COLUMBIA, S.C. – When Irmo High’s Eddie Walker revealed that his personal convictions forced him to quit his job as a beloved principal at the Columbia, S.C., school, he illuminated frustrations that educators and religious leaders say are increasingly common challenges.

For Walker, who has been principal since 2005, it was his religious and professional values that kept him from remaining in his job after a gay-straight club was allowed to form on campus. He said it would promote sexual behavior and run counter to the school’s abstinence education.

Walker announced last week that he would step down at the end of the 2008-09 school year.

‘Upholding intolerance’

Many in the community are standing by the principal’s decision to uphold his values. But others, including gay-rights groups, are calling for Walker’s immediate removal because they believe he is upholding intolerance in a position charged with creating openness.

“Professionally, ethically and religiously, this principal is way wrong,” said Patricia First, a professor of education leadership at Clemson University in South Carolina.

Abiding by the law, treating students with respect and tempering personal biases are the sorts of things she tries to teach future school administrators.

“It’s very clear, they must leave religious beliefs at home,” First said. “If they can’t do it, they should look for work in a religiously based school.”

Randy Mecca, a teacher at Irmo High and sponsor for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, supports the principal’s decision and understands his dilemma.

“It’s very difficult to walk that line between conforming to what the world wants you to conform to as Christians,” he said. “It’s no different from working anywhere else when you have to put up with corporate policies.”

Educators are careful not to interject religion into the classroom, he said. But when you are forced to go along with something you don’t believe in, that’s a problem, Mecca added.

“If they were to come and force me to not be able to mention Christianity under any circumstances, then I would have to leave,” he said.

Rising tension

Kenneth Stevenson, a University of South Carolina education professor, said the mission of educators is to emphasize integrity, intellectual spirit, justice and stewardship. But, more than ever before, he added, the tension between a person’s moral beliefs and professional standards is rising.

“What we’re supposed to do is produce teachers and administrative leaders who are focused on making sure there is justice for all people,” he said. “What you can’t do, in a real sense, is know what’s in the heart of people.”

Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, applauds the reason for Walker’s decision, saying it sends a message of “very sincere Christian beliefs.”

No matter the career, he added, people have to weigh what’s more important to them – religious and personal views or their job.

“You can’t really keep a group out (just because) you don’t agree with it,” Smith said. “But it doesn’t mean that it’s something that allows you to put your head on your pillow and sleep well at night.”

Kevin Lewis, director of graduate studies in the University of South Carolina’s Department of Religious Studies, said he somewhat admires Walker for “being a person of some integrity.”

But, in some religious cultures, people interject anxiety and fear into Bible verses without taking a scholarly look, especially regarding sexual topics, he said. For that, he feels sorry for Walker and the people affected by his reasoning, but doesn’t blame the principal.

“It’s hard to separate those anxieties from an objective reading of our inspired religious texts,” he said. “As a person of faith, you really can’t climb out of that.”

But as an educational professional, “we really expect more of him.”

The club’s formation should act as a call to action for Christians, Smith added, not as reason to shrink from public life.

Quoting the Bible, “Faith without works is dead,” he said.

Stevenson, the University of South Carolina educator, said the situation in Irmo certainly will be discussed in area college courses and will serve as fodder for critics of public-school education.

“It’s a living example of what does happen in schools: how a person’s moral perspectives conflict with a directive from administration.”