HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. – A Christian school in Valrico is refusing to budge from its policy to refer to students by their biological sex. The school also has announced that LGBTQ students who openly flaunt their sexuality would be asked to leave campus since their behavior conflicts with scriptural teachings.
NBC News reported recently that Grace Christian School Administrator Barry McKeen notified parents on June 6 of an “Important School Policy Point of Emphasis.”
McKeen said that policy was that the school believes “that God created mankind in His image: male (man) and female (woman), sexually different but with equal dignity.”
“Therefore, one’s biological sex must be affirmed and no attempts should be made to physically change, alter, or disagree with one’s biological gender — including, but not limited to, elective sex reassignment, transvestite, transgender, or non-binary gender fluid acts of conduct,” McKeen continued, citing Genesis 1:26-28.
Students, he added, will be referred to “by the gender on their birth certificate and be referenced in name in the same fashion.”
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The school’s tenets also hold that “We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgender identity/lifestyle, self-identification, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery and pornography are sinful in the sight of God and the church,” wrote McKeen. To support that argument he cited verses from Genesis, Leviticus, Romans, 1st Corinthians and 1st Thessalonians.
“Students who are found participating in these lifestyles will be asked to leave the school immediately,” announced McKeen, who also doubles as pastor at Grace Christian.
In an interview, McKeen told Fox News the policy, which has been in place since the school started 49 years ago, would also apply to heterosexual students.
“God condemns any sexual activity outside of marriage,” McKeen said. “I tell people, if a kid came in the doors, exclaiming how he was having sex with his girlfriend, that student would be expelled as well.”
McKeen also declined to comment on the policy to NBC News because he did not believe the liberal network would be fair, according to The Blaze.
“I chose not to talk to the reporter, because usually based on the call sign, based on the channel, you can usually tell what they’re trying to say and what they’re going to be trying to prove and I think it was clear from the get-go that this person is, is not for us, but against us,” McKeen said in a video posted on social media, as quoted by The Blaze.
In the video, he added, “God has spoken on those issues explicitly, aggressively.”
“I’m not going to backpedal. And it is our policy now. It will be our policy going forward. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change.”
McKeen insisted that the school and church “are not a hateful group of people. We don’t hate students who are of a particular persuasion.”
“The biggest issue that happens in this culture is because you believe something and you stand for something – that you’re automatically hateful,” he added. “We are not hateful. Probably that’s the thing in the article that hurt the most.”
“This is a private Christian school where parents choose to send their kids to the school,” he continued. “And it’s not for everybody.”
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“The Bible says God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We’re not going to change because God’s not going to change. And we’re not going to be hateful, but we’re not going to back down from this policy. This has been our policy that this is our policy, and this will be our policy,” McKeen said.
He concluded, “I could assure you that if anybody ever came to me, any entity with the power to do so, and said, ‘Do this. Change this policy or your doors can’t open,’ then our doors would remain closed.”
“If we’re to obey man or God, we’re always, always, always to obey God. I don’t answer to NBC. I don’t answer to local newspapers. I don’t answer to bloggers and Tik Tokers. I answer to God.”
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