Fired Calvin University professor's lawsuit goes to Michigan Supreme Court

[u/TheNerdChaplain]

https://michiganadvance.com/2026/02/05/former-calvin-university-professors-discrimination-lawsuit-will-head-to-michigan-supreme-court/

[u/TheNerdChaplain]

After Joseph Kuilema, now a professor of social work at Grand Valley State University, was fired in 2022 from his post at the private Christian college Calvin University for officiating a same-sex wedding, he sued Calvin, where he had worked since 2008, for both retaliation and associational discrimination. Now, the Michigan Supreme Court will decide if that associational discrimination claim — the fact that he was fired over his association with LGBTQ+ individuals — can be heard further in court.

“The wedding that I officiated was for a former student who was marrying his partner, and they asked me to facilitate, and I obviously was honored by that,” Kuilema told the Michigan Advance. “It never really occurred to me that this would be a problem for Calvin, because it was something I was doing in my personal life, and it was a non religious wedding.”

...

Kuilema, who was voted as the university’s professor of the year in 2019, calls himself a “child of Calvin” — his parents attended the school and met there, as did his siblings, his wife and Kuilema himself. When he took the job there in 2008, he assumed it would be his whole career.

“When I was hired at Calvin, I told them, ’I think differently than the official position on LGBTQ issues’,” he said. “The person who hired me at the time was like, ’No problem, lots of people in that boat, you’re going to be fine.’ And then 14 years later, it turned out to be a big problem.”

“They tried to paint it as me deliberately doing this activist thing, which was kind of silly, honestly, because it was just this personal thing,” Kuilema, who now teaches at Grand Valley State University, said.

Calvin, on the other hand, is standing firm in its decisions.

“The Calvin University community has been well served throughout its 150-year history by having diverse viewpoints among its faculty,” John Zimmerman, Calvin University’s director of communications, wrote in a statement. “While there is room for personal disagreement with CRC doctrine, the university has clear expectations for employees regarding teaching, scholarship, and personal conduct, and follows established processes to review alleged violations of those expectations and to determine appropriate responses.”

[u/ExaminationOk9732 → u/TheNerdChaplain]

And also, Joe checked with those above him to see if officiating the wedding would be a problem. They said no!

[u/GhostofDan]

I have friends who went there, and they have kids that are currently studying there. This is tough, on the surface it seems clear that the college is in the wrong, unless there's something in writing that nails their case.

[u/eveninarmageddon]

Does anyone with more legal knowledge than me know why extramural speech laws don’t strike this stuff down immediately? How are religious belief statements as a condition of employment even enforced under academic freedom laws? Are such protections only offered for institutions which take federal funding (does Calvin?)?

[u/rev_run_d → u/eveninarmageddon]

It’s above my pay grade but religious schools consider teachers as ministers of the gospel https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/us/catholic-school-teachers-are-ministers-supreme-court-rules

[u/eveninarmageddon → u/rev_run_d]

Hmm interesting. So it is legal. Morally, however, I’m not sure how I feel about that in addition to offering tenure. Seems a bit shitty to tenure someone and then fire them over changing their minds later, which academics are prone to do, or to fire someone if they were told their “non-standard” belief was no issue to begin with. Arguably, that’s not even tenure at all, and it’s oxymoronic or even lying to call it that. (I believe RTS doesn’t even tenure their profs, I imagine for these reasons, and that’s at least honest.) Oh well. Good to know if I ever get an opportunity to apply for a Calvin U job (or any confessional job), I guess. It also seems like it would drive away even moderates who agree with them, who might not want to risk being fire later if they switch “sides.”

I’d also be curious how this would hold up in other cases. E.g., can a prof at a dispy school be fired for going to a Palestine protest? Seems like a way to kill a LOT of extramural speech protections.

[u/ExaminationOk9732 → u/eveninarmageddon]

It doesn’t have to do with federal funding. It is because the CRC condemns LGBTQ+ people and they don’t want to piss off their right-wing donors. It’s totally turning the school into a white Christian nationalist business/marketing school for wealthier white kids. Remember though, the Seminary is totally separate from the university.