Joshua Aminov – January 2, 2010
After quoting a popular Bible verse to back up his assertion about the tenets of Christianity in his college essay, a student at Rutgers University-New Brunswick says he was told to avoid quoting Bible verses in academic papers because of the “separation of church and state” and the potential to offend non-Christians.
Political science student and Campus Reform correspondent Peter Cordi was assigned an autobiographical paper in his “Intro to Gender, Race, and Sexuality” class last semester. In his paper, Cordi referenced a personal friend of his who struggles with his own homosexual identity, especially given the views of the individual’s mother. Cordi wrote about how his friend’s mother cites her Christain religion and beliefs to justify her opinion of people who identify as gay.
Cordi is a Christain who disagrees with his friends’ mother’s views toward members of the LGBT community and quoted scripture from the Bible to support his position. Cordi quoted the popular verse John 3:16 from the Bible: “For God so loved the WORLD that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
In grading Cordi’s paper, Professor Kathe Sandler included her remarks next to Cordi’s use of the quote, telling the student that his use of a quote from the Bible was inappropriate.