Biola University alumnus Diana Jimenez has advised the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) that Susan Elliott, Director of the Biola Nursing Department, has ordered Biola’s nursing faculty to refuse any request for letters of reference for Jimenez as she applies for nursing positions at hospitals and clinics.  This is in retaliation for Jimenez’s display of abortion imagery at Biola University when she was a student there (about a month ago).  (Link to story here.)

In a face-to-face meeting, Jimenez explained to Elliott that this decision could make it impossible for her to find employment as a nurse.  Elliott reportedly replied that Jimenez “should have thought of that” before she broke the rule forbidding the display of abortion photos on campus.  Elliott told Jimenez that her defiance of Biola’s regulations regarding abortion photos “grieved her heart,” but volunteered that she might be willing to reconsider her decision in one year, contingent upon Jimenez’s rehabilitation, by which she assumedly meant Jimenez’s willingness to abandon any and all future abortion photo displays.

Jimenez also told CBR that when Biola President Barry Corry awarded her diploma at Biola’s May 24 graduation ceremony (the same diploma Biola’s Police Chief had threatened to withhold for displaying abortion photos), he smiled and told her, “You will be a fine nurse.”  If Elliott has her way, Jimenez might never become a nurse.

CBR Executive Director Gregg Cunningham released this statement:

Biola has the legal authority to promulgate regulations which create a climate of ignorance that is conducive to the killing of unborn children.  Biola also has a legal right to enforce those regulations in cruel and vindictive ways.  But by what scriptural authority does Biola help Planned Parenthood conceal the inhumanity of abortion?  By what scriptural authority does Biola persecute students who expose the lies which Planned Parenthood is telling the Biola students whose pregnancies it aborts?  Students may be legally obligated to comply with a regulation which promotes evil, but aren’t they spiritually obligated to defy rules which increase the likelihood that unborn children will be tortured to death?

If a child fell into Biola’s swimming pool and a student in street clothes tried to jump in and save him/her, Biola President Barry Corey would have the legal authority to intercept that rescuer and warn that pool regulations prohibit any entry into the water dressed in other than approved swimming attire.  If the rescuer persisted, Dr. Corey has the legal authority to declare him/her a trespasser and threaten to withhold his/her diploma, suspend him/her, expel him/her, sabotage his/her employment prospects, or even arrest him/her.  But would he have the spiritual authority to order that the child be left to drown?  Would the rescuer be accountable to God or Dr. Corey in this case?  If Jesus cares more about obeying rules than saving lies, why did He repeatedly enrage hard-hearted Pharisees by healing on the Sabbath?

The YouTube video posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tILmCEUzio is drawing comments left by parents saying they will now no longer consider Biola as a potential school at which to enroll their children.  That is sad, but perhaps Biola “should have thought about that” before sweeping abortion under the rug and bullying students who try to drag it back out.  Historically, successful social reform is always about the public display of shocking pictures.  In fact, no great injustice has ever been reformed by covering it up.  Abortion isn’t being reformed, precisely because Biola and most of the rest of the Body of Christ is making it invisible, and therefore, tolerable.

In a follow-up e-mail, Cunningham told FAB,

From a consumer protection perspective, parents have a right to know that this is the sort of vindictive cruelty they are risking when they send their children to Biola.

CBR is urging people of conscience to e-mail Biola and ask the Administration to stop abusing its students with repressive restrictions on expressive rights.  Officials can be reached as follows:

• President Barry Corey, michele.hughes@biola.edu
• Dean of Students Danny Paschall, danny.paschall@biola.edu
• Associate Dean of Students Matthew Hooper, matthew.hooper@biola.edu
• Police Chief John Ojeisekhoba, campus.safety@biola.edu

CBR is also urging people to post comments below the YouTube video that depicts Jimenez’s mistreatment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tILmCEUzio).

Tags: abortion pictures, Barry Corey, Biola University, Diana Jimenez, Susan Elliott

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 5th, 2013 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Campus Debate (GAP), Matthew 28:20 Church Project. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.