived from religion continues to result in various forms of harmful discrimination,’ as stated in the APA Resolution on Religious, Religion-Based and/or Religion-Derived Prejudice."

While APA documents are riddled with references to “discrimination,” they don’t define which meaning of the term they’re using, perhaps hoping to conflate the various meanings.

Discrimination means to make distinctions, distinguish, or differentiate. As such, every individual and every organization—including the APA—engages in discrimination every day.

In civil rights law, prohibited discrimination “refers to unfair or unequal treatment of an individual (or group) based on certain characteristics.” For example, prohibiting discrimination based on religion means a law or policy may not treat individuals or groups differently based on their religious beliefs and may not favor non-religious beliefs over religious beliefs. Seems like the APA seeks to engage in illegal religious discrimination against Christian colleges and universities.

“Harm” as redefined by “progressives” refers to the discomfort they experience when encountering beliefs, ideas, or policies that embody moral propositions with which they disagree. Whether Christian beliefs objectively harm those who choose to embrace homosexual or cross-sex identities depends first on whether those beliefs are true—not on whether those beliefs are liked.

The APA signatories express their clear and longstanding intent to use the federal government to restrict religious liberty:

"Unlike LGBTQ+ people at non-religious universities, LGBTQ+ students and employees at NFBCUs are left with no legal protections due to exemptions in current Title IX legislation, which are granted by the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Consistent with APA’s Resolution on Opposing Discriminatory Laws, Policies, and Practices Aimed at LGBTQ+ Persons, our groups “oppose the enactment of laws, policies, and procedures that exempt any group from following antidiscrimination laws designed to protect any group”, and call upon policy makers and courts to recognize religious freedom without ignoring harmful practices and policies directed at LGBTQ+ people. Our groups also raise this concern given that NFBCUs are indirectly funded by the U.S. government through student loans, research grants, and other federal dollars; thus, taxpayers are, even if unwittingly, funding religiously-based discrimination."

To be clear, 17 APA divisions are asking Big Brother to investigate any and all Christian colleges and universities that either receive government research grants or have students who receive federal aid to ensure the schools do not affirm through teaching or policy biblically orthodox views of homosexuality. The APA wants retribution exacted against those schools found guilty by leftists of having policies informed by the Bible.

It should be clear by now that “progressives” and other sexual regressives want to scrub the public square of all theologically orthodox beliefs on sexuality. How long before efforts to discriminate against colleges and universities based on religion by denying them accreditation intensify?

* The signatories are as follows:

• Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (APA Division 44)
• Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Division 2)
• Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (APA Division 9)
• Society of Counseling Psychology (APA Division 17) Section on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender issues Psychologists in Public Service (APA Division 18)
• Society for Military Psychology (APA Division 19)
• Society for Community Research and Action (APA Division 27)
• Society for Humanistic Psychology (APA Division 32)
• Society for the Psychology of Women (APA Division 35) Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice (APA Division 37)
• Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (APA Division 39) American Psychology-Law Society (APA Division 41)
• Society of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy (APA Division 49)
• Society for the Psychological Study of Men & Masculinities (APA Division 51)
• Society for Pediatric Psychology (APA Division 54)
• Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA)
• National Latinx Psychological Association (NLPA)/Orgullo Latinx: Sexual Orientation and
• Gender Diversity special interest group