Sometimes, though, they go too far.

The recent appointment of Dorothy Austin, currently co-Master of Lowell House and "life partner"of the other co-Master, Diana Eck, to the position of associate minister for Memorial Church, is at once utterly predictable and completely appalling. Predictable, in that the powers-that-be at Harvard have shown a willingness to inflict their prescriptions for social change on all aspects of university life; appalling, in that the appointment of Prof. Austin reflects an utter disregard for the religious beliefs of a large percentage of the student body.

Memorial Church's Sunday service is, mercifully, only one of many venues for religious expression at Harvard. However, Mem Church is the umbrella church for every campus religious group from Buddhism to Baha'i, and its pastors represent the public face of Harvardian spirituality.

Apparently, no one is fazed by making that face openly gay. Indeed, the comments of those associated with the decision reflect a deliberate obtuseness and refusal to recognize the ramifications of having a practicing lesbian ministering to the entire Harvard community.

"An understanding of the cross-fertilization between the fields of psychology and religion is particularly relevant to the work of the associate minister in the Memorial Church,"Sarah Drummond, assistant dean for freshmen and chaplain for religious education, told the Crimson, referring to Austin's career as a professor of psychology and religion. Presumably this understanding is slightly more relevant than conforming to the moral teachings of the faith communities Austin ostensibly represents.

"I hope that it would be a sign to the homosexual community at Harvard that the church and the ministry is a place that they would be welcomed,"said Rev. Peter J. Gomes, Plummer professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister at Mem Church. 

Perhaps Gomes' own homosexuality - he "outed"himself a few years back - was an insufficient sign. Or perhaps the appointment of Austin was intended to establish Mem Church as a place where those with orthodox religious views would not be welcomed.

This seems to be the logical conclusion of putting the public face of Harvard lesbianism in the Mem Church pulpit. Tolerance for gays, it is now clear, means intolerance for others, namely those who cling to what the Administration obviously regards as outdated nonsense - the idea that not all sexual behavior is morally equivalent.

Doubtless, the arrogantly "liberal"men and women responsible for this appointment will attempt to marginalize dissent by calling opponents of Prof. Austin's appointment "homophobes"and "bigots."Let it be pointed out, then, that opposition to homosexual conduct - including the gay marriage services that Memorial Church now performs - is officially upheld by almost every faith that Harvard's church claims to represent. A brief accounting would include Southern Baptists, Orthodox Judaism, the Latter-Day Saints, Greek and Russian Orthodoxy, most evangelical Christian denominations, Sunni and Shi'ite Islam, and Roman Catholicism. Hardly a laundry list of extremist groups, unless you happen to be using the pink triangle-eyeglasses favored by the University.

Indeed, even Prof. Austin's own branch of the Body of Christ (she was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1971) still has a few qualms about the lifestyle that now stands front and center on the Memorial Church altar. While American Episcopalianism has been busily transforming itself into an auxiliary wing of the gay liberation movement (and suffering a concurrent decline in membership, not coincidentally), the worldwide Anglican communion has, if anything, grown more conservative in recent years. 

The recent Lambeth conference of Anglican bishops produced the following statement:
"[The Church] recognizes that there are among us persons who experience themselves as having a ho- mosexual orientation . . . We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God . . . while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture. [The Church] cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same-sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions."

Unfortunately, there does not seem to be room for the worldwide Anglican communion, or the orthodox of any stripe, in the ever-so-tolerant pews of Memorial Church.