(In our February and April 2004 newsletters we reported on Matt Bass, a Truett Seminary (Baylor University) student who was effectively expelled from Truett for acknowledging his homosexuality.

Undaunted by the school’s continuous intimidation tactics even after he was expelled, Matt gathered 200 understanding folks from Texas and elsewhere and on March 27, held a historic rally to raise awareness about Baylor’s militant anti-gay activism.

This month we share the story of another student from Baylor University who was coerced into signing a written confession in order to avoid expulsion and graduate. Darrin Adams is now on our list of American heroes.)

Edited from the Associated Press

A Baylor University student who organized an off-campus gay rights rally graduated Saturday, May 15, 2004, but he says he doubts he would have received his diploma if he had not admitted violating the Baptist school’s conduct code.

Darrin Adams, 22, found out last month that Baylor was charging him with misconduct for organizing the March rally in downtown Waco. A letter from an administrator said the event was “part of an advocacy group that promotes understandings of sexuality that are contrary” to biblical teachings, Baptist beliefs and Baylor’s Christian mission.

Punishment for misconduct — which includes drinking, gambling, premarital sex, cohabitation, homosexuality and using weapons — ranges from a reprimand to expulsion, according to Baylor’s student handbook.

Adams, who is gay, but was not out on campus, said the administrator told him if he signed a document admitting wrongdoing, his punishment would simply be a written warning. Otherwise, Adams said, he was told he would go through the university’s disciplinary process, in which a committee of faculty and students would decide his penalty.

Adams said he consulted with an attorney, then reluctantly signed the form admitting that he broke the conduct code at Baylor, the world’s largest Baptist university with nearly 14,000 students.

Baylor officials declined to comment on the situations involving Adams or Bass, but Paul Powell, the seminary’s dean, has said that homosexual behavior is forbidden in the Bible and thus inconsistent with Baylor’s mission.

“If a person, according to Scripture, which is our standard, is not a part of the kingdom of God, how can they be in training for a minister?” Powell said earlier this year after Bass transferred to Emory University’s seminary in Atlanta.

Baylor, founded in 1845, is controlled by an all-Baptist board of regents and is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Baylor University is one of a dozen religious anti-gay universities promoted by US News and World Report as being one of America’s Best Colleges and Best Doctoral Universities. Pepperdine University (CA) and Texas Christian University were also included in the list.