IVP responds to authors’ protest of controversial gay marriage termination policy
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA (IVCF), an evangelical ministry operating on 667 campuses nationwide, has faced fierce backlash since announcing it would involuntarily terminate any employees who theologically support gay marriage. The most significant outcry has come from a group of more than 50 prominent authors in InterVarsity’s publishing stable who signed a statement lamenting the policy and asking the ministry to revoke it immediately. In the midst of the growing outcry, InterVarsity leadership has holed up and remained silent. Attempts made by Religion News Service to contact IVCF president Tom Lin and Greg Jao, director of campus engagement, have been ignored. Other religion journalists who have reported on the matter say IVCF leadership has been unresponsive to their interview requests, too.
But the publisher at InterVarsity Press (IVP), Jeff Crosby, has now cracked the silence. Though he declined to be interviewed at this time, he released a statement to Religion News Service saying that IVP authors will be exempt from the controversial gay marriage termination policy: