Adjunct professor Beth Gonzales decided she won’t be returning to Fresno Pacific University next semester after a discussion she had with university President Richard Kriegbaum about gay marriage this week.
Disagreeing with school leaders’ vocal opposition to gay marriage, she asked Kriegbaum on Wednesday if she needed to resign.
“I agreed with her that it looked like the logical thing to do to resolve the issue of conscience,” Kriegbaum said.
This is the latest aftershock from an official Fresno Pacific blog post written by Kriegbaum in July titled “Being Christ-like in an Anti-Christian Culture” that helped clarify the university’s position on marriage following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling protecting same-sex marriage.
The post resulted in the resignation of at least two Fresno Pacific adjunct professors from the Christian college and garnered a slew of comments online, including the creation of a Facebook page titled “Response to Richard Kriegbaum, and Fresno Pacific University.”
“I was upset that there seemed to be an assumption that all Christians feel this way (about gay marriage) and I know that is not remotely true,” said Gonzales, who has worked at Fresno Pacific for over 21 years as director of the school’s handbell choir.
* At least two adjunct professors have resigned and another will not return next semester
