Recent Negative Press
Many of you probably caught clips on the news about the recent gay rights demonstration that took place here at Liberty. For those of you who haven't seen anything about it, let me fill you in. On March 10th the gay rights group "soulforce" wanted to come demonstrate on Liberty's campus. We have allowed them to come sit in on our chapel services and other various things in the past. Well soulforce was departing Lynchburg to travel accross the country to various private universities, and military academies to demonstrate for gay rights. Soulforce was told to not come onto Liberty's campus causing distraction. People seem to have this misconception about Liberty. It seems to be the common understanding that we hate all gay people, and we sit in class rooms learning how to better hate them. However, that statement is no where near the truth. We do not hate gay people, but we do not believe that homosexuality is a morally ethical lifestyle. We do not discriminate against any people. I can speak from personal experience on this issue. I had a suite mate for two years who is a professed homosexual. We did not discriminate against him for this. We tried to do our best to show him the love of God, and how we should live a life seperated from sin. We all have our sin struggles, and for many people of the world homosexuality is a big struggle. We received a lot of bad press over what happened a couple weeks ago when soulforce came to Liberty. The organization was told that they could demonstrate as much as they pleased outside the front gate to Liberty's campus, but that they could not enter campus. There is nothing wrong with denying access to the campus. This is a private university, and we have the right to deny anyone access to our facilities. Soulforce was clearly coming to Liberty to exploit the fact that we do not think that their lifestyle is morally or ethically correct. One spokesman for the group stated "We have a right to be here, because this school teaches that being gay is being sick and sinful." The fact that we believe that homosexuality is a sin in no way gives them justification for demonstrating on our campus. We would be more than happy to sit down to discuss the issue of homosexuality and our standpoint, but in a structured and appropriate venue. Of the 60 or so people demostrating 20 of them crossed onto Liberty's campus. They were immediately arrested for trespassing. They claimed that they just wanted the opportunity to come onto campus to talk to students. Well students went off of campus to talk to them during the demonstration. We are not afraid to discuss the issue with them, but clearly they had no intention of this by their demonstration. They were using Liberty as a way to push their agenda, and as a way to get media attention. I don't believe that Liberty was in the wrong for denying them access to our campus, nor do I believe that they were wrong in arresting those who came onto the campus. I, in no way, hate gay people, nor do I discriminate against them. I believe that we are all sinners, and none of us deserve the grace of God. I hope that you will take the time to really investigate a situation, and what you hear. Look at an issue from both sides, and pay attention to true intention.
posted by Eric @ 9:18 AM
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