Pro-LGBTQ Christian School Closes Due to Donor Backlash
metroweekly.comABC News. “One year later, after we had posted on our website and made a stance, [in] December of 2022 we raised $14,809.”As a result, UCA has announced it will close its doors in May, at the end of the current school year.The school shared several letters from churches and individual donors taking issue with the statement of support for the LGBTQ community with ABC News.In one, a church that withdrew its support of UCA called the LGBTQ community “a diverse collection of behaviors,” adding, “Our greatest concern about the Accepting and Affirming stance is that it denies the Biblical definitions of sin and identity and thereby renders the grace of God meaningless.”Other letters were harsher.“Do not call yourself a Christian school if you are affirming sin,” one donor wrote. “Jesus died to set us free from sin, not so we can die in it.
You abuse kids by telling them sin is good. You are wicked.”“By teaching [students] tolerance & acceptance and even to celebrate the gay lifestyle, you are setting them on a course to embrace the world and anti-God philosophy,” wrote another.
Administrators argued that the school’s explicit support for the LGBTQ community was needed because as the school — which initially started as a kindergarten class in 2014, adding additional grades in subsequent years — grew and began accepting teenage students, who were more attuned to social media and larger societal trends, and would raise questions about such topics, including sexuality and inclusion.“Society gave us lots of fodder for conversations around injustice and looking at marginalized communities,” Callaway-George said. “As our kids got older, they had access to phones [and] they’re just engaging with the world more.”She defended including.
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