Christianity Today

Nebraska football coach was denied Stanford job over religious beliefs
After his team lost in the Rose Bowl, Nebraska Assistant Football Coach Ron Brown applied for the head coaching job at Stanford University. He was denied the job after the first interview, reports The Daily Nebraskan, because of his religious beliefs, especially his belief that homosexual behavior is a sin.

"(His religion) was definitely something that had to be considered," Alan Glenn, Stanford's assistant athletic director of human resources, told the student newspaper. "We're a very diverse community with a diverse alumni. Anything that would stand out that much is something that has to be looked at."

Brown also wrote about the discrimination in the March 2002 issue of Sharing the Victory, the magazine of Fellowship of Christian Athletes (the article is not yet available online). In it, he says he was directly told that he wasn't getting the job because an athletic director "did not believe that my Christian convictions would mesh well with that university. … I wasn't upset with (the) decision to choose another candidate over me. But I was shocked at the reason and that the university was that up-front in telling me the reason."

He voiced similar shock to the Nebraskan. "If I'd been discriminated against for being black, they would've never told me that," he said. "They had no problem telling me it was because of my Christian beliefs. That's amazing to me."

The paper agreed. "While we don't agree with his comments that homosexuality is a sin, we also don't think Stanford should have turned down a good coach because of a belief system he holds. That seems a bit too much like reverse discrimination to us," said a staff editorial. "In an effort to protect ...

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