TOLERATE OR DISCRIMINATE

Sometimes it's sad
When do-gooders do bad.

Despite what they say,
It's deeds we must weigh.

Either way, a CHOICE
To silence a VOICE.

No easy answers in Gordon controversy

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Posted: Friday, February 6, 2015 3:00 am

By Paul Halloran | 0 comments

The front page of Thursday’s paper included an interesting story that came out of an editorial board meeting with Gordon College president Dr. Michael Lindsay last week.

There was no pretense to the reason for Lindsay’s visit to The Item: He came to Lynn — along with his VP of marketing and communications and a very competent PR consultant — to make the case for a reversal of the School Committee’s August vote to sever what had been a remarkably beneficial partnership between the college and Lynn schools.

The School Committee was responding to Lindsay’s signing on to a letter supporting a religious exemption to an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating in hiring on the basis of sexual orientation.

Those voting in favor of cutting ties with Gordon cited an unwillingness to be associated with an institution whose leader would lend his name to a letter to the president of the United States that, in their minds, effectively requested the right to discriminate.

Those who supported maintaining the relationship pointed to the immeasurable amount of good that has been done in Lynn Public Schools by Gordon students.

In the end, the committee was split, 4-3, and all you need to do is to look at how committee members voted to understand this is not a simple issue.

Voting to end the relationship with Gordon were Charlie Gallo, Patty Capano, Maria Carrasco and John Ford. On the other side were Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, Rick Starbard and Donna Coppola.

On a non-unanimous vote, it was unusual to find Carrasco on the same side of an issue as Gallo, Capano and Ford — as well as Superintendent Dr. Catherine C. Latham, who supported ending the relationship. And it was somewhat shocking to see Coppola and Carrasco on opposite sides.

Was any committee member’s vote based on political expediency as much as a desire to see everyone treated equally? Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say no.

The committee was faced with an extremely difficult decision — and if anyone tells you it was easy, they’re either misinformed or just plain wrong.

One can certainly understand a vote to cut ties with Gordon on the basis of principle. Despite his assertions that he signed the letter as a private citizen, Lindsay has to realize that on an issue like this it’s hard for most to separate Lindsay the man from Lindsay the college president.

I would disagree, however, with those who assert that a vote for keeping Gordon was necessarily a vote for discrimination. Lindsay’s case was thoroughly reported by Cyrus Moulton yesterday so I won’t regurgitate all the numbers, but when you hear that Gordon students have done thousands of hours of community service in Lynn in the last 11 years, and you realize how many students have benefited from the relationship, it has to make you think.

I would submit that it is perfectly reasonable for anyone to be at the same time opposed to Lindsay’s support for the religious exemption and in favor of maintaining a relationship with Gordon College.

Would Lynn schools be better off with the eight student teachers from Gordon who would have been working in classrooms this year? Did Gordon students play a meaningful role at Harrington when the school was battling its way out of Level 4? Have more Lynn students gone to college as a result of being exposed to collegiate life by regular visits to the Gordon campus at a young age?

Those are rhetorical questions with easy answers — all “yes.”

Here’s a tougher one: Is all the good done by Gordon and its students outweighed by its seeming intolerance for beliefs and activities that do not fall in line with its Christian tradition?

That one’s not so simple.

“We care deeply about Lynn … Lynn remains a community we especially feel called to serve … We are heavily invested in Lynn … We still have a deep commitment to Lynn,” Lindsay said over the course of the hour-long meeting.

Lindsay said Gordon has student teachers in approximately 30 school districts. He said Lynn was the only one to take action against the college based on his signing the letter. So, perhaps it boils down to this:

Was Lynn right and everyone else wrong?

Paul K. Halloran Jr. is managing editor.