Quote:
Originally Posted by girl_meets_wrld
Thank you all for taking the time to read and respond to my intro thread. They are always the hardest, and I've left so much out. But I hope you guys will get to know me a little better.
My thoughts about this situation (if anyone cares!)[/U]:
So far my time at Liberty has been 99% positive. Though I have heard stories from gay alums themselves about how some were asked to leave when the came out. However, while my teachers are very Christian and conservative, they don't use the fire and brimstone approach I imagined they would. In philosophical and social science classes, my teachers promote critical thinking as opposed to blind acceptance of their own views. Maybe Liberty is less "fire and brimstone" because Jerry Falwell is RIP?
I'm not out now, and don't plan to be until I move away for graduate school in late 2011. So I don't really mind not being able to walk around with a "Virginia is for lesbians" t-shirt  My only worry now is what if I get my BSN from Liberty, and then they find out I am gay afterward. Can they revoke my degree?
I'm sooooooo glad I was able to find this community! |
Welcome to Lynchburg and to Soulforce. To add a couple of things:
There are other churches in the area that are open. First Christian Church on Rivermont is open and affirming, and has a fair number of gay members. If you prefer to stay with the Baptist churches, you may want to look into Peakland Baptist. I do not know the current stand of the pastor, but their former pastor (now retired and attending First Christian) is gay-affirming.
Of course, the Quakers are welcoming, but are a very small group and an unprogrammed meeting, quite a bit different from the Baptists.
You have other choices in nursing, but you said you don't want to lose any semesters. Still, don't forget that Lynchburg college also has a B.S.N. program and Lynchburg General offers an RN program. THis can be upgraded to a BSN with probably less expense than going BSN all the way. And neither school will care about your sexual orientation.
Regarding the revocation of a degree - theoretically its possible, but HIGHLY unlikely. Public colleges generally have to have significant grounds to revoke a degree, usually but not always limited to academic cheating, plagarism, etc. Private schools in theory have more leeway, but realistically, Liberty now has 50,000 students, between the campus and the on-line students. There are gay alumni, alumni who have committed adultery, students who drink, smoke, gamble, do drugs. They don't have the morality police to track every graduate and make sure they never violate any clauses in the code of conduct. (Do they still make you read "The Liberty Way" when you enroll?) Its a much greater chance that they could expell a current student who violates their codes than hunt you down years later and revoke your diploma to punish you. Liberty has gay graduates working in the hospital (and Centra Health doesn't
care if you're gay) and I don't know of anyone's degree being revoked.
Although I would be wary of the critical thinking at Liberty, it doesn't generally stretch that far. Announcing as a Democrat is almost as bad as coming out gay, so I wouldn't push the envelope if you don't want to court trouble. They can't control your thoughts, but they can make life miserable for expressing them.