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| Conservative Student Stands Up for Christian Worldview, Protests Pro-Homosexual Bias By Jim Brown (AgapePress) - A university student in Minnesota says she was silenced and discriminated against in class for raising objections to the homosexual lifestyle. Elizabeth Jenson says she knew her "Intercultural Communications" class at Metropolitan State University was going to be controversial. She has come to expect encounters with liberal bias on campus, and she says as a conservative she is used to being under-represented. But Jenson says she never expected to have to sit through a two-hour class while a lesbian guest lecturer promoted her worldview unchallenged, and called someone like Jenson "backwards" for not accepting the homosexual lifestyle. After enduring the presentation, Jenson asked her professor, Dr. Kathryn Kelley, to invite an individual to share a conservative viewpoint on homosexuality for 15 minutes of a future class. But Jenson says it did not matter to Kelley that 80% of the class wanted both sides of the issue presented -- and she flatly refused. According to Jenson, when she asked her communications instructor to offer a balancing perspective by allowing an alternative view of homosexuality to be presented to the class, the teacher rejected the idea. Moreover, Jenson says Kelley justified her refusal as a turning of the tables, saying [according to the student], "'I can choose what I want to tolerate, and I don't want to tolerate your views. Christians have been the intolerant people for the past several hundred years, and now it's their turn not to be tolerated.'" Jenson says she left the class angrier than she has ever been before, rankling at the complete intolerance demonstrated toward her worldview. She says upon hearing the lesbian speaker condemn her and others who oppose homosexuality, she had a desire to file a lawsuit. "I felt like I was so discriminated against, just by the language that was used against me," she says, noting that, as a believer, she felt personally disparaged by parts of the presentation. The student says at one point the class had to watch a video in which homosexuals made remarks proscribing the comparison of "the blood of Calvary with the Kool-Aid of homophobia," while another comment suggested that heterosexuals fear homosexuals but secretly "want to be homosexuals themselves because the lifestyle is so seductive." Jenson says her own Christian perspective, as well as any view that was not pro-homosexual, was effectively silenced in the class. And her professor's attitude, completely dismissing the idea of presenting an alternative viewpoint in another session, left the student more frustrated than ever. "Whether my beliefs represent a minority or a majority viewpoint, they deserve to be considered," she says, "just as every other culture and viewpoint, if we are to present an unbiased assessment. It may be very challenging to take into account all perspectives, but it is the balanced thing to do." Jenson has expressed her objections to the professor in a letter, and expects to face a long and difficult fight and possibly some backlash. While she says Dr. Kelley has promised to respond to her objections, the instructor has yet to do so. Kelley also declined an interview with AgapePress. Elizabeth Jenson is working full-time during the day and taking classes at night to earn her communications degree, after which she plans to go to law school. © 2003 AgapePress all rights reserved.
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