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“That is not the way the Lord imagined schools, and that is surely not the way the Lord envisioned education” June 2006 K. Ian Shin, a gay man who grew up in the Mormon Chruch, published an editorial on the online edition of The Advocate describing his experience getting accepted for —and passing— on the opportunity to study at BYU. "Over my last four years at Amherst College in Massachusetts," he wrote, "I have come to the conclusion that it was the best decision I could ever have made and the same decision that I would recommend to hundreds, if not thousands, of other students." According to Ian, "The BYU administration's response to Professor Nielsen's editorial as well as the reception given the Soulforce Equality Riders in spring 2006 demonstrate just how unwilling supposedly 'Christian' colleges and universities are to at least listen to, if not engage in, any real dialogue about the discrimination that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students face." Ian doesn't believe that academics at institutions like BYU will ever be challenging or serious enough: "It cannot be a real pursuit of knowledge until the administration is willing to relinquish its stodgy control over what is and is not a kosher interpretation of the world," Ian wrote. "Writ large, institutions such as BYU cannot truly advance until all of their students are allowed to live and learn in the full creative energies endowed them by God." "The members of their community who recognize and oppose this system of heteronormative oppression will continue to regard the university as a miserable confining place," Ian wrote. "That is not the way the Lord imagined schools, and that is surely not the way the Lord envisioned education." To read Ian's full piece, go to www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid32790.asp  .
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www.affirmation.org