Fuller Theological Seminary is sticking to its position on human sexuality.
After several years discussing and debating the evangelical institution’s stance—and considering changing policies impacting LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff—trustees voted to reaffirm Fuller’s “historic theological understanding of marriage,” while noting the school’s position that “faithful Christians” can hold other views.
“Fuller Seminary has historically shunned ideological polarities,” president David Goatley wrote in an email summarizing the May 18-19 board meeting. “We continue to seek another way—a Fuller way—that is a critical contribution to the church and the world.”
Board chair Shirley Mullen said the decision was made after years of long, thoughtful discussions about issues dividing Christians and about Fuller’s core identity.
“This is a signal that Fuller is Fuller, Fuller will be Fuller,” Mullen told CT. “Fuller has sought to be a seminary that transcends the polarization of the moment. … We will be criticized by both sides, but we want to complicate the polarization and call people to the richness of the gospel.”
An academic task force considered other “third way” solutions to the ongoing conflict over sexual ethics. One proposal, circulated widely in 2024, opened the possibly of allowing same-sex relationships at Fuller.
A draft of revised standard for sexual ethics said everyone at the multidenominational seminary would be asked to “live with integrity consistent with the Christian communities to which they belong.” Faculty and staff would be further required to support Fuller’s position and “contribute constructively to nurturing the seminary’s relationship of trust with global evangelical theological communities.”
If the school had decided to adopt that stance, members of the United Methodist Church, the Disciples of Christ, the Mennonite Church USA, the Metropolitan Community Church, American Baptist Churches, and mainline Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Episcopal denominations would have been allowed to work and study at the school while in LGBTQ relationships.
Fuller is the eighth-largest seminary in the United States and one of the largest without a denominational affiliation. Professors all sign Fuller’s statement of faith and agree to uphold community standards, including the standard that says “sexual union must be reserved for marriage, which is the covenant union between one man and one woman.” But the school employs people from a wide range of Christian traditions and more than a dozen current faculty members belong to affirming churches.
Fuller also has about 400 full-time and 1,500 part-time students who come from more than 100 different denominations. Online enrollment has grown in recent years.
Fuller founder Harold Ockenga hoped the institution could train ministers to go into denominations that were not evangelical and help reclaim them. Under his leadership, Fuller hired its professor of “ecumenics” in 1949, two years after its founding. The hire sparked fierce controversy and many critics questioned whether the school was really committed to its evangelical identity. The professor was let go after a few years, “sacrificed for the sake of expedience in the midst of a deep cultural and theological conflict,” according to historian Cecil M. Robeck.
The current president, Goatley, says the school continues to embrace that evangelical-ecumenical vision, through all the controversy.
“The Board of Trustees is committed to continuing Fuller’s long history of educating leaders in various fields of theology and psychology with the competencies needed for the various settings and contexts God calls them to serve,” Goatley said.
Debates over what that means for LGBTQ students and faculty have roiled the seminary in recent years.
In 2019 and 2020, two former students sued Fuller, alleging discrimination. They claimed they were expelled for being in same-sex relationships and that violated the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sex. The courts sided with the seminary, dismissing the case on First Amendment grounds.
In 2024, Ruth Schmidt, senior director of Fuller’s Brehm Center for the arts and worship, was fired after she refused to sign the school’s statement of faith.
Schmidt, who identifies as queer, had previously signed the statement as a student and an employee. But as she prepared for ordination in the United Church of Christ, she decided she was no longer willing to do it.
“Even though I’m able to navigate this space, I can’t put my signature next to something that will harm the people that I’m called to serve,” she told Religion News Service.
Schmidt was fired, prompting protests. A group of students took the stage at the end of a chapel service with signs saying “LGBTQ+ Let’s talk about it,” and “I want to talk in safety.” They demanded a moratorium on expulsions and firings. A larger group of about 40 protested outside.
Goatley asked for patience.
“This is the journey that we’re on,” he said, “and we have to work with delicacy and with diligence because these matters are impactful—personally, ecclesiologically, communally, and institutionally.”
Goatley said the trustees had tasked him, two deans, and six faculty members with reviewing the school’s community sexual standards and reporting to the board. When the group reported in May 2024, however, trustees did not vote on the report or any specific proposals but asked for further study and formed a new task force with members of the faculty, staff, and trustees, to be chaired by Mullen.
That group met seven times but did not reach a consensus and did not make a recommendation to the trustees, Mullen said. Trustees looked at minutes of the meetings, letters from task force members, and a draft of a final report before voting to reaffirm the school’s position.
“Fuller will assume that Fuller faculty and all those involved in mediating the educational experience will be committed to respecting and articulating the institution’s position on sexuality without feeling either morally or intellectually compromised,” Mullen said.
The decision is unlikely to satisfy Fuller’s critics on either side. Mullen said that’s to be expected and is part of Fuller’s calling and identity.
A statement of belief on the school’s website notes that the institution has regularly rejected conservative calls for stricter gatekeeping and finds many debates about the boundaries of evangelicalism to be distractions from the actual tasks of evangelicalism.
“We are not perfect,” the statement says. “We do not have to be. We have God’s sure Word to guide and correct our steps; we have Christ’s sure grace to forgive our errors; we have the churches’ continued goodwill as, to the glory of God, we fulfill our mission and theirs.”
