Equality Ride's Conflicted Message Meets Contrasting Responses

Wheaton College, Billy Graham's amla mater and the site of the 2002 Exodus Freedom Conference, welcomed Soulforce's 'Equality Ride' this week. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

"We're hopeful that God will manifest himself today, and that the truth will be revealed in meaningful discussion," College Provost Stan Jones told the equality riders. "We hope our students reflect well what our school is all about."

[Equality Ride's Jacob] Reitan told a reporter that he appreciated Wheaton College's hospitality, but he didn't want to sugarcoat Soulforce's visit.

"Wheaton is categorically different from most schools," he said. "Wheaton College not only expels students who practice homosexuality but who also affirm homosexuality. We do not believe that students should have to face this kind of discrimination."

"Sexual intimacy belongs with the confines of marriage," Jones said. "We don't single out homosexuals. But we do stand on historical and biblical Christian beliefs that have remained the same over the centuries."

It's great that the Riders are getting a chance to see for themselves that those who disagree with their beliefs don't actually hate them. Schools are also witnessing how developing a response that's uncompromising but also compassionate can really deconstruct the agenda at work here. While the reports on ER's website credit the hospitality demonstrated by Lee University as acceptance of their message, I suspect it probably had a little more to do with the fact that, just two days before, Scott Davis, David Fountain and I shared our stories and taught seminars for thousands of students and faculty. I'm not surprised that the result was a greater outpouring of love. When will they realize that hate doesn't come from us?

It doesn't always go so smoothly, though. At North Central University, the school prohibited Riders from entering school buildings.

Richard Lindsay [of Equality Ride] got the confrontation   going. At the school’s cafeteria, he was denied permission to enter. Lindsay   turned to a small crowd that had gathered, reading from Matthew 10:14-15, “If   anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your   feet when you leave that home or town.” Lindsay then announced, “Soulforce   Equality Riders will go the Gospel one better.” And he sat, blocking the   door. When asked what he meant by the statement, Lindsay said “Doing the   Gospel one better simply meant sometimes love dictates that you must go beyond   the limitations of the literal text, a message we have been trying to bring   to all of these schools.”

Several other Riders followed suit and, as a result, were forcibly (not always gently) removed by security guards and students who wanted to get by. I don't think NCU handled the Riders as best they could, but I certainly don't agree with Reitan when he later said, "This is the meaning of redemptive suffering."

As Christians, we are not encouraged to "go beyond the limitations" of Scripture. Sometimes that means going without things we want, and other times giving up things we've learned to depend greatly upon. But that's what making Jesus Lord is really about; He let us know by using language like "take up your cross" and "let him deny himself and follow me." This is redemptive suffering, to give up who and what we think we are for the sake of knowing God. And if we stick with it, we come to realize that the idea we initially had about ourselves was misinformed.

"The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey, in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination." - C.S. Lewis

 

Comments

[Mike from MN]

I have several friends at North Central (one of them knows about my own struggle w/ homosexuality), & the account they gave me about the Equality Ride visit to their school was in stark contrast to what the media reported. According to my friends at the school, the protesters seemed very rude & immature, refusing to move in order to allow students get to their classes, & when security guards tried to remove the protesters, they reacted dramatically & unproportionally to the force inflicted upon them. During the evening rally, the Riders thanked all of their supporters for coming out to support them, but many of the "supporters" weren't actually supporters, but rather students just curious about what the Riders had to say.

In addressing Soulforce's claim that North Central refused to allow them to speak on campus, that is only partially true. North Central was open to dialogue, but off-campus. Here's an official statement from the school:

In early April, a third-party unaffiliated with the University offered to mediate a meeting in a neutral location between Jacob Reitan and members of the Equality Ride and North Central University. The University agreed to meet if the Riders called off their protest scheduled for April 17. The Equality Ride members declined this offer. The University is disappointed that the leaders of the Soulforce Equality Ride turned down this proposal for dialog.
http://www.northcentral.edu/mediarelations/April17release.php