Howard expresses with impressive eloquence the real state of the situation:
Contrary to the riders' claim, most of the targeted campuses do not "ban" LGBT students. Most are like Bethel, which has a "Covenant for Life Together," derived from the Bible. Among the covenant's affirmations is the following: "We view sexuality as one of God's good gifts. We believe that sexual intercourse and other forms of intensely interpersonal sexual activity are reserved for monogamous, heterosexual marriage." And Bethel is completely up-front about its policies; all members of its community--students, faculty, staff and administration--agree ahead of time to abide by these rules when they come to Bethel.
Our school does not ask applicants about their sexual orientation. Contrary to the implicit claim of the Equality Ride--that these schools do not treat students "equally"--all students at Bethel live under the same restrictions. As Mr. [George] Brushaber [president of Bethel University] explains: "We formulate our principles of ethical conduct as a result of our faith commitments, grounded in the Scriptures, not on the basis of . . . personal preference or dominant cultural themes." Alas, such sentiments are hard to fit on the side of a bus.
3 comments:
I have been reading the blogs of some of the sojourners on the Soulforce tour. I wondered how they would be treated should they ever decide to grace our campus with their presence... Interesting.
One administrator of our acquaintance would urge that the university go out of its way to welcome them graciously, give them the run of the place to say what they like, encourage hyper-polite-and-deferential interaction with students and openness with the media, feed and house them (if possible on the crowded campus), and send them away with free souvenirs of their visit.
Rather as Bethel did.
SWNID,
Will you house more than one in the same room? I would hate for the sheets to get dirty.
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