Thoughts from an Equality Rider
Kayla Boswell writes about her time at Wheaton:
I was visibly flustered and to the point of giving up completely after conversing with Wheaton’s president over lunch. His life experience as a pastor counseling gay people has only brought him in contact with drug using, promiscuous, disease ridden, broken individuals. Understandably, this is his idea of what all gay people are like. He did not seem to understand that this reality is a sad product of the environment which their policy creates. When I told him that as an individual in the Christian Gay Community, all we ask is for the privileges that straights receive concerning relationships: straights’ relationships are valued, acknowledged, celebrated, and the Christian community holds its members accountable to the commitments they have made before God and the community. Gay relationships are ignored, thought of as “not real relationships,” our partners are often labeled as our “friend” or “roommate,” and we do not receive the accountability to stay committed, monogamous, and faithful as do our straight counterparts by our Christian communities of faith. I believe this is the main cause for promiscuity and premarital intimacy before marriage or union within the gay community; if no one else is watching or caring about our relationships, it’s that much harder for us to do so as well.
To read more about her experience at Wheaton and other college’s visit her blog.
After having the opportunity to talk to a few members of the ride (Kayla included), I find myself more and more grateful that they came to share their time and stories with us. My stance on the issue of homosexuality hasn’t changed, but then again, I honestly wasn’t really sure where I stood on it to begin with. However, my outlook on it in general has changed a bit, and in my opinion, for the better.
Comment by Chris — April 23, 2006 @ 12:56 pm
The self-fulfilling nature of the myth of universal perversion in all homosexual relating is one of the most tragic pieces of the Evangelical mainstream response to homosexuality in our culture. People are being discouraged from dwelling at the foot of the Cross and in the body of Believers because the church refuses to create a safe place or promote teachings about a holy practice of sexuality for the homosexual. (I mean, beyond the “just don’t do it” nonsense.) So of course “well-behaved” homosexuals go other places for spiritual sustenance. So then Evangelicals never really see the “happy” people and continue all the more vigorously in their false thinking.
That’s why these real life stories are so important, and why Equality Riders do make a difference. At the very least, stories like Staycie’s and Todd’s reveal cracks in the foundation of Evangelical assumptions about homosexuality. Sadly, there is a very entrenched worldview at work in the Evangelical mainstream and trying to speak to it (or even get them to consider that they might HAVE a worldview) is indeed pretty discouraging.
Comment by Justin — April 23, 2006 @ 9:43 pm
“Wordlview” Ahhh! What do you mean? The Bible is my wordlview silly, every good evangelical knows that.
Comment by devil's advocate — April 23, 2006 @ 9:51 pm