Louisville—Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s decision last month to dismiss its maintenance staff and outsource its campus maintenance continues to attract media attention.

Sodexho, the international company Southern contracted with to provide maintenance, has been recognized for efforts to increase diversity, including providing domestic partner benefits and celebrating Gay Pride Month on the company calendar, according to a recent article on EthicsDaily.com, the news site of the Baptist Center for Ethics.

In a March 30 column in the Louisville-Courier Journal, David Hawpe noted that Sodexho “is very gay-friendly,” adding that “Southern Seminary isn’t.”

Hawpe quoted Southern Seminary President Al Mohler as saying, “Even though there may be some irony in this, there is no inconsistency.”

While seminary officials “want to be faithful to our own convictions,” Mohler said, “We recognize that we will inevitably be doing business with companies and individuals whose convictions on some of these issues may differ from our own. … This is not a surprising phenomenon.”

“I guess I do find it surprising,” Hawpe responded. “At Southern Seminary, they love the sinner but hate the sin. At Sodexho, they publish a handbook on setting up employee networking groups like People Respecting Individuality, Diversity and Equality (PRIDE), whose mission is to ‘strategically align Sodexho’s organizational structure to embrace all diversity inclusive of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, so that value is added.’”

Sodexho, which has more than 110,000 employees, is North America’s leading provider of food services, housekeeping and facilities management for corporate, healthcare and education clients.

According to Sodexho officials, a diverse workforce is a core value for the company.

Company policy ensures “equal opportunity in all aspects of employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or any other basis protected by law.”

Diversity, Inc. magazine ranked Sodexho 18th in the nation among the top 50 companies in workplace diversity.

Assessing Southern’s contract with Sodexho, Mohler said, “I would see a problem if Southern Seminary had to violate its own conscience, … if it had to change its convictions or be silent about its convictions, but that is not required here.”