SoulForce is coming

The SoulForce Equality Ride is coming to Covenant on April 2nd. (Nods to Josiah Roe for this) My first reaction to this was a deep hearty laugh. It was one of those laughs of heartbreaking irony. One on the one hand, the Reformed faith needs a “fully-orbed” response to the question of homosexuality in our modern world. Too many are ignorant in the extreme about it. On the other, no one at Covenant is going to listen to SoulForce, since they have no respect for the beliefs about Biblical integrity that Covenant holds.

I remember when someone on campus Googled the school’s name and came across the first Equality Ride. People were mildly confused that Covenant would attract attention from such a group, after all, the school had largely rejected the Fred Phelps model, why should they be fitted in with that crowd? I, being sensitive to such things, immediately started reading about SoulForce. SoulForce seems to have mild Christian attachments, a very gay ideology and a huge pretension that they are continuing the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. I found myself disliking them from the start. They had zero respect for the schools that they were visiting. They did seem to understand that they were engaging the schools at an ideological level rather than a political one; no one at SoulForce was advocating that the schools be forced to admit openly LGBT students. However, enrollment at a Christian college is a personal decision, and choosing to live under the rules of such a campus is also a personal decision. It’s not as if students wishing to adopt a non-celibate gay lifestyle have been denied higher education. There are plenty of schools out there willing to tolerate that. Moreover, those rules are the outworking of a Christian college trying to act with integrity according to their beliefs. In our day and age, integrity should almost always be applauded.

It is one thing for the Church to have an internal debate on the morality of sexual practice, to have Christians challenging other Christians on the orthodox positions on homosexuality. It is another thing entirely to have non-Christians telling the Church what to do. I am not saying that the SoulForce riders are not Christians on the basis of their sexuality, rather that some of them are not professing Christians. One of the men who will be showing up on April 2nd, Kyle DeVries, has this to say:

It is faith that has led me here to the Equality Ride. Not strictly a religious faith, but rather my faith in humanity. I truly believe that even the most conservative individuals can come to understand the need for equality.

This is what I mean by disrespect. I don’t think Mr. DeVries has any idea what it means to hold a real religious faith that has an effect on one’s life. He certainly doesn’t understand the Dooywerdian Kuyperian neo-Calvinism heavily influenced by a Schaefferian vision of humanism that Covenant holds. How can he expect to engage Covenant’s philosophy and theology on its own grounds? (To be fair, a few of the Equality Riders that will be visiting Covenant claim to be evangelicals, but none I think realize how short their ideas about oppression and liberation will fall on Covenant’s campus)

Here is a link to Josiah Roe’s post on the subject which includes Marshall Rowe’s question and answer sheet sent to all alumni. I, for some reason, no longer receive alumni emails. Anyway, questions number four and eight I think deserve some comment. On question four, SoulForce’s refusal to have any sort of dialogue with Covenant seems to indicate to me that this ride is more about stroking someone’s ego than about changing people’s minds. Covenant is not Bob Jones, there are minds open to change there, and whereas I don’t think the SoulForce riders could evoke a change in school policy, they might be able to get a few students and staff to think about their positions on the subject. Regarding question eight, Covenant’s residence life staff had a huge impact on my life and they do an amazing job, mostly. Especially while Scott Raymond was there. The counselors however were useless in the extreme.

To put an end to the rambling, I think SoulForce will come, attract a modicum of attention, perhaps a write up in the Times-Free Press and local TV news, stir up some controversy on campus and then be gone. I don’t think Covenant will go as far as to keep them off campus, though I can’t think of a place where they could park their bus, have a demonstration that will be seen and not be disruptive to campus in the extreme. Covenant is not a big place. And whether cooler heads prevail and SoulForce does get to demonstrate on campus or Advancement sees a media heyday opportunity and blocks them, may much good discussion come out of this event.