RYAN HAGEN
News Assistant
Soulforce, a group that plans to visit 32 conservative colleges to spread the message that Christianity and homosexuality are compatible, received a polite but lukewarm reception from most students Monday and Tuesday.
Many students said class conflicts and the lack of Convo credit kept them from attending the presentations.
Dean of Students Mark Davis and Soulforce began coordinating the visit fall semester.
In their main event, four of Soulforce’s adovactes known as Equality Riders, talked to about 30 students in Stauffer Chapel about Scriptural references to homosexuality and love.
“In the relatively few Scriptures that [refer to sex between people of the same gender], nothing is said about the loving, committed relationships that we know today,” said Michael Cramer, a 28-year-old gay Mormon.
“Look at the thousands of passages about love.”
Sophomore Brianna Pade said she was not convinced.
“I think it’s important to promote love,” Pade said, “but using it to condone something like homosexuality and using it as a form of acceptance biblically is dangerous. There’s a lot more to the Bible than love.”
The presentation included several views of homosexuality and religion.
“We need to be able to disagree on moral issues without condemning the other person to hell or labeling someone a bigot just because we don’t share the same viewpoint,” Davis said in an e-mail.
Equality Rider Amy Brainer-Medellin, 24, said she appreciated the balance and fairness of the presentation by Associate Dean of Seaver Rick Marrs, “What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?”
Flashing pictures of Hugh Heffner, the Brady Bunch and others, Brainer-Medellin asked for a definition of the heterosexual lifestyle.
“There is no gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender lifestyle any more than there is a heterosexual one,” she said.
Brainer-Medellin, a lesbian, said she appreciated the responsiveness of Pepperdine students who discussed their views with her.
“When you talk long enough, you realize you have more in common than to disagree on,” she said.
03-29-2007