This post from the Gay News Blog reports on the first two days of the 2007 Equality Ride. Predictably, the tour has already resulted in several arrests for acts of peaceful civil disobedience.
I strongly support the purpose of the ride. As was the case last year, they are traveling around the United States to primarily Christian colleges (32 visits are scheduled this year) to engage in dialogue and/or protest policies at these schools which are preceived to silence or discriminate against GLBT students.
I'm all for any group of people who are working to spread God's message of love and inclusion, and Christian institutions of higher learning seem like an excellent place to target.
However, I'm not comfortable with their particpants intentionally committing acts that lead to them being arrested. Is that necessacary? Better yet, would Jesus willingly break civil laws intending to be arrested?
It seems to me that there are plenty of ways to convey a message in today's society, without compromising the integrity of that message, that don't require laws to be broken. In that light, are people being arrested the most positive face to put on Christianity?
What do you think?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Is having people arrested for speaking about the need to treat others with respect for their inherent dignity (we're not even talking about love here) something that should be associated with Christianity? These activists aren't taking over administration buildings; they're trying to talk to students, who often want to talk to them. It's a bad sign when we forget that Christ was crucified, in the legal sense, because he spoke a message that threatened the powers that thought they were.
ReplyDeleteThe message this sends the wider world is not that Christians are petty criminals, if that's what you're afraid of - it's that some followers of Christ actually have the courage to sacrifice something (time, opportunity, a spotless criminal history) to walk into a hostile environment to share a gospel of radical love and inclusion, and to hold some of their own accountable for the real crimes the church has committed against gays and lesbians for too long. Fact is, this sort of action has been desperately needed for far too long. American Christianity has forgotten what taking up a cross looks like when we restrict ourselves only to "safe" behavior and silent wishes that things would somehow get better.
ReplyDeleteI'm torn with this one. I agree with the above poster, because I think that some of the times they were arrested it was just because they wanted to speak to people. However, I think there were times when the arrests happened and the riders could have done something to stop it and still been effective. I think in order to make change, the arrests are going to happen, at least with the tactics Soulforce takes (and I'm not saying that the tactics are good or not, just making an observation).
ReplyDeleteI'm not opposed entirely to means that get someone arrested, but I do have a couple of questions, have other means been exhausted (or effectively exhasted) and will the arrest get the point across. I'm not sure that either burden is met in the Soulforce actions on this bus ride. I do believe the burden was met in the arrests at Focus on the Family
ReplyDelete