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Princeton Seminary Revokes Award for Tim Keller in LGBTQ Flap

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Princeton Seminary says it will not give an award to Tim Keller, one of America's most influential Christian conservative thinkers, because he does not believe in the ordination of women and sexually active LGBTQ people.

Keller, who is senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, was supposed to receive the seminary's Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Witness next month, but now will not receive the honor because doing so, according to the school, might "imply an endorsement" of his views.

In an email to faculty and students, the seminary's president Rev. Craig Barnes said, that while he remained committed to "academic freedom," he took into consideration people's objections to Keller's views.

"In talking with those who are deeply concerned about Reverend Keller's visit to campus, I find that most share this commitment to academic freedom," Barnes said in the letter. "Yet many regard awarding the Kuyper Prize as an affirmation of Reverend Keller's belief that women and LGBTQ+ persons should not be ordained."

Barnes says the seminary will not award the Kuyper Prize to anyone this year. Still, Barnes asked Keller if he would present a lecture at Princeton on April 6 despite the controversy. Keller has agreed.

"We are a community that does not silence voices in the church," Barnes wrote in the email. "In this spirit we are a school that can welcome a church leader to address one of its centers about his subject, even if we strongly disagree with his theology on ordination to ministry. Reverend Keller will be lecturing on Lesslie Newbigin and the mission of the church - not on ordination."

 

 

 

 

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