A conflict over what it means to be Christian is forcing a school in Kansas City, Missouri, to close.
Urban Christian Academy made public its embrace of LGBTQ students. Its donors quickly withdrew financial support.
According to the school, that update prompted donors to stop contributing, many of them citing their interpretation of Christianity as the reason. Now, UCA has announced it will close at the end of the school year due to the loss of financial support. "We lost our network" of donors, Callaway-George told ABC News. "In December of 2021, right before we publicly supported the LGBTQ community, we raised $333,985. One year later, after we had posted on our website and made a stance, [in] December of 2022 we raised $14,809."Although the school would not disclose the names of churches or individuals who ended their financial assistance, it shared several of their missives with ABC News.
The controversy surrounding UCA's coming closure has brought new attention to the school's history. A recent article in theEven though administrators expected negative reaction and some loss of resources, they believed an explicit show of support for this community was necessary because of an influx of teenage students and changes in society.UCA began as a kindergarten in 2014 and added a grade each year.
Callaway-George called it "a life-saving endeavor," adding, "We wanted our families and our kids to know where we stood and to be really clear about that." "I am LGBTQ-affirming and I identify as Christian," she told ABC News. While sympathetic to what she calls "a discrepancy in biblical interpretation," she said "it's unfortunate that children who have nothing to do with the argument are the ones that are going to suffer because of it."
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