Regarding, in this day and age, the church being excepted into an elite conference of universities.

There is a very small positive crowd. There is a moderately sized neutral crowd that is essentially mute on the subject. There is a very loud negative crowd that I believe is in the minority. In this culture of political correctness, I don’t think it matters how much money the church was willing to throw at a conference. If I was on the board of trustees I would do the thing that causes the least amount of commotion.

That ship has sailed assuming it was really ever an option.