Oklahoma Christian University to fire employees who divorce/separate

[rainbow4321]

http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&id=96848

Oklahoma Christian University says it will implement a new divorce policy next month. It will result in the firing of staff and faculty members who get a divorce.

President Mike O'Neal says the policy passed in October gives him the authority to terminate any employee who separates or divorces for any reason that doesn't meet “limited scriptural grounds.”

It does not apply to current employees who've been divorced.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. If the repukes took up this policy,

a lot of conmen would be drummed out of the party.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. I'm telling you, the RW'ers are becoming more and more like

a cult every day. If left unchecked, it will be the American Taliban. The message is the same. Submit to divine law or suffer the consequences.

[merbex]

8. It is the American Taliban

there is nothing "evangelical" about them;they are pure fundamentalists:turn back the clocks and throw out every book but one - and we all know what book stays

[chat_noir]

21. members of the American Taliban

http://www.reandev.com/taliban/

[CrispyQ]

13. Yesterday on CNBC they reported that there are currently

6,000 companies that will not hire smokers due to increased medical costs. They did a poll & 35% of the respondents said it was ok for a corporation to dictate your lifestyle in these circumstances. :wtf: The woman on the side of the corporations was pretty overweight & was not happy when the gentleman against this asked if it would eventually apply to fat people also.

And where will it stop? People who are pre-disposed to particular illnesses? People who drink? People who are short? People who are bald? People we simply do not like for whatever reason we state.

People like that woman & the 35% are for this type of thing because they are not being targeted & they don't imagine there will ever be something that THEY do that will be targeted.

The America I grew up in is gone.

[Arkansas Granny]

27. Policies like this sound a lot like discrimination.

[ladjf]

31. It would have been gone anyway because that's the natural

process. However, it didn't have to change so badly so fast. It could have change for the better.

[tsuki]

40. This may work against the white male at age 40. Heart attacks. n/t

[rainbow4321]

45. They will have to start asking if one's grandparents smoked...

Cuz according to one report not long ago, even if a person doesn't smoke, their family DNA was forever altered by the smoke that their grandparents and/or parents inhaled..and accroding to this same study, that drastically increases the odds of someone coming down with asthma and other resp. diseases. Start to use THAT as a "pre-disposed" factor and even the people doing the hiring would have to be fired, or would not have been hired in the first place!!

[Warpy]

3. Let the purges begin!

The right always destroys itself in a search for ideological/religious/moral purity. Let them continue this insanity until they manage to marginalize themselves back to the lunatic fringe, where they so clearly belong.

The enemy of the left is factionalism. The enemy of the right is purges in the name of purity.

[Loonman]

4. Well, they are a private university

So they can make up their own rules. It's nice to live in a country that respects free enterprise.

[dmkinsey]

16. Absolutely,

They should live in accord with their beliefs.
I rejoice in their freedom

[kevinbgoode]

29. I think it would be funny if every private contractor

which does business with this university, would refuse to continue to do so because of this policy.

[AZBlue]

32. I agree.

I totally disagree with their policy and think it's un-Christian, but this is their belief and this country was founded on religious freedom.

[fishwax]

35. yep. they've the right, and we've the right to point out how narrowminded

the policy is.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Doesn't this violate some labor law?

if some Brazilian church-ran university (and there are quite a few Catholic and Protestant ones) did something like that they'd be reamed up the ass so hard even I would pity them.

But then again, this is a commie, godless country. :sarcasm:

[LostinVA]

19. Yes, it does. Private universities must still obey Fed labor laws

They don't get to pick and choose.

[tsuki]

41. Especially if they accept federal or state dollars. n/t

[TlalocW]

6. Another viewpoint

At least there's one Christian group who is actually following its convictions. Not that I agree with what they're doing, but evangelical Christians have been beating the sanctity of marriage horse for quite some time now over whether gays should be given the right to marry while ignoring the fact that the highest divorce rates come from their flocks.

That's surprisingly refreshing, and yet disappointing that it would be so since it's just one small group in Oklahoma that decided to stop being hypocrites when it came to their faith.

TlalocW

[Batgirl]

12. I actually think this is how they create more hypocrisy

They're drastically increasing the incentives for people to stay in unhappy marriages by tying it to one's employment. Not to mention, the public shame factor -- that is, someone will stand in judgment and evaluate whether your reasons for divorcing are suffiiciently god-approved.

What happens when people feel divorce isn't an option because it will lead to loss of job, loss of standing in the community, public shame/chastisement? More sneaking around, adultery, people leading secret lives, and let's not forget, even murder.

Not being hyperbolic about that last one. It's fascinating how spousal murder is committed by upstanding, pillars-of-the-community types who'd rather their spouse just not exist anymore, rather than pay the social penalties that can happen when the pious divorce.

[TlalocW]

28. I agree

But there's nothing in the Bible about hypocrisy in regards to staying in unhappy marriages. The only Biblically valid reason for wanting a divorce is when your partner is unfaithful. As of now, they are the only group of "Christians" who are now adhering (in this regard) to what the Bible actually says. That, whatever the consequences, is a rarity.

TlalocW

[Bluerthanblue]

30. you're right and

also suicide as an out-
speaking from experience-

god hates divorce- what options does that leave???

few.

[beyurslf]

7. What about the professor who thinks he or she is happily married but

their spouse files for divorce. Would this count if they didn't want the divorce?

[seabeyond]

9. bring it on. that is it, my christian friends. fire their ass

lets start lookin at all the sins, and fire their ass if they are sinners. let all these hypocrits just see how ridiculous they are nation wide. this shit is what is going to wake people up. i say anyone that tries to argue the sin of homosexuals bring divorce right along next to it. i have been for a handful of years. is in leviticus and paul is really pissed at divorce. there is religious agrument for sinnin divorce.

then, our courts can start making people stay together. that shit will get the fundies. there were more divorces in my fundie christians school than i have seen in any other social structure

[FlaGranny]

10. First thought is that

I guess they don't care much whether the divorced/separated party is able to support the kids. I wonder if battering counts as a reason to separate.

[Zambero]

20. No, battering wouldn't count

On the other hand, it's to be encouraged as a proper corrective action that's meted out to those wives who are somehow not "submissive" enough.

What's next from these kooks, black turbans and veils?

[seabeyond]

22. feed the children, wtf. only the "good christian" kids get food. n/t

[Bluerthanblue]

25. no Gran, they don't-

anymore than they care that babies born to parents who can't support them- be taken care of-
Cause 'welfare queens' might get hold of the money and live big-
:sarcasm:

It is usually the children who pay the price, and they grow up to make more children who will have to pay the price and grow up to make more children who pay.....

unless somthing or someone intervenes-

(i'm a recovering fundie-cult member- and glad to be truly free. domestic abuse, and adultery wasn't grounds for divorce- for the wife- i could leave him, but not divorce and i could never re-marry without being guilty of adultery...??? and i bought into that. :-( )

[Nomen Tuum]

11. Even those whose spouses cheat on them?

C'mon, the rule book gives you a pass on that!

[knitter4democracy]

24. That's a biblical reason, though.

Even Jesus said it was okay in the case of adultery. Next thing you know, they'll all be claiming that it was adultery. :eyes:

[Bluerthanblue]

26. only for Moses' clan-

it was a 'limited escape clause' for men only-

What i never understood is why no one has picked up on the brother of a deceased man having to marry the widow- (look at what happened to Onan) When do you hear brother in laws having to take on their brothers wives???? Yet, it's in the bible-

???

[Kazak]

14. Pfftt, so...

don't tell them what they don't need to know.

Gotta love freeper policies that largely effect mostly freepers. :P

[Betsy Ross]

15. Bibically speaking,

old testament that is, only sex with a married WOMAN is considered adultery. A married man can screw as many unmarried women as he wants without committing adultery. The injunction serves to assure the paternity of any offspring. You always know who the mother is.

So the fundies can have their cake and eat it too, so to speak.

[China_cat]

17. Only applies to female employees.

[Zambero]

18. "Judge not, lest ye be judged"

Aw shucks folks, just don't listen to that liberal New Testament crap!

[Bluerthanblue]

23. hey, why isn't it retroactive??? did 'god' pardon them?

Or are they trying to implement a standard they couldn't live up to?

such bullshit- "limited scriptural grounds" in my former church didn't include physical and sexual abuse- even with adultery added to the mix.
I believed i couldn't 'divorce' or god would hate me- because god hates divorce-

I was counselled that i could 'seperate' but not divorce, and if my husband divorced me, i could not remarry and not be guilty of adultery-

People can be so stupid- and cruel.

[Raster]

33. How 'bout those good folk that commit adultry. That seems to be an

old fundie stand-by. Oh yeah, how 'bout those that bang the babysitter or the lawnboy?

[Virginian]

34. But yet he supported Reagan. n/t

[triguy46]

36. Would having your husband arrested....

for soliciting oral sex from a male police officer be sufficient for a divorce? Is that one of their "limited scriptural grounds?" What if the husband served on boards of major evangelical state and national organizations and actively lobbied for limitations of rights for gays? Even if he drives a Mercedes?

[Igel]

37. A lot of private schools have morality clauses in their contracts.

The reject the idea of paying professors--who function as mentors and role models--when the professors do something the school officially disapproves of. Sometime they meddle in academic freedom, but usually only when that freedom runs afoul of publically professed and well-known beliefs on the part of the school. The faculty/staff sign the contract knowing the clause is in there--usually it's a separate document so there's no excuse or possible claim of "I didn't read it." They enter into the contract voluntarily; if they don't want to, there's usually somebody just as qualified waiting in the wings for the job.

Almost all of the schools I know of with such clauses completely ignore private, discrete violations of the policies, but pounce on public displays. The faculty's hypocrisy or rectitude is not the school's concern; flagrantly violating the policy amounts to institutional hypocrisy.

I assume that the active voice used for the verbs in the article is intentional and that agenthood at some level is required of the professors/staff for the policy to kick in: it doesn't say they'll "terminate any employee who becomes separated or divorced".

[rainbow4321]

38. Update: University reconsidering policy(regrets not being "sensitive")

Hmmm...wonder who in the OKC legal community contacted him?? Or was he about to have to fire his whole staff under his new policy? OK has one of the highest divorce rates in the US.

http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&id=96904

Oklahoma Christian University is apparently reconsidering a proposed policy that would allow the school to fire staff and faculty who get a divorce.

President Mike O'Neal says the proposed policy has been misunderstood.

The policy also would have applied to prospective workers, which might have been denied employment if they had been divorced.

O'Neal said he regrets the policy wasn't sensitive enough in its wording to the people who have experienced divorce.

[Joey Liberal]

39. Oklahoma is Jesus/Bush land

Oklahoma is still living in the stone age.

[bobbieinok]

42. Oral Roberts U in Tulsa could never do that...the pres, Richard Roberts,

is divorced and several major faculty members are divorced or separated

[tyedyeto]

43. This is a privately funded college, right?

If they want to demand their faculty adhere to a certain standard, that's fine with me. But if they accept one penny, nickel or dime from ANY public source of money, they should abide by all hiring and firing statutes on the books.

[mnhtnbb]

44. Next thing they'll be in the bedroom

firing anyone who engages in anything other than the "missionary" position!