Canada, Gay, Law Schools, Politics, Religion

The View From Up North: Meet Canada's Most Discriminating Law School

Does this controversial law school deserve accreditation?

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What’s all the fuss with Trinity Western law school? For those who don’t know, Trinity Western is a private university in British Columbia. Its stated mission is to change lives “through its whole-person, Christ-centred approach to education.”

We don’t have very many religious four-year colleges and universities. Trinity Western is one of the few I can name. The U.S., of course, has a long history of religion-affiliated colleges. The Catholics have Loyola-here and Loyola-there, the Jews have Brandeis and Yeshiva, Muslims have Zaytuna, the Protestants have Bob Jones, etc.

Trinity Western is our country’s Bob Jones. Every student has to sign a long covenant (we’ll call it “The Covenant”) that includes the following promise:

People face significant challenges in practicing biblical sexual health within a highly sexualized culture. A biblical view of sexuality holds that a person’s decisions regarding his or her body are physically, spiritually and emotionally inseparable. Such decisions affect a person’s ability to live out God’s intention for wholeness in relationship to God, to one’s (future) spouse, to others in the community, and to oneself. Further, according to the Bible, sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage between one man and one woman, and within that marriage bond it is God’s intention that it be enjoyed as a means for marital intimacy and procreation. Honouring and upholding these principles, members of the TWU community strive for purity of thought and relationship, respectful modesty, personal responsibility for actions taken, and avoidance of contexts where temptation to compromise would be particularly strong.

That’s a lot to take in. My first question is, what the heck is biblical sexual health? Is there a difference between a biblical STD and a regular STD, and does it have anything to do with crotch locusts? Do you have to take biblical antibiotics to cure a biblical STD?

Of course, most of us honed in on the key passage that says, “sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage between one man and one women…”

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There’s two parts to that: sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage, and marriage is reserved for one man and one woman.

As I read it, that means gays can’t marry and gays can’t have sex.

If you go down a little further it says, “members of the TWU community strive for purity of thought…”

Do I read that correctly? Is that thought control? If I interpret it properly, TWU students must promise to not even daydream about knocking Crocs with a member of the same sex.

Jimmy spots Teddy walking across the leafy autumn campus. It’s B.C., so there are snow-peaked mountains in the background. Teddy, with rippling muscles, appears to walk in slow motion. Wind tousles his golden locks. Jimmy’s heart skips a beat. Hot blood rushes to Jimmy’s nether regions.

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Busted! You broke your promise, Jimmy. You had gay thoughts.

In my opinion, the single most important “right” we have in a free society is to think what we think and say what we say.

If you want to think and say unpopular things, accept the consequences. If you lose your job for spewing hate, tough luck. But, I really can’t buy any kind of legislation or government action that tries to control thought or speech. Trinity Western is a private organization and, as such, should be able to set its own rules for joining, right?

If you don’t like what people say or think, debate them. Beat them with your ideas and words. Find other like-minded people and band together to popularize your views. Teach your kids about hate and why it’s wrong. Lead the charge for change. Don’t scream at government, however, to enact legislation to suppress thought and speech.

That’s my position. Let’s get to the nub of this.

Trinity Western recently created a law school. We have a system in Canada whereby law schools need accreditation. Each province controls the lawyers that practice within its jurisdiction. Thus, Trinity Western needs to apply to each province where it wants its students to work.

It applied in its home jurisdiction of British Columbia. The Benchers of the B.C. Law Society voted to accredit TWU. Cow patties hit the fan. B.C. lawyers forced the Law Society to re-open debate. The lawyers at large put forward a non-binding resolution to reverse the initial acceptance. That non-binding resolution passed by a huge majority of voters.

Thus, officially, Trinity Western has been approved for accreditation. But, there is a non-binding resolution by B.C. lawyers to reverse accreditation. Apparently, the Benchers will now make the decision whether to admit TWU graduates or not. The Benchers have been put on notice, however, that their constituents are against accreditation. Who knows what they’ll do as a result.

Are gays happy with the whole situation? Are Christians happy? Is everybody confused, because I am? Leave it lawyers to completely cluster something so nobody knows where anything stands.

Trinity Western applied for accreditation in Ontario as well. The Law Society of Upper Canada voted against accreditation. Nothing confusing about that.

Nova Scotia also voted on accreditation. It decided to grant conditional approval. The condition? Dump the part of The Covenant that reserves marriage for one man and one woman. We all know that ain’t gonna happen and, thus, Nova Scotia has, for all practical purposes, denied TWU’s accreditation.

This ongoing saga continued just recently when New Brunswick’s law society granted accreditation for TWU at the governing council level. But its pesky members-at-large waded in and forced the council to reconsider its decision. More confusion.

The key theme in all this debate: The Covenant is discriminatory against gays.

Trinity Western says it’s not. It says, we’ll happily accept gay students. The Bible tells us to love them. They just have to sign The Covenant like everybody else and abide by the rules. Simple. Homosexuality is a choice, so don’t think about Teddy’s flowing locks, keep your hands to yourself and all is good.

TWU says The Covenant applies equally to straight students. No pre-marital sex. Boys can’t stare at T&A with lust in their hearts. Female students can only admire their male friends’ wonderful brains.

See, we’re not discriminating against gays.

Gay advocates say that’s just stupid. They’re right, of course, because TWU also believes it’s wrong for gay kids to marry.

The law societies in Canada are created by legislation to govern lawyers. There is no doubt they are covered by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and provincial human rights legislation, which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion.

TWU says the Law Society in Ontario is discriminating against Christians. They simply want to provide a university where the tenets of the Bible are front and centre. Christian parents want their kids to go to school with other like-minded kids. The Covenant has the bonus of scaring away most gay students. This is good, of course, because we wouldn’t want an active gay community on campus for our Christian kids to interact with. Our bible-loving children might be tempted to try some gay stuff — fire and eternal damnation to follow.

For clarity, Canada has lots of conservative Christian lawyers whose values would completely align with Trinity Western’s. For example, TWU president Bob Kuhn is a lawyer who practiced law for three decades before assuming TWU’s top job. He attended TWU as an undergrad, so we can safely assume he believes in The Covenant and what it stands for.

Our law societies don’t inquire about religious background before admitting a member as long as that person attended an accredited law school. Bob Kuhn attended UBC, an accredited school, and was licensed to practice law with no questions about his Christian views. It appears our law societies (or the members at large in B.C. and New Brunswick) have difficulty accrediting a law school that forces its attendees to sign a conservative Christian covenant.

Thus, attend UBC law school and believe that marriage should only happen between a man and women, you’re good to practice. Attend Trinity Western law school and hold the same beliefs, you’re excluded because of a silly Covenant.

Seems goofy, doesn’t it? Hypocritical, maybe?

I happen to believe the failure to accredit TWU’s law school is discriminatory against Christians. Let them have their friggin’ law school. For those who are offended by the school and its Covenant, there are dozens of terrific public universities in Canada. Go to one of them. Let TWU teach what it wants. Let the students who are attracted to their thinking attend.

Accredit them and let train lawyers who can practice. I really don’t care. Except I do care. I’m offended by The Covenant because it discriminates against gays and forces them to agree to both a restrictive code of conduct and a form of thought control, viz. in order for you to attend TWU, LGBTQ person, you must agree to think Christian. No impure thoughts about Teddy.

I’m offended by the law societies because their failure to accredit is also thought control. We disagree with your thinking Christians. We disagree with your ideals. If you want to join us, you have to think good liberal thoughts like us.

It’s wrong on both sides. My solution is for the law societies to accredit the law school. Government bodies should stay out of the business of legislating thought. Thought should be changed by debate, not government action. LGBTQ members, and other like-minded members of society, should debate, teach and publicize why Trinity Western’s Covenant is wrong.

I’ll start. Hey, TWU, your Covenant stinks.

Trinity Western is free to shoot back with all barrels.

That’s democracy. If enough people agree, society evolves to reflect new values and new ways of thinking. Civil rights, women’s lib, and now gay rights all reflect evolution in thought.

Being in the minority is one thing that sucks about democracy. Want to know what sucks about communism and dictatorship? Everything. But, let’s start with thought control, speech control, no rule of law.

The TWU matter is so much bigger than gay rights or religious rights. It’s about democracy.

Agree with Trinity Western or disagree, it’s irrelevant. Most of us agree that democracy is good. The fact that Trinity Western exists is sign of a healthy, democratic society. I wouldn’t send my kids there, but I’m thankful to live in a society where people in the minority are debated rather than shot. Try approaching ISIS with the idea of opening a Christian law school in Northern Iraq. Don’t bother purchasing a return ticket.

How about this: why don’t we just ignore Trinity Western (says the man who’s writing a column about it)? It’s a blip. It has an enrollment of 4,000. It’s all the way on the left coast.

If you can’t ignore it, debate it. Teach your fellow Canadians why TWU’s Covenant is wrong.

But, most of all, take it as a symbol of a healthy society and be thankful we live in a country that solves divisions with debate not bombs.

That’s the View From Up North. Have a great week.

Earlier: Is It Bigoted To Oppose This Christian Law School?

Steve Dykstra is a Canadian-trained lawyer and legal recruiter. He is the President of Keybridge Legal Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm that places lawyers in law firms and in-house roles throughout North America. You can contact Steve at steve@keybridgerecruiting.com. You can also read his blog at stevendykstra.wordpress.com, follow him on Twitter (@IMRecruitR), or connect on LinkedIn (ca.linkedin.com/in/stevedykstra/).

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