Christian high school protested after multiple coaches allege being ousted for their sexuality
Plus Nadia Bolz Weber in new ELCA role, faith and Dominion conspiracies
Valor Christian High School found itself in hot water this week after two former coaches at the private nondenominational school in Highlands Ranch came forward with allegations that the school pushed them out of their jobs because they were gay.
According to reporting from the Denver Post and Colorado Community Media, volleyball coach Inoke Tonga said that he was pressured out of his job after school administrators found a social media post suggesting he was gay, and that in a meeting with administration he was told “parents pay too much” for their students to be coached by a gay man. (Tuition for the previous school year cost $21,110 according to Valor’s website.)
After Tonga went public about what happened, about 50 students held a rally in his support. The day after, former volleyball coach Lauren Benner shared her story about leaving the school after being confronted by administration about her relationship with another woman.
For its part, Valor Christian told the press that staff are required to follow its statement of beliefs, which does not explicitly mention LGBTQ issues, and that Tonga had “misrepresented many aspects of this matter.”
Religious schools terminating or threatening the employment of LGBTQ employees isn’t new. And at least at the federal level, it has been legal. But that legal basis has been thrown more into question recently because of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2020 on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the Court ruled 6-3 that federal employment protections on the basis of sex also refers to sexual orientation and gender identity. That said, the Court’s ruling does not apply to the “ministerial exception,” in which a teacher at a religious institution is considered a minister and thus their employment status is more intrinsically tied with the institution’s beliefs.
But it’s a gray legal area for coaches. In the dissenting opinion in Bostock, Justice Samuel Alito writes, “Provisions of Title VII provide exemptions for certain religious organizations and schools ‘with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying on’ of the ‘activities’ of the organization or school …. but the scope of these provisions is disputed, and as interpreted by some lower courts, they provide only narrow protection.”
So, even after Bostock, the legal parameters regarding LGBTQ employees at religious institutions is still not clear-cut. Both sides of the debate want to clarify that through federal legislation, in which LGBTQ rights activists are supportive of the proposed Equality Act. Meanwhile, religious liberty proponents are fans of the Fairness for All Act that creates more wiggle room for institutions that have belief statements similar to Valor’s. (Also, we highly recommend a recent story from Kelsey Dallas at Deseret News about this topic explaining it better than we could in a short newsletter).
Again, it’s important to recognize that Valor didn’t fire the two coaches, the coaches ultimately made the decisions to leave. But, as all the great reporting this week has pointed out, it’s also not the case the Valor coaches left fully willingly.
The “Sarcastic Lutheran” returns to ministry
After stepping down in 2018 as leader of House For All Sinners and Saints, the church she founded in Denver, superstar pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber is once again in a church role as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s first pastor of public witness. One of the mainline’s few true celebrity pastors, Bolz-Weber catapulted to fame with the publication of her books Pastrix and Accidental Saints, and HFASS (pronounced “half-ass”) became known as a place for people with religious trauma, addiction issues and other baggage. She left House for All after 10 years, citing a need to let the church grow without her and a desire to spend more time ministering outside church walls.
Since that time, she published a book about sexuality, Shameless: A Sexual Reformation, launched a podcast and a newsletter and separated from her husband, also a Lutheran pastor. On Friday, she was installed as a pastor of public witness in the Rocky Mountain Synod of the ELCA during a service at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Denver. Much of her work as a public theologian will remain the same, according to a Religion News Service article, where she quipped she still pays her own health insurance. Bishop Jim Gonia, a longtime supporter of Bolz-Weber, told RNS that the call is about “acknowledging that Nadia has a ministry that goes far beyond the walls of any one church.”
Yes, the saga about Dominion — a story with national and local angles — also has a religion angle
Dominion Voting Systems, the Denver-based company that produces voting machines and software used all throughout Colorado and the U.S., has been at the center of voting fraud conspiracy theories since Donald Trump lost the presidential election on Nov. 3, 2020. The story of how that happened is the main arc of a New York Times Magazine story published this week about right-wing operatives creating “malinformation” about a Dominion executive, Eric Coomer, to fashion a narrative that Dominion rigged the election.
The person almost entirely responsible for the attacks on Coomer and Dominion is Joe Oltmann, founder of the group, FEC United. The acronym stands for “Faith, Education and Commerce,” the group’s three “pillars.” The New York Times Magazine story didn’t lean into the faith component of Oltmann’s voter fraud claims, but there is more to explore there. For example, Oltmann spread his claims on prominent evangelical Trump supporter Eric Metaxas’ radio show, leading to Dominion suing Metaxas, Oltmann, Rudy Giuliani and others.
Meanwhile, Dominion has been a character in a state politics story this week and last after Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters came under investigation for allegedly allowing someone to take photos of passwords displayed in a Dominion software update for Mesa County’s voting equipment. The person then posted the photos online. For that and other reasons, Colorado Secretary of State Jenna Griswold decided last week that Peters cannot oversee the election in November.
While this is all going on “Peters has been hiding somewhere outside of Colorado since she left Grand Junction for a voter-fraud conspiracy theory event in Sioux Falls, South Dakota,” Charles Ashby wrote in a Grand Junction Sentinel story published Thursday. Ashby got ahold of emails between Peters and members of the public, most of whom expressed support for the city clerk in response to the recent developments.
One person wrote to Peters, “Hold fast to the promises of God, and please know that mesa County is immeasurably grateful for your service to us and our children.”
To another writer, Peters responded, “this is definitely a battle of good and evil, but a battle the Lord has called me.”
Briefly noted
Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail has a story on a man embroiled in a legal dispute with Boulder-founded Shambhala Global, which he says is trying to evict him from his Nova Scotia home for speaking out against the organization’s leader after he was accused of sexual abuse.
The Colorado Council of Churches held a COVID-19 vaccine “listening circle” in Colorado Springs.
St. John’s Cathedral and RedLine Denver are hosting a discussion with Iliff School of Theology emeritus professor Dr. Tink Tinker on “the eurochristian roots of the climate crisis” on Aug. 30.
A group of parents opposing Tri-County’s mask mandate for students gathered to pray before the Adams County Board of Commissioner meeting on Tuesday.
Several people from Colorado Christian University’s think tank, the Centennial Institute, have been interviewed in national conservative media about Afghanistan, including Tom Copeland by Fox News and Jimmy Graham by Mike Huckabee.
Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains is continuing to solicit donations to help with the resettlement of Afghan refugees to Colorado.
“Have Faith, Colorado” is a weekly roundup and analysis of local religion articles in the Centennial State. It’s by Liam Adams and Carina Julig. Liam covers local news for Colorado Community Media and religion news as a freelancer. Carina covers education and other Aurora news at the Sentinel Colorado. To connect with us about the newsletter please email liamadams.journalism@gmail.com and carina.julig@colorado.edu, and follow us on twitter at @liamsadams and @CarinaJulig.