LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An assignment was given to several elementary school students at the Christian Academy of Louisville to encourage students to persuade a thoughtful friend to reject sexuality.
And parents, members of the LGBTQ community and others are unhappy.
The appointment, which was due Thursday, came to light on Friday, when JP Davis, a Kentucky business owner, posted the window on the appointment on public media.
CAL officials confirmed the appointment Friday evening.
Davis told the Courier Journal he was shown the assignment by a close friend and a student at CAL who “saw and understood the dissatisfaction with the assignment.”
“Her son who is in the class was given the assignment, and he and she don’t like it,” said Davis, manager of consulting agency JP Davis Partners. “He doesn’t know how to deal with it. … And her son is upset. ”
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Examples show the assignment requiring students to write a letter to a specific friend “struggling with sexuality” and assuring them “God’s design is good for them,” “sexuality it won’t bring them satisfaction “and” you love them even if you don’t. justify their lives. “
“Suppose you know this friend since preschool, you go to the same church and have been good friends over the years until now,” the photo of the assignment read. . “… The purpose of your letter should be to speak with love and kindness the truth to the person you are talking to in a way that does not condone sin.
In an email Friday afternoon, Christian Academy of Louisville School System Superintendent Darin Long mentioned the assignment given to students in the elementary school Bible class.
The assignment is “part of a research unit that discusses‘ What are people and where are their identities? ’” Long wrote, and “in history, how a person can discuss‘ sexual intercourse with a friend from a biblical perspective with compassion and love. “
“This friendly discussion is for our students to review the class discussions and their perspectives on the subject,” he said. “Going forward, we will review this assignment to make sure there is clarity in its purpose and language.”
The Christian Academy School System is a private school in the region with a Christian education. He had four camps in Louisville and the South Indies. There are more than 3,000 students in the school.
Davis said the issue is personal to him. He spent the first 23 years of his life hiding his sexuality, he said, before coming out as a gay man.
It took him a long time to find the courage to go public, he said, and as he approached 40, Davis said he didn’t want to face the next generation in the same struggles.
“The statistics speak for themselves on suicide among LGBTQ +people, and these seventh -grade kids are facing anger and division, and it’s not fair,” she said. Davis. “I know it’s a Christian school, but it’s not my Christian, it’s not my values, and that’s not what Jesus is, if they want to make that argument, on their behalf. They’re wrong. they were ashamed ”.
A CAL 2002 graduate and her relationship with the school, Kylee Marcy told the Courier Journal how angry she was when she heard of the assignment Friday morning. through a press release. She said she quickly reached out to other adults, as well as parents with children in CAL.
He was angry, she said. But he was not surprised.
“I don’t call this unusual in any way,” he said. “But I was very sad that I had been gone 20 years, and I hoped that in 20 years they might know that love is the way to go, as opposed to hating fire and the sulfur. But it doesn’t look like it to me. ”
Marcy said the text and materials in the assignment indicate that the assignments were given in the school’s Christian Worldview class. He questioned why the CAL would focus on an assignment to focus on a single sin – “if you believe sexuality is a sin, which I still don’t commit” – and call on the school to make changes going forward.
“I want them to apologize and change the Christian Worldview curriculum, and I want this particular teacher to give an apology to parents and students,” Marcy said.
In Long’s statement, he noted that CAL teaches subjects “with a biblical worldview” and said the school believes there should be marriage between a man and a woman and also encourages tolerance.
“We believe that God made the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman (Gen. 1:27, Gen. 2:24). marriage covenant, and admit that all other sexual practices are contrary to God’s plan. ” (1 Cor. 6:18, Gal. 5:19), ”said Long.
“We believe that all human beings are created in the image of God, and therefore should be treated with compassion, respect, dignity and love at all times even in conflict.”
Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbach.
