![]() Students don’t need to be Christian to attend. The school’s religious composition is more varied than one might expect from a denominational affiliate of the Free Methodist Church, too. Last fall, 54 percent of undergraduates hailed from historically underrepresented backgrounds, and about 96 percent received some form of financial aid. And at least superficially, the school’s diversity aims align with the values of a big liberal city. But like other small universities in the area, SPU has long operated quietly in the shadows of the University of Washington. The endurance of an evangelical school in progressive Seattle, dubbed one of the country’s “atheist capitals” not long ago, might seem improbable. It wasn’t until 1977 that the college became Seattle Pacific University, which now claims 43 verdant city acres and more than 3,000 students. By 1913, college-level courses merited the addition of “and College” to its moniker two years after that, administrators coined it Seattle Pacific College. Seattle Seminary opened in 1893 with 34 students training to become missionaries in a brick building. Three decades later, a member of the church gifted it five acres on the northern slope of Queen Anne Hill. His “free” church wouldn’t sell seats or otherwise exclude devotees. Benjamin Titus Roberts had condemned, among other things, the traditional institution’s support for slaveholding and renting pews. In 1860, a pastor from New York state helped organize the Free Methodist Church of North America after his expulsion from the Methodist Episcopal Church. Ultimately, it would threaten faculty, staff, and students’ faith in the school’s future, and their own.Ī schism laid the foundation for what’s known today as Seattle Pacific University. It would animate an ongoing conversation about how Christian schools should reckon with growing support for LGBTQ+ causes within their halls. It would coincide with enrollment drops and job cuts. It would lead to the resignations of dissenting board members, faculty, and staff. ![]() It would be the subject of lawsuits and protests, national media coverage and viral TikTok videos. Over the next four years, the fight over SPU’s anti-LGBTQ+ policy would come to define a small school long on the periphery of Seattle’s academic and cultural identities. Instead, his new friend’s comments turned out to be more like foreshadowing. Before his conversation at that conference, Hanson thought SPU had progressed far enough beyond the statements to render them moot. All those words hidden behind clicks and dusty bindings can tether someone, or an entire institution, to the past. But sometimes the terms and conditions really do apply. ![]()
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