I’m going to reprint Ginnyfree’s observations (with permission). I disagree that this is “nuff said!” I think we could do volumes more on the lunacy at LMU and most Jesuit schools. Thanks, Ginnyfree.
Okay. I’ve got a little time to chat, so I’ll start by answering Mad Mom’s question about who actually is BIRT. She’s already explained that they are a part of the campus life of Marymount and that they are charged with processing incidents of bias that the newer anti-discrimination policies are attempting to limit. In the “incident” regarding the employee who simply stated Church teaching to others who seemed interested in listening, we discover that there really was two versions of the alleged “incident,” at that those who are charged by the college to investigate such things are pretty much biased in favor of the LGBTQ community of persons who are a part of campus life and Marymount. It is they who are twisting the truth of what actually happened to make it seem as if there really was a hate crime. Of course they do. They have to because that is what they were organized to find and deal with, so they interpret actual interactions with rainbow colored glasses. They’ve be given the task of finding those persons who actually hate gays and would hurt them and by gosh, by golly, they are going to give it the Old College Try and will find a few even if they have to make it up. OOOOOOPS!
Now, wanting to be charitable, I looked up the current dictates in the college’s policy manual that provide BIRT team members with their authority to do what it is they do for the school and since it is relevant, I will add it here:
“Equal Opportunity & Non-Discrimination
The University seeks to ensure a positive living, learning and working environment for all LMU community members. Specifically, this policy prohibits unwelcome, harassing conduct on the basis of race, religious creed (including religious dress and grooming practices), color, national origin (including language and language use restrictions), ancestry, disability (mental and physical) including HIV and AIDS, legally protected medical condition (cancer-related or genetic characteristics), denial of Family and Medical Care Leave, marital status, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical condition), gender, gender identity, gender expression, age 40 or over, military or veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic information or any other bases protected by federal (including but not limited to Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990), state or local law. The University does not discriminate on these bases, or any other basis protected by law, in the administration of any of its education or admissions policies, scholarship or loan programs, athletics, and other school-administered policies and programs, or in its employment policies and practices. All University policies, practices, and procedures are administered in a manner consistent with LMU’s Jesuit identity and character.”
Okay, so by their actions, the BIRT team has successfully limited the ability of the College to actually discuss Catholicism in an authentic way outside of the classrooms anywhere on campus within earshot of any person who may take offense at what is being said. It is the BIRT team who will process any incident that gets reported to them in which a person is offended by the actions or words of another and that is NOT according to any Catholic standard, but rather of a standard of compliance with an agenda that seeks to silence the Church in the public square everywhere, and not simply on the well groom lawns of our colleges and universities as is outlined in the paragraph above. They’ve in effect, made preaching a crime on their campus if there is anyone who may be offended by preaching against the LBGTQ agenda within earshot. I guess, since the college has approved this and moved forward with it, it will get worse.
What is also very troubling to me is the very last sentence of the paragraph I’ve quoted, the part about these policies being considered a part of the school’s Jesuit identity and character. Last time I checked these words couldn’t be reconciled to these that actually pretty much describe EXACTLY the authentic and more importantly authorized Jesuit identity and character:”He is a member of a Society founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive especially for the defence and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine, by means of public preaching, lectures and any other ministration whatsoever of the Word of God, and further by means of retreats, the education of children and unlettered persons in Christianity, and the spiritual consolation of Christ’s faithful through hearing confessions and administering the other sacraments.” That paragraph is part of a Papal Bull, which the other paragraph has rendered bull of another sort. The Pope said they are supposed to preach under the banner of Christ all sound doctrine, but the BIRT team will be listening!
Okay. Nuff said. God bless. Ginnyfree.
One Mad Mom 
Maintaining a police state is expensive. For some time, I have been advocating the defunding of the bias/diversity bureaucracies on campuses as a way to curb this insanity, and at least one state, Tennessee, has started to do this. Hopefully, more states will follow suit. Defunding the thought police might also be a way to provide some tuition relief.
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Yes, it is a serious breach with actual Jesuit identity and character. They’ve in effect, re-visioned their charism as a Jesuit school. This is troubling on a number of levels and for various reasons. It is first and foremost, a rejection of the authentic Apostolate that was approved by the reigning Pope in St. Ignatius’ day and affirmed by others through history. Jesuits preach and teach sound doctrine. That is their core Apostolate. A regulation prohibiting this in a college manual can NEVER supercede their actual charism as Jesuits. NEVER!
Problem two, the Jesuits as whole cannot just alter their charism at will. It must be approved by the Pope. That feature of their actual Order’s vocational fulfillment cannot be set aside. Those who attempt to do so are supposed to be disciplined by the Order itself. That means a single college cannot publish a newer “identity and character” and simply adopt it claiming it is Jesuit. No one there at that school who is actually a Jesuit could do so, nor can they encourage others to do so for to do so is a violation of their vows to obey the Pope. They are his and his alone.
Problem three: the fact that these persons have claimed alliance and compliance with a particular government, namely the citation of Federal, State and local governing bodies in that paragraph, as a part of living an authentic Jesuit spirituality is false. It is a fraudulent representation of genuine Ignatian spirituality. As their rather checkered history proves out, the Jesuits have had more than once been accused of being traitorous towards more than one governing body. So, how is it that the compliance and alliance found in the ominous paragraph is passed off as Ignatian? It isn’t. In fact, I would venture to say, it is the opposite of what an authentic Jesuit commitment actually is. The fact that the LGBT agenda is NOT compatible with the ministry to the Word of God that is intrinsically Jesuit from their founding up, and that they are the Soldiers of Christ, marching under His Standard, The paragraph in question is how the University is re-issuing their Jesuit marching orders. They’ve surrendered without a fight. They expect that is can be called a Jesuit thing. But it is the opposite and an actual abandonment of all that is genuinely Jesuit. Soldiers of Christ? No, they expect to be soldiers against Christ and those who try to remain faithful to Him. No For anyone who has read anything about the history of the Jesuits and treasures their manifold gifts to the building up of God’s Kingdom and all of Christendom knows that they cannot be surrendered on the whole to any agenda in any land at any time, especially one so anti-Christian as the homosexual agenda that even seeks to corrupt the very nature of our understanding of marriage!
One other little problem. They expect their re-visioned apostolate to be accepted by other Catholics as if it is the original. Everyone knows we Catholics always defer to our religious: Sister said, so, so it must be so. We do this without blinking. This automatic acceptance is what the authors of the miasmatic re-visioned Ignatian identity found in their manual of policies depends upon. It is this unblinking trust factor that allows them to so easily replace the authentic version with their corruption. How could anyone claim that NOT preaching anything offensive could be Jesuit? Just re-read the Papal Bull defining their Apostolate. They are called to preach and teach all sound doctrine at all times in all places the Pope sends them. They exist to spread Christianity. That is what we as Catholics are to help them do. Anything less is not Jesuit nor can it be called Jesuit by anyone. It is an ecclesial fraud as well to try and re-vision their spiritual core via a policy manual that seeks to re-define that which only the Pope himself can do for them. There are persons fraudulently representing our religious institutions who have deviated far enough from their original apostolate to be called frauds. We can no longer just accept that they are giving genuine spiritual guidance when they speak or act. We need to think for ourselves in this regard until order has been restored to our Orders. Nuff said.
God bless. Ginnyfree
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If these LGBTQ snowflakes can’t stand the mere stating of Church teaching in a Catholic campus, then why are they still studying in a Catholic university? There are state colleges and universities that don’t cost as much as LMU and are thoroughly secular, so why don’t they transfer to those schools? And how was any LGBTQ student harassed by this? As far as I can tell, the LGBTQ students of LMU… are still students of LMU. They’re still free to conduct their day – to – day campus life and openly identify themselves as LGBTQ. Just because someone states a religious teaching that doesn’t affirm your way of life doesn’t mean he’s harassing you. If LMU’s BIRT enforcers can investigate an employee for this, then I bet a similar fate awaits a Muslim student who mentions the Hadith’s passages on homosexuality, or a Jewish professor who quotes Leviticus 18:22.
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Dear Paraluman. The answer to your question of why is simple: they are part of an agenda that seeks to destroy the Catholic Church. The secularization of our country was only the start, a tilling of the soil to plant the seed of the weeds these persons (LGBTQs) are. They have been planted to choke the wheat and so they simply must be planted in the wheatfield, the Catholic Universities and Colleges across our country and abroad. Weeds and wheat. Read the parable. The weed seed is always sown by the enemy. Knowing that the Church’s enemies will leap to their defense when challenged, these persons are confident that they can do much damage to individuals who dare cross them. Think of it: you and your parents have worked and scrimped and saved to get you to a college and you are a very good student with a future in some profession of your hopes and dreams lying a few more semesters ahead. Then suddenly, a practicing homosexual asks you about Church teaching in the cafeteria and you respond automatically that homosexuality lived openly cannot be reconciled to a Christian identity nor is one who is a practicing homosexual capable of presenting oneself for Communion and that until one lays aside one’s homosexual identity and practice, one cannot receive Communion. You answer all the questions in about three minutes over coffee with friends and the gay person thanks you and walks away. You don’t think anything negative about it at all. Three days later you find the whole conversation was interpreted as a hate crime and reported to the campus BIRT team and they have you under advisement. Soon your whole future is over, your dreams, the dreams of your parents and the secure financial picture for your future family is in ruins because some practicing homosexual took offense in a conversation in which you were deliberately baited over a cup of coffee on a college campus. And all of this is supposedly a Jesuit spirituality!!!!!!! Weeds and wheat. And it IS the enemy who sows the weeds.
God bless. Ginnyfree
P.S. Our kids aren’t stupid. Knowing this can and is happening IS silencing many students who would protest the LGBTQs but cannot risk losing their entire future to speak up against the weeds and the enemies who’ve sown them.
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Thanks, Ginnyfree. Your P.S. reminded me about an article Jason Riley wrote after he was disinvited from speaking at Virginia Tech. In it, he recounted a conversation he once had with a conservative Wellesley student after his speaking engagement there. She said, “Being too outspoken woukd just make it more difficult. You get to leave when you’re done. We have to live with with these people until we graduate.”
The Federalist quotes Mr. Riley’s article here. http://thefederalist.com/2016/05/04/virginia-tech-just-disinvited-a-black-conservative-from-speaking-on-campus/
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