The curious case of John Gechter, the Grove City College student and gay porn actor, at first blush seems to be about the lingering Puritan values of a conservative Western Pennsylvania town. In fact, Gechter's saga tells us far more about today's intolerant American Christians than our social mores and fears.

Gechter was suspended and might eventually be expelled for his active porn career. Grove City College is a "Christian school." GCC has a strict student code that prohibits all manner of premarital sex. A spokesperson for the school explained that "we educate students about what GCC stands for," which apparently includes inculcating those students to send hate e-mails in the name of Jesus.

GCC probably will prevail in any potential lawsuit involving Gechter. It is a private school, after all, and it admits whom it wants. Any doubt about that can quickly be quelled by trying to locate a black or Latino student on the GCC campus.

Defenders of the school's thinly veiled bigotry will quickly point out that gay porn acting is incongruent with Biblical principles. Agreed. Also incongruent with Christ's philosophy is hatred, which the GCC students apparently exhibited en masse toward Gechter. I say, "Nice witness, kids."

The students don't deserve all of the blame, however. This is a college, after all, that houses right-wing ideologues who espouse such nonsense as "curing" the gay lifestyle through therapy, despite all the evidence that such an approach is junk science.

No, the entire Gechter scandal shows what many people in our community already know: that Grove City College long ago gave up traditional Christian values of peace and understanding in favor of bigotry, intolerance and hate.