What is the background of the Equality Ride visit to Calvin?
The Equality Ride is a bus tour that travels to colleges to promote justice and oppose spiritual violence for people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered. They particularly want to visit schools whose policies they think are oppressive to people who are homosexual. They contact schools and notify them of their intended visit, and colleges respond.
Some schools on the route have taken steps to prevent the Riders from entering their campuses. At several schools on the East Bus route, Riders have been arrested for trespassing and may have some stories about their experiences that are well worth hearing.
Other schools have been open to having a dialogue with the Riders. Schools that have chosen dialogue have said that the visits have been worthwhile and productive. Dordt College visited with the Equality Riders on March 8 and had a worthwhile visit.
When Equality Ride contacted Calvin to have a visit, they agreed that Calvin’s policies are not discriminatory toward gay and lesbian students. Despite this, they wanted to come and have a conversation.
Calvin is the last stop on the East Bus tour.
What is Calvin’s intended response to the Equality Riders?
As you know, Calvin plans to have dialogue with the Equality Riders next week. Calvin has historically been a place that is willing to converse about controversial topics. In line with who we are as an institution, and in line with the Christian Reformed Church’s call to institutions like Calvin to do their part to educate on the experience and topic of homosexuality, it was important for us to have a dialogue.
Calvin has been having conversations throughout the past several years on this experience and topic. We know that having a dialogue results in our being misunderstood. We have done our best to explain our approach, but we should expect our conversations to have some missteps. We pray for an outpouring of God’s Spirit and grace as we work together.
The Christian Reformed Church, which owns and operates Calvin College, has affirmed a position on homosexuality. This was done first in 1973 and again in 2002 after studying the Bible and listening to the stories of people in our churches and communities who are homosexual. These reports were commissioned and approved by Synod, the governing body of the Christian Reformed Church.
Synod made very clear that the church was to affirm the full membership of gay and lesbian people in our churches to serve and participate in the church’s life. It also distinguished between homosexual orientation and homosexual practice, saying that homosexual orientation is neither a choice nor a sin, but that homosexual practice was not affirmed by Scripture.
It’s from this particular perspective that the college as a whole is anticipating meeting with the Equality Riders. There are many facets to this approach. Calvin Chaplain Dale Cooper has written meditations that are available online about what Christian community looks like—how we have conversations together about controversial topics. People at Calvin may be at a variety of places in their understanding of this topic. We are trying hard to love each other well, which includes listening hard and speaking honestly to each other.
What is the Equality Ride—and what is it not?
It’s important to know that those on the Equality Ride bus are individuals who have chosen to unite around their goal of raising awareness and furthering justice for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people. They come from different faith traditions—many are Christians or have Christian backgrounds. Others do not have faith commitments. Some Riders are gay individuals, and others are straight allies. They may also hold a diversity of views about how a person who is homosexual should live out of that orientation. A number of the Equality Riders may support the rights of gay and lesbian persons to marry. They may have different understandings about what policies feel oppressive.
It’s entirely possible that people on the bus are feeling a little tired of talking about homosexuality.
We do not anticipate that the Riders will be aggressive or confrontational with Calvin students. Some of the students at Calvin may have been under this impression. Equality Ride does want publicity for their point of view and may use circumstances for this purpose; however, we have been in conversation with the Equality Ride leadership for this visit and have come to a mutual understanding about how the visit will be conducted.
When the Riders have had productive visits at other colleges, they have had a host for each Rider and have had a clearly laid-out plan for the day that was agreed upon in advance with the schools they are visiting. Calvin has planned similarly for this visit.
What are Calvin’s goals for the Equality Ride visit?
- We hope that Philippians 1:27 would be true of this visit: “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”
- We hope that we would have a day of visiting without incident, and that this would be an opportunity for learning for all people involved.
- We hope that the Equality Riders would be able to say of us, “They love God above all and their neighbor as themselves.”
- That our visit would be marked by Christian characteristics: civility, conviction, and sensitivity.
