Thursday, April 20, 2006

Wheaton College: The Gays Are Coming! The Gays Are Coming!

From your Chicago Sun-Times:

They are heading to evangelical Christian colleges across the country spreading their own message: God loves everyone, including homosexuals.

And this week the Soulforce Equality Riders, composed of 33 gay activists, will park their bus at Wheaton College where the president is somewhat confounded by their arrival and what appears to be a confrontation on the horizon.

"Sexual intimacy belongs within the confines of marriage. We don't single out homosexuals. But we do stand on historical, biblical Christian beliefs that have remained the same over the centuries, so that we should be on the receiving end of this seems odd," said President Duane Litfin. ***

Organizer Jacob Reitan says a Wheaton College student, who not only was "in the closet" but saw his homosexuality as a sin, inspired the ride.

"I asked him what was it like to be a gay student at Wheaton. He said, 'You know I can't come out, if I did, I might be kicked out,' " Reitan said. "Three years ago, I promised him that God loves him and affirms him."

Reitan hopes that student, now a senior, and others will discuss homosexuality with gay and lesbian students sitting comfortably at the table.
I received a copy of the president's letter from an alum -- "I really wish I didn’t have the school’s name tied to me forever" -- concerned with the college's reaction to the visiting students.
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:13:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Wheaton College President's Office"
To: XXX
Subject: Request for Prayer

Dear XXX,

I write to ask you for your prayers.

On Thursday and Friday of this week we will be visited by a group of homosexual activists traveling on a bus tour across the United States to various Christian college campuses. Their agenda is to draw negative media attention to institutions who maintain an historic biblical stand on the issue of homosexuality. This, of course, Wheaton does. (See Wheaton's Community Covenant) Hence our place on their list of targeted institutions.

We did not invite these visitors to our campus. But since they are intent on coming anyway, we decided to make a virtue out of a necessity by turning their coming into a teaching opportunity for our students. Given the ongoing changes in our culture, today’s students are potentially facing a lifetime of confrontations over the issue of homosexuality. What should be their Christian response? We have endeavored to prepare our students to respond to these visitors with the biblical balance captured in the injunction to “speak the truth in love.”

Wheaton’s provost, Dr. Stan Jones, a psychologist who has done extensive work in the area of human sexuality, has prepared a biblical rebuttal to the false teaching of this group. (See “CACE Resources on Homosexuality”) These and other written materials, along with various scheduled meetings and chapels, have been devoted to helping our students understand the many issues and shape a balanced Christian response. This process has been highly educational for all involved.

After this event is over, we will let you know how it went. In the meantime, please pray for us, asking that God will be glorified, His truth will be upheld with grace and humility, and our Christian witness to a watching world will be an effective one.

Thank you.

Duane Litfin
President
Wheaton College
Mr. Litfin's claim that the school is under seige by gay homosexual activists is in stark contrast to this statement on the Soulforce website:
Wheaton administrators have worked closely with Soulforce Equality Ride members to plan two days of several forums and events. The members of the Soulforce Equality Ride look forward to our time at Wheaton and are confident that it will be an excellent learning opportunity for all people involved.
Now this would just be a case of he said/she said, except that the provost of Wheaton College addressed the issue of the Soulforce visit on WGN-AM this morning -- and he said that the school invited the student activists and that they welcomed the opportunity to discuss important issues that will face Wheaton College students when they leave the school.

So it seems that Wheaton College is crying out about an invasion of gay homosexual activists in its communications with its hyper-conservative alumni/donors, but when it talks to the rest of Chicagoland about the visit it puts on a much more moderate face.

If an individual did this, you would not hesitate to say that person is a hypocrite -- or, perhaps, bi-curious.

Originally posted at The So-Called "Austin Mayor" blog

11 comments:

Bill Baar 6:14 AM  

The fellow the gays should target is Prof Lindy Scott and Scott's indifference to human rights abuses, including abuses of gays, in cuba.

Do that and I'll be out there with them.

I suspect it's a lot easier to be a Gay Student at Wheaton College, then to be a Gay Student at the University of Havanna.

Bill Baar 6:50 AM  

Peter Tatchell's report on status of Gays in Cuba.

These protestors should nail it on the door of Lindy Scott's Center for Appliet Christian Ethics and suggest Scott take it along on his next visit.

Tatchell's report another response to the question Stephanie Scott posted on my blog defending her Dad's indifference to the plight of human rights activists like Biscet in Cuba,

I just don't understand why we're so harsh on Cuba when there are plenty of other injustices going on around the world that we casually ignore, perhaps you could enlighten me.

Anonymous,  12:24 PM  

If the school doesn't want this group there, that's their right.

Bill Baar 12:59 PM  

...this group?

...the Faculty who overlook Castro's tyranny?

I wish the gay activists won't overlook the cultural relativism... of somehow appalling human rights abuse in Cuba is not worth mentioning... in comparison to a school which professes a traditional sexual ethich with a far more liberal attitudet to human rights overall when compared to some of the states Lindy Scott will hold up as models of healthcare delivery.... of social justice.

Anonymous,  2:46 PM  

Bill, are you having a debate with yourself? BTW, Scott is no longer a candidate for office, so let it go.

Bill Baar 3:23 PM  

He's Director of the Institute for Christian Ethics. His school will be the site of a protest over a great social question...

...my point is the Evangelical Left inside Wheaton, and the Political Gay left protesting outside, both seem to ignore the real human tragedy in Cuba.

And I bet the folks most sympathetic are the pietist conservatives at Wheaton who think homosexual behavior is a sin, but pray for the sinners, and do not judge...

...and would also be the folks most inclined to supporting real liberation in Cuba....

...weird world sometime.

I'm alone I guess... Only myself and Peter Tatchell agreeing with the Euston Manifesto:

Human rights for all.

We hold the fundamental human rights codified in the Universal Declaration to be precisely universal, and binding on all states and political movements, indeed on everyone. Violations of these rights are equally to be condemned whoever is responsible for them and regardless of cultural context. We reject the double standards with which much self-proclaimed progressive opinion now operates, finding lesser (though all too real) violations of human rights which are closer to home, or are the responsibility of certain disfavoured governments, more deplorable than other violations that are flagrantly worse. We reject, also, the cultural relativist view according to which these basic human rights are not appropriate for certain nations or peoples.


Wheaton's Christian Ethics folks under Lindy Scott need to think about this. So do those protesters.

Bill Baar 7:21 PM  

Gay Patriot has a good post today too... after outlining a series of murders of gays, the patriot writes,

I hope no one is surprised by this. I must say it is still shocking to me that the American Gay Left views President Bush of more of an enemy to gays than Islamic fundamentalists who want to destroy Western Civilization with gays as the first in their crosshairs. Maybe American gay activists are so upset that Christianity is the foundation of America that they are willing to take their chances with Islamic rule? How tolerant, no? What it really makes me think is this: Choosing Islam over America in the War on Terror is the ultimate in being a gay who is self-loathing.

Anonymous,  10:44 PM  

Bill,

I look forward to your rightous crusade against the next gay bashing assault/murder that occurs right here in the good old U.S. of A.

I mean if we are going to blast Castro for crimes against gays, we certainly can't hold ourselves to a lesser standard.

It seems you are angered that the U.S. is held to a higher standard on gay rights issues than say, Iran. I am proud of that differential standard. The day the U.S. is happy that we are viewed, and judged, as no better or worse than Iran (or insert the name of any country currently on the White House List for regime change) in its current despotic/theocratic/autocratic system, will be a sad day because we will have lowered ourselves.

You are correct that many a country that is in conflict or potential conflict with the U.S. has lousy human rights standards. But ask a gay person in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan if he or she feels free to demonstrate their inate sexuality in their home country that is is part of the "Allied with the U.S. against cultural backwardness" alliance.

Remember Bill, if we are going to hold the U.S.A. out as a shining beacon of hope for the rest of the world, we cannot tolerate any imperfections in the New Eden we are build here in North America. We must be purer than Caesar's wife, even if she is a lesbian.

Bill Baar 7:05 AM  

I've been gay bashed.

I wasn't even gay... but walk down some streets on the near north side and the folks who do this sort of thing make their own judgements.

They weren't from Wheaton College either.

Conservative Churches have a conservative sexual ethic. They threaten no one.

I belong to a Liberal Church, which also has a pretty conservative sexual ethic too, but will bless a Gay Union.

I have Gay friends in Conservative churches; some who protest and complain. I suggest they visit mine but they refuse because it's not Christian.

In fact, when I lived in Oak Park the UU Church was excluded from the local council of churches because it wasn't Chrisitan; yet there were probably more Gays in the Conservative Christian Churches then there were UUs in total in Oak Park.

So you had this group of folks at war with tradition in their own Churches, but perfectly content to judge non Christians and exclude them.

So my tack with those folks was they had things pretty good in Oak Park; layoff their conservative Churches, and concern themselves with places that hang and prosecute as official policy.

Their values were simply way out of whack. Same with this crowd protesting at Wheaton.

The Eastvold Blog 7:44 AM  

As a Wheaton grad, I was very impressed with the college's response to this situation. The default options were between adopting a Liberty University-style lockout (thus sacrificing their commitment to love) and taking a laissez-faire approach to the visit (and thus sacrificing their commitment to what they see as truth).

Instead, they threaded the needle and tried to do both--to speak the truth in love--by inviting SoulForce to campus for the purpose of a discussion that put communication and compassion ahead of either confrontation or compromise. This was a much more consistently Christian approach, and one that is particularly refreshing amid all of the pressure to succumb to either intolerance or uncritical acceptance. (Then again, I haven't heard anything since the visit, so I don't know how theory translated into practice.)

For the record, though, I would like to complain about the Tribune's religion page feature on the subject. Where else in that paper (or any other reputable one), is it considered reputable journalism to give half a quote to one side of the debate and the rest of the article to the other? In a story that was putatively about Wheaton College students, only two were quoted--one only briefly, and the other as recalled anonymously by the co-leader of SoulForce. Where did they quote the nuanced perspectives of the president or provost? Of the faculty? Of the host of students who could have offered a more well thought-through response than the one student quote we have? Moreover, why is the only photo of a Wheaton student we have from behind and over the shoulder, so we cannot read whether the expression is welcoming or hostile?

I am well aware that reporting the truth sometimes means moving past one's pat understanding of an issue and admitting that reality is much more complex than previously thought. And any competent and principled journalist will do just that. If the Tribune is having trouble finding competent religion writers, then obviously they are not looking in the right places.

- JCE

Bill Baar 8:54 AM  

anon 10:44...I signed the Euston Manifesto by the way. It's a statement in support of Universal Rights.... I quoted them above. You should check it out...we signers believe it applies to the US and everywhere else...really without exception.

If you're a progressive, who can't sign, it's often because you don't believe fundamental rights universal... you'll give some less developed states a pass... people can make that case, but I'd aruge their not real liberals or progressives.

  © Blogger template The Professional Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP