When the axe walked into the forest the tree said, the handle is one of us.
— Alice Walker
We’ve seen several recent examples of what can happen when GLBT people are raised to hate themselves for who they are. In their misguided attempts to overcompensate, they all too often end up like a Ted Haggard or a Mark Foley, not only ruining their own lives but also harming many innocent bystanders in the process.
The young people on the Equality Ride 2007 tour have a simple message for those headed down that road: It doesn’t have to be that way. They know, because they were once headed down that road themselves.
As they approach the Soulforce battlefield on campuses like Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., where 19 faculty members uphold the school’s motto of “For Christ & for Liberty” to 325 students, Reynolds and Heath say they don’t fear any conflict on the ride, because it wasn’t very long ago that they thought just like the Patrick Henry and Liberty University students.
“I used to be one of them,” Reynolds says. “I stunted my growth both as an individual and spiritually by believing what I did. It does seem that some of the people we are dealing with have never been exposed to anything else.”
The tour will be visiting the campuses of colleges with policies that silence and erase GLBT students, with the objective of engaging the students in discussion.
“Statistics say that at every one of these schools, there’s gay people. And they’re in the closet, because most of these schools won’t allow an openly gay person,” he asserts. “We’re there to tell them that the school is wrong.”
It’s not only statistics that tell the story. Schools that have been around a little longer than Patrick Henry College have felt the need to add policies intended to also silence their openly gay alumni. Bob Jones University (which famously used biblical arguments to forbid interracial dating until 2000) has threatened openly gay alumni with arrest for trespassing if they return to visit the campus.
The response of colleges to the 2006 Equality Ride was mixed. On one hand, the evangelical Christian Azusa Pacific University “welcomed the riders and hosted a public forum; more than 1,200 Azusa students listened, cried, and prayed for healing as Equality Riders shared their experiences of anti-gay violence.” At the other end of the spectrum, Pat Robertson’s Regent University barred the visitors from campus, threatening them with arrest. Even so, “several Regent students approached the bus, some of them kneeling and taking the hands of Equality Riders in gestures of humility, and offered ‘an apology on behalf of Christians who have mistreated the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.'”
Patrick Henry College, of course, practices a policy of absolute rejection of any student who is openly gay. To get an idea of what goes on there, watch the film “God’s Next Army.” (Forward to 2:30:00 on the video.) This 2006 documentary, broadcast on Channel 4, was made with the apparent cooperation of the college; it objectively tells the story of PHC’s mission and activities through the words of the students, parents and faculty, without passing judgment. In the words of the founder, past president, and now chancellor, Michael Farris, this is the educational philosophy of the school:
We start with the authority of the word of God…since the Bible teaches it, I don’t care what Plato says. We don’t need the world’s knowledge and information to guide us. We need the world’s knowledge and information, but it’s basically for, in political terms, what we call opposition research.
On the other hand, how individual students interpret what God is calling them to do, in light of the following principle, may vary.
From The Spiritual Profile of a Patrick Henry College Graduate:
Be humble, teachable and willing to integrate God’s truth into every area of life.
Elders must be teachable. This is an attribute that is equally applicable to those who would lead the nation and shape the culture. A teachable person does not live a compartmentalized life, walling God off from certain domains, but embraces the application of God’s truth in every area of life. Being teachable requires a spirit of humility that demonstrates that we acknowledge that God is in control and He uses other people in our lives.
Will the administration of PHC practice humility and hospitality? Will the students? We’ll find out on April 12.
I find it quite amusing that the chancellor of PHC, Michael Farris, is so out of step with Patrick Henry himself. As Michael says – “We don’t need the world’s knowledge and information to guide us” … As Patrick Henry says – “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.” – Hmmm…sounds all about worldy knowledge and information to me.
And then, there is my favorite one from the man himself, PHC’s namesake – “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”
And his views on freedom, both capitalistic and personal – “Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship.”
I wonder who it is that Patrick Henry College think who Patrick Henry was? I am confused as to their identity …
This appears to be the reason that fully half of PHC’s faculty resigned last year. What amuses me is how upset they are that this profound vote of no confidence would be considered newsworthy – to the extent that PHC supporters need to launch attack pieces on a local investigative journalist who reported on it.
My feeling is that their faith isn’t very strong if it can’t withstand questions. That’s just sad.
Doug,
It’s easy to poke fun at the students, who in the explanation offered in “God’s Next Army” are kept at home “in order to control every element of their environment.” If they’re not very astute, it’s by design, not because they’re not intelligent people.
Being here for many of them is literally the first time they have been exposed to anything not completely controlled by their parents – and there is the contradiction. They have to enter the world at some point in order to “shape the culture and lead the nation,” etc. It’s so revealing that those professors had to be silenced – Farris, et al can’t even afford to have the students discussing whether anything other than Scripture can be a source of knowledge. The hold they have over these naturally curious minds is that fragile.
Mind control, behavior modification, sensory depravation, identity suppression … hmmmmm
Not everyone home schools for that reason, not even all evangelicals.
That is very true – in fact it is my understanding that most home schoolers are not doing it for religious reasons, or, more importantly, are not politically right wing. That is a misconception created and nurtured by the Home School Legal Defense Association and Mike Farris which has really harmed the reputation of home schooling.
Even in Loudoun County most home schoolers are not of that ilk, although you wouldn’t know it because it’s become so politicized.
Religion is one of my primary reasons for homeschooling, but that doesn’t mean that I keep them at home to control every element in their environment. That is not my goal or motivation.
Most of the homeschooling families I know are religious, right wing, and fairly politically active. While the homeschooling crowd has become more diverse, religion does play a large part in families deciding it is the best educational choice for their children. Just look through any homeschooling catalog and try to find a secular science curriculum.
At least part of the reason for that, perhaps a very large part, is the deliberate co-optation of the homeschooling movement by political activists, primarily accomplished by Mike Farris through the work of HSLDA. There was once a very diverse, grassroots homeschooling movement, some religious, some not, with a variety of reasons for the choice to homeschool. A lot of it was an offshoot of the 70s back to the land movement.
Long story short, the HSLDA started out fighting the legislation that was making it difficult for people to homeschool, and in so doing became a very powerful organization. Unfortunately, it is also a very exclusionary organization, and it ultimately excluded all elements of the homeschooling movement that don’t adhere to its narrow dictates. There is quite a bit of documentation of this history out there, but this particularly egregious case illustrates the kind of thing that went on. This happens to have involved a woman who was a Christian, but evidently not the right kind Christian for Farris and his allies, so they forced her out of business.
So I think that the movement has actually become less diverse over time, not more, although the elements that are independent of the PHC/political/”religious right” wing that has become nearly synonymous with homeschooling may be regrouping.
Interesting article. All the he said, she said stuff gave me a headache and made the story hard to follow. I’m going to have to read it again to find out exactly how HSLDA ruined her business.
I do have a HSLDA membership and this organization– and whether it was worth joining– was recently a topic on a homeschooling board I read. I think it does overstep it’s bounds on occasion. It’s a huge stretch to consider some to the things they meddle in to have anything to do homeschooling. On the other hand I have yet to find another organization that offers the same services.
I think I ended up hijacking your thread and will now attempt to get back on topic.
1. I have no problem with parents teaching their children according to their religious views and encouraging them to attend a collage that follows their convictions.
2. I do have a problem with children (especially collage aged children) being taught blind obedience and kept apart from all opposing view points. If your stance on an issue is so weak that you fear questioning and honest discussion then it is time to reevaluate your what you believe and why you believe it.
3. Evangelical Christian are likely always going to be at odds with GLBT, but this should be done with as much humility and respect as possible. The story about the Regent students is a good example of this.
4. The best way to break down barriers caused by stereotyping are interactions like Doug described. This may not lead to total acceptance but it will go a long way to establish respect and understanding.
I agree with everything you say here (hey, that’s not very exciting.)
About HSLDA, there was a genuine problem with some rigid state laws, and homeschoolers needed an organization to do that advocacy. The problem is, as you suggest, that HSLDA has a much broader political agenda that (I think) cynically uses homeschooling as a vehicle.
Ok, enough hijacking the thread. The Equality Riders are continuing to dialog with the PHC administration, and hopefully there will be a mutually respectful and productive meeting of some kind. I know that the students are aware of the planned visit because a bunch of them have blogs.
This, for instance, is the approach that Messiah College is taking:
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