Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
Despite death threats against its leaders, a private Christian school in Florida remains committed to biblical sexual values.
“If I backed down from something like this, I’m abandoning what God has said is the truth,” Barry McKeen, administrator of Grace Christian School says. “I kind of wrack my brain like, ‘How is this hard for people to understand? This is what God said.’ This is one of the many reasons we have a Christian school, and we’re not going to abandon this policy. God has spoken on these issues.”
The interview followed national news coverage of an email McKeen sent to the school community earlier this summer stating that students will be identified only by their biological sex and that students who are found participating in gay or transgender lifestyles will be asked to leave the school immediately.
“We believe that God created mankind in his image: male (man) and female (woman), sexually different but with equal dignity,” the email said. “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 (Genesis 1:26-28). Students in school will be referred to by the gender on their birth certificate and be referenced in name in the same fashion.”
McKeen said he was prompted to send the email as a reminder to parents that “although this is being celebrated and encouraged by the country, it is condemned by God. And at this school, we’re gonna follow God instead of man.”
The school administrator said he and his family have faced death threats following press coverage of his email on the policy and that he was forced to beef up security at the school.
“It’s funny for us to be painted as hateful,” he said. “We have fielded hundreds, probably thousands, of phone calls Thursday, Friday over the weekend, with just some of the most outrageous things: People threatening to burn my house down, threatening to kill my family. Maybe God has picked us for this particular time to just encourage that, ‘Hey, there are things worth standing up for, and we’re going to do that.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
