I'd be glad to help you with this. They receive public funding. Even federal financial aid for students helps the schools get more students. With public funds allowing their attendance to be larger. Beyond that I have to admit I don't know of any other government money. Some schools have denied that they have received government funds. But it is a fact that every school we've visited gets federal aid to help boost attendance if nothing else. I am fairly certain that all of them have non-profit status which would not allow them to engage in politics. Since they see being gay as a political issue and don't know how to separate religion from politics, their non-profit status should be revoked. As the Jewish non-profit lost it's non-profit status for making an anti-muslim political ad against Obama.
Also, the point I made earlier is while they may have special rules about activist groups being on campus, having 1-4 or 5 students deliver a letter to the administration or books to the library is hardly having an activist group on campus. It is completely legal for anyone to step on their campus at any time (during opened hours). No individual would be arrested for offering books to the library or delivering a letter. It is fear of the message that ER brings that makes them call the police. Their activism on campus policy is only there to attempt to shield their students and allow them to discriminate against whomever they wish. Something a non-profit is not allowed to do and something an institution given the ability to offer federal funds for financial aid should not be able to do.
However, they hide behind private property laws that are meant for residential and commercial property. Not universities being, even minorly, supported by government funds. If I wanted to go on the campus and deliver something to the library or the administration, I could do so. If I started discussing theology with a student in the library, I could do so without being removed.
On another note, I don't know if it is the best method to insist upon entering campus when they are lined up ready to arrest us. It allows them to use the corporate, homophobic media to show how "uncivil" we are. It reminds me of when activists wanted to deliver a letter to James Dobson. I don't know how effective it was to demand being allowed to enter. Unfortunately, while the public is so concerned with preserving the law (give me a break...there are so many instances of law-breaking that don't even make the local news...such as Governors using public funds to bring their kids to events they aren't invited to
), the theology they are teaching others is getting teenagers murdered across the country. Regardless of the law saying we cannot walk on land (private property is a ridiculous concept anyway), we have to be more concerned with getting our message across. And we have been largely successful in getting our message to students. As they said on the Clinton News Video, "Mississippi College students are talking about the church's stance on GLBT people." That is a victory in my book.
Ok, not quite done. There has been alot of talk about Soulforce being "intolerant" of Evangelical Christians. Not all Evangelicals take an entirely literal translation of the Bible or use it selectively to promote hate. Some have said we have no right to try to force our beliefs on others. Is this what we're doing? Asking publicly funded institutions to stop forcing conversion therapy (not supported by any major medical professional body), or kicking students out for stating a fact? We are not asking them to change their opinion. We are only asking that they stop torturing students or discriminating against students. I keep hearing that it's wrong to appear to be sexually active no matter if you're gay or straight. Then we hear from actual studentst that makeout sessions are rampant on campus by straight folk. This is quite a double-standard. Kick a straight person out for the appearance of sexual activity and then we'll start believing your BS. Kicking anyone out for a sin is really un-Christian anyway. If we are defininng Christianity as a forgiving faith that asks us to repent for sins rather than give up once we have committed a sin. Unfortunately, thanks to schools like these, Christianity is defined much differently by many these days. I found it comical that in one of the papers one of the students commented on one of the ER riders writing,"hate is not a value," by saying "how could they put that on a Christian campus?" How can they be so in the dark about these issues? Thank God for Soulforce.