More details are emerging about Biola University’s mistreatment of pro-life student Diana Jimenez.  (Scroll down to see previous stories on FAB.)

Jill Stanek interviewed Jimenez for a story on JillStanek.com.  Excerpts:

“I was pro-life but had no idea what an abortion looked like,” Diana told me today by phone. “Then I actually saw a video of an abortion, and my heart broke in pieces.”

A senior nursing student at Biola, a Christian university in La Mirada, California, Diana promptly launched a pro-life group and invited Gregg Cunningham, executive director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, to speak. After a great deal of energy was expended to publicize, only four students showed up.

***

Diana received permission to host a table with resources about abortion. On May 8 she, with a few representatives from CBR and two fellow students, set up her table after chapel let out, also displaying graphic signs of abortion.

In all, 1,500 students – some hostile – saw the signs before school administrators shut the group down.

“The campus safety officer’s biggest argument was, ‘You didn’t ask for permission,’” said Diana, who didn’t know she needed additional approval to show the signs. “They had a huge concern to not upset students, but it seemed no one gave a rip about the babies who are dying in the millions.”

***

Associate Dean [Matthew] Hooper followed up Diana’s second infraction with a letter threatening that if showed her signs a third time the consequences for “rebelling against authority” would be she couldn’t participate in commencement and would be banned from campus.

Meanwhile, Nurse Ratcheds exist in more than movies. Diana’s dean of nursing decided to take matters into her own hands and mete her own consequence. On May 22, Dr. Susan Elliott wrote a letter to all nursing faculty barring them from writing a letter of employment reference for Diana.

“She took this upon herself without being asked,” said Diana. “This effects my entire vocational career.”

Diana maintains Elliott’s consequence is not within her authority and also not in the Biola handbook. I hope a pro-life attorney helps Dr. Elliott see the error of her ways.

Ironically, Elliott went to Washington, D.C., in March to lobby for conscience protections.

Elliott needs to lobby herself.

“The hypocrisy I’ve seen is also disappointing,” lamented Diana. “When I told Dr. Elliott the punishment was inappropriate, she said I should have thought about that before. Seriously? I’m trying to save lives, and this is what she does?”

***

“Most people on this campus would say they’re pro-life, but they don’t have a strong enough conviction to do anything about it,” said Diana. “You can say you’re a Christian all day long, but where’s the evidence? We are challenged at Biola to say what we believe and what are we going to do about it.

“Four months ago I didn’t know anything about the issue,” Diana concluded. “These last four months have changed my life forever. I can’t believe we’re doing absolutely nothing for these babies or the women.”

Full story here.

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).