A student at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles says that a professor took points off a recent test after the student identified God as being male, according to a report.
According to a Monday report from the College Fix, the student — who wishes to remain anonymous at the time of this reporting — is a member of the Loyola Marymount University College Republicans.
What are the details?
The outlet reported that the student innocuously described God as being male on a recent test.
Theological studies professor Cecilia González-Andrieu, however, reportedly did not appreciate the student’s response and docked several points from the test for using “male-gendered language for God repeatedly.”
The student, according to the report, sent a message to González-Andrieu, which read in part, “Your comment that I referred to God as a male, I should not have gotten any points off for that. MULTIPLE times throughout the Bible God is referred to as a ‘he.’ I feel targeted by your comment, as I was raised in the church with the belief that God is a male.”
González-Andrieu responded to the student’s message and suggested that she “defend referring to God as male” in order to earn back the lost points and receive full marks on the test if the argument was approved.
“As I indicated to the class community several times, in the footnotes you can have a conversation with other scholars,” González-Andrieu responded. “This gives you a way to highlight and support the reasons for your choices regarding multiple questions. Please resubmit your paper and add a footnote stating your reasons as a scholar to opt to preserve male language for God. I am sure you can do this well. That’s all you need to do and I will then review your paper once more.”
Neither González-Andrieu nor a spokesperson for the university responded to the outlet’s requests for comment on the story.
A spokesperson for the California College Republicans told the outlet that González-Andrieu updated the student’s grade after she resubmitted the paper with her defense in the footnotes.
The student “should have never been put in that situation,” Will Donahue, chairman of the California College Republicans and Loyola Marymount University College Republicans president, told the outlet. “I am appalled by this blatant heresy coming out of the theology department. This was a personal attack on one of my member[s’] freedom of religion, at a ‘Catholic’ school no less. This type of compelled speech cannot be tolerated by LMU.”
