Opinion: Young WWU Adventists Are Right—We Need Change
by Jack Hoehn | 12 March 2025 |
Walla Walla University (WWU) students yesterday protested university administration banning a candidate to be president of their student association—because the candidate identified as LGBTQ.
These young Adventists are serious Adventists. The 1,400 students at WWU are each investing $45,963/year for four or more years in an Adventist education. This is a serious commitment to their church membership.
Their Adventist opinion is that discrimination against one of the sexual minority of 80 or so Adventist students at WWU who are likely gay (5.5-6% of the population is a commonly accepted estimate) is a misapplication of scripture. Worse, it is contrary to Jesus’ teachings and ignores the Holy Spirit-inspired present truth.
These students do not agree with the Roman Catholic doctrine of enforced celibacy for gay people. These Adventists are not “becoming gay.” They are not protesting in favor of adultery, fornication, promiscuity, or pederasty. They are committed to monogamy and lifelong marriage—for everyone. They are asking that their church and its institutions progress to recognition that a fresh, deeply biblical account of God’s will as interpreted by Jesus points to the full inclusion of LGBTQ members into our Adventist institutions.
Bible truth
This is not “liberal worldliness.” This is the Holy Spirit-inspired conclusion of conservative Christians such as Christopher and Richard Hays, evangelical father-son authors of The Widening of God’s Mercy: Sexuality within the Biblical Story.
Christopher Hays shows how in the Old Testament God changes his standards over time, always in the direction of inclusiveness and mercy. For example, the Torah forbade any of the priestly class with damaged testicles from performing the job and entering the temple (Leviticus 21:17—23). But later, in the time of Isaiah (Isaiah 56:4-5), eunuchs are specifically invited to be “in my house and within my walls.”
The first excluded sexual minority, by divine law, are now encouraged and welcomed into God’s temple service. God’s rules change over time with different circumstances. Both statements claimed divine authority. “That was then,” God seems to say. “This is now.” Hays seems to be urging us to see that these changes are always in the direction of expanding the reach of God’s mercy and enlarging the sphere of his care.
The second half of the book is by Christopher’s father, the now-late Richard B. Hayes, on Jesus’, and then his followers’, widening of God’s mercy in the New Testament. We may forget how upsetting Jesus was to God’s people: he was proclaiming good news of hope, liberation, and healing. But he was crucified by believers because he was also requiring of his followers significant change.
“He called people to rethink their identities and their relationships with others—including others whom they may have previously regarded as alien, undesirable, immoral, or threatening. In short he called them not only to receive mercy, but also to give it.” [page 111]
“The idea that God does not foresee and control everything, and feels pity and regret even concerning his past judgments, is troubling for some theological views, but if we take the Bible seriously, it is hard to deny.” [page 86]
This is very much a Biblical conclusion: The Widening of God’s Mercy has an 11-page appendix of supportive Biblical texts.
(A comprehensive Adventist review of human sexuality is present in the second edition of AT’s book, Adventist Tomorrow—Fresh Ideas While Waiting for Jesus (2021).)
State law
Besides biblical and Christian morality, there are legal issues. Walla Walla University is in Washington state, where state law, specifically RCW 49.60, prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.
Does the Adventist church wish its institutions to be out of compliance with state law? It is one thing for WWU to be free to teach what they think the Bible says or doesn’t say. It is another to deny a student the right to run as a candidate for a student organization. If gay students are accepted as students by WWU, those students must retain the same rights as all other students without illegal discrimination based only on sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.
During my lifetime I’ve seen a lot of student protests. In the 1960s, Berkeley students protested McCarthyism, civil rights, and the Vietnam war. In the 1970s, Kent State University students were shot for protesting the same war. Two Black students at Jackson State College in Mississippi were killed and 12 injured by police for protesting the war. Over 400 colleges and universities joined in student strikes after that.
In 1985-6, student demonstrations demanded an end to apartheid in South Africa. Recently, students have protested both the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s over-reaction to Gaza terrorism.
History has shown that idealistic kids are often right. Adventists would be wise to listen to them—and restudy our Bibles.
Jack Hoehn is a former missionary and physician, now retired in the Walla Walla area. He is a member of the Walla Walla University church and an Adventist Today board member.
