Equality Riders woke up earlier than we ever had previously to start our day on Messiah’s campus. We left at 5:45 am from Virginia to get to Messiah in time for breakfast with selected students from major campus organizations and faculty. We stepped off the bus and a group of all women greeted us. Not only that, but the President of Messiah, Kim Phipps, is only one of only three women who hold a presidential position at a christian college in the country.
A handful of students guided the Equality Riders around campus to give us a tour. Shawn and I left our tour to go to an English Literature class that invited us to come and speak. As Shawn and I were walking into the building, we saw the group RepentAmerica. The group was well aware that we were visiting Messiah College that day, and showed up to hand out flyers and to protest against the LGBT community with signs. When I walked into the classroom, I was taken aback about how many people had RepentAmerica literature on their desks. But it was a great way to address what RepentAmerica was saying. Curt, Abby, Shawn and I were invited to discuss The Color Purple and the relationship that exists between Celie and Shug. We spoke about the false notions of the LGBT community; specifically the idea that all people who are LGBT are survivors of abuse. We continued the panel discussion and spoke about the history of Equality Ride, and shared our stories.
I left the English Literature class and RepentAmerica was still outside in the same spot. They were distributing literature and they had huge groups of students gathered around them. They were preaching and being extremely loud about the message that they had come to share. I saw a student at Messiah becoming very vocal in disagreement about what RepentAmerica was saying and I saw other students engaging and agreeing with their message. I began going up to students and asking them if they wanted to come and talk with me. I started talking to a couple students and before I knew it, the huge group that had been in front of RepentAmerica was now gathered in front of me. The students and I began engaging in dialogue, asking each other questions and sharing stories. I watched as the student then began to share their stories with other students within the circle. RepentAmerica eventually came over, and tried to take control of the conversation and I politely responding by telling them that I came to talk to the students at Messiah and not to them. I repeated myself a couple times, and then the students themselves began to tell RepentAmerica that they wanted to talk to Equality Ride. Brandy came over and began talking with me and the couple dozen students who were still gathered.
The last plan for the day was a presentation on “Loving like Jesus.” It was a panel discussion that included Jarrett and Mandy, and two people Katie and ___ to represent Messiah. The love that Mandy and Jarrett talked about was Jesus’s all-encompassing love. His love is the kind of love that was extended out to all people, all of humanity. He loved humanity and saw people as they were. His love and graciousness is a love that does not have any conditions attached to it. I love you as a person, BUT I don’t love your sin is something that time after time we all hear. Mandy continued to talk about her experience as a student who had attended a school that Equality Ride went to last year. Equality Ride for her was a time in her life that marked an experience where she heard open affirming people of faith. If she had attended Messiah, she would have never heard the affirming voices of the Equality Ride last year when they came to her school.
After the panel, I spoke with Messiah students who did not agree with their schools position, and the bible’s position of homosexuality that affects the LGBT community. I spoke to students who couldn’t wait to graduate so that they could be open about their identity and freely walk with their partner openly. I spoke with other students who felt that love was the most important quality in relationship, not gender. A group of students wore shirts that had the gender symbols on them that expressed couplings of same-gender couples. The students who wore the shirts were not all queer, many of them are allies who continued to engage in dialogue with us because they were exploring faith, love and sexuality. They were honest about their knowledge or lack there of, but were committed to exploring and understanding.
The day ended with discussion with the President and other selected administration. They wanted to know how the day went and more than anything, they wanted to know how they could help their LGBT students. Never before has all of the Equality Riders been involved in a dialogue with the administrators about how the day went, and how the discussion and conversation can continue after Equality Ride leaves. It was great to see that the administration was so dedicate and sincerely interested in bring attention to the discussion of faith, sexuality and love at Messiah College.
We left Messiah and headed to a nearby house were the students from Messiah showed us genuine hospitality. A house full of students and Equality Riders continued the conversation over a home-cooked meal. Our dinner was wonderful. A gay alumni from Messiah spoke to the group about being gay and Christian. The students were in the midst of understanding and stating so honestly that they did not know where they were at, they didn’t know how they felt, but they knew that the recognition of the humanity of LGBT people was at the forefront of what they knew was right. They were interested about our lives and how they could continue to be allies.