MALIBU, Calif. – A prominent faith-based university has quietly embraced the Obama Administration’s mandate on “transgender” students and will allow students to use restrooms and locker rooms of the opposite sex, as it has now withdrawn its exemption from the government policy.
Pepperdine University is a private California school affiliated with the Churches of Christ. In terms of a total number of students, Pepperdine is the largest Church of Christ-affiliated university in the U.S., with a total student body of approximately 7,500.
As a university that identifies itself as Christian, Pepperdine advertises its adherence to biblical morals.
“Founded in the Church of Christ tradition, Pepperdine University proudly upholds Christian values,” the university’s website states. “We believe these values complement and support the pursuit of knowledge.”
However, despite the school’s stated adherence to these values, it recently embraced the U.S. Department of Education’s controversial stance on “transgender” students.
As previously reported, the U.S. government in May began urging schools to allow students to use the restrooms corresponding with their “gender identity” or else lose federal funding. The guidelines are based on the Obama Administration’s interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
Although several Church of Christ-affiliated schools have requested and obtained exemptions from the controversial policy, Pepperdine has chosen instead to embrace the Obama Administration’s interpretation of Title IX. In a letter to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) earlier this year, the president of Pepperdine asked the department to nullify the school’s 40-year-old exemption.
“While the university continues to be controlled, within the meaning contemplated by Title IX, through its affiliations with the Churches of Christ, the university is committed to complying with Title IX,” Andrew Benton, the university’s president, wrote.
He seemingly did not want Pepperdine to be publicly recognized as a religious school seeking exemption from Title IX.
“The university would appreciate OCR removing it from any list of universities holding a Title IX exemption or, alternatively, including this withdrawal in any public disclosure of its Title IX exemption materials,” Benton wrote.
"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much" (Luke 16:10).