Congratulations to Dr. H. Adam Ackley for the courage he has shown in his decision to come out as a man after teaching theology for 15 years under the name and gender of Heather Ann Clements.
http://www.eewc.com/Articles/christian-university-transgender-professor-employment-justice/
It's not easy to enter a classroom with good cheer and high energy, day after day, year after year, and teach at the college level. How much harder to do it while struggling with one's gender identity.
I was deeply moved when I watched his sermon "Come As You Are: God's Good News for All People," in which he comes out as transgender to friends in his Christian community, a Church of the Brethren.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_Hns6IYT4
Ever the professor, he explains that he chose the name "Adam" because it appears in Genesis, where it means "creature made from the dust of the earth." In the Hebrew, he explains, ha-adam (the earth creature) is made from ha-adamah (the earth) in Gen. 2:7.
The beauty for him of taking "ha-adam" as his name is that the term specifically includes both male and female (Gen. 1:27). He follows Phyllis Trible's brilliant insight that before the creature is put to sleep to create male and female, it has no gender. Eventually Adam becomes the first name of the male in the Genesis story.
Thus Dr. Ackley's choice of the first name Adam evokes the complex interaction of Holy Scripture and personal gender identity in his life.
I also want to thank Dr. Julia Stronks, lawyer and political science professor at Whitworth College, for her careful analysis of the legal and religious dimensions of Azusa Pacific University's response to Dr. Ackley's transgender status.
http://www.eewc.com/Articles/christian-university-transgender-professor-employment-justice/
In discussing whether APU has the legal right to fire Dr. Ackley, she writes, "Clarity in a contract is important."
So is charity in a Christian institution.
As Paul said, "Though [a Christian university] speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, [it is] become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal" (1 Cor. 13:1).
I once applied to teach in the English department at Azusa Pacific, and things progressed as far as a job interview in which I was informed that APU had recently fired two professors in connection with same-sex issues.
"Would it bother you to teach here in light of that information?" the interviewers asked.
"Oh no," I lied. "I could live with that and teach here. I don't agree with the decision to fire them, but I would not feel it necessary to take on an issue that occurred before I arrived."
As it turned out, APU decided not to hire me, and I decided to confess that it actually would bother me and that I needed to withdraw my application. Our letters crossed in the mail.
If APU couldn't even hire a married woman like me in 2001 because of my views on homosexuality, I'm not surprised that they quickly dismissed Dr. Ackley in 2013.
Their decision lacked charity. Their self-justifying words might as well be smashing cymbals.
As Dr. Stronks noted in her analysis on the EEWC website, "We see through a glass darkly" (1Cor. 13:12).
http://www.eewc.com/Articles/christian-university-transgender-professor-employment-justice/
APU reveals this truth through its actions.
http://www.eewc.com/Articles/christian-university-transgender-professor-employment-justice/
It's not easy to enter a classroom with good cheer and high energy, day after day, year after year, and teach at the college level. How much harder to do it while struggling with one's gender identity.
I was deeply moved when I watched his sermon "Come As You Are: God's Good News for All People," in which he comes out as transgender to friends in his Christian community, a Church of the Brethren.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_Hns6IYT4
Ever the professor, he explains that he chose the name "Adam" because it appears in Genesis, where it means "creature made from the dust of the earth." In the Hebrew, he explains, ha-adam (the earth creature) is made from ha-adamah (the earth) in Gen. 2:7.
The beauty for him of taking "ha-adam" as his name is that the term specifically includes both male and female (Gen. 1:27). He follows Phyllis Trible's brilliant insight that before the creature is put to sleep to create male and female, it has no gender. Eventually Adam becomes the first name of the male in the Genesis story.
Thus Dr. Ackley's choice of the first name Adam evokes the complex interaction of Holy Scripture and personal gender identity in his life.
I also want to thank Dr. Julia Stronks, lawyer and political science professor at Whitworth College, for her careful analysis of the legal and religious dimensions of Azusa Pacific University's response to Dr. Ackley's transgender status.
http://www.eewc.com/Articles/christian-university-transgender-professor-employment-justice/
In discussing whether APU has the legal right to fire Dr. Ackley, she writes, "Clarity in a contract is important."
So is charity in a Christian institution.
As Paul said, "Though [a Christian university] speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, [it is] become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal" (1 Cor. 13:1).
I once applied to teach in the English department at Azusa Pacific, and things progressed as far as a job interview in which I was informed that APU had recently fired two professors in connection with same-sex issues.
"Would it bother you to teach here in light of that information?" the interviewers asked.
"Oh no," I lied. "I could live with that and teach here. I don't agree with the decision to fire them, but I would not feel it necessary to take on an issue that occurred before I arrived."
As it turned out, APU decided not to hire me, and I decided to confess that it actually would bother me and that I needed to withdraw my application. Our letters crossed in the mail.
If APU couldn't even hire a married woman like me in 2001 because of my views on homosexuality, I'm not surprised that they quickly dismissed Dr. Ackley in 2013.
Their decision lacked charity. Their self-justifying words might as well be smashing cymbals.
As Dr. Stronks noted in her analysis on the EEWC website, "We see through a glass darkly" (1Cor. 13:12).
http://www.eewc.com/Articles/christian-university-transgender-professor-employment-justice/
APU reveals this truth through its actions.
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