Seeking Agora in the Heartland: A Case Example

Hi,

As I mentioned in class Monday night, having just driven through the following scenes with Crowley’s book and a gallon of coffee at my side, I decided to make the following collation one of my blog entries this week. I’m not trying to win the Russell Award for posting early and posting often (if that in-joke still plays), but I realized that much of what follows has a short web-life. That is, I was going to keep this brief and tidy by linking us to these passages, but some have already disappeared and, perishable as news is, I believe the article I conclude with will not be available by the weekend. Mea culpa in advance for the length of this entry.

Though each of the following restates the story line, I’ll mention that Soulforce Equality Ride made Springfield’s Central Bible College a stop on their nationwide tour. I’m not interested in presenting all of this to stress how pro-gay rights I am in a week when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has made it pretty clear he isn’t. I don’t even like the language of “pro-” discourse as my white liberal guilt often arises as self-consciousness (ie. “Hey all my gay friends, I am so“pro-” you and your rights!”). I am interested in offering a case example (something we asked of Crowley) of how the divide in civil/civic discourse is partly temporal and results from a lack of postmodern agora—-places to stand that are both “inside” (inevitably) and “outside” (idealistically) the already colonized space of participants in a discourse (or, I suppose, “armed combatants in the eminent war of words”).

I’ve tried to offer a counter-balance of optimism (something else we asked of Crowley) by culling mention of other denominations, blogs from the “Equality bus,” and a newspaper passage about another Soulforce “event” where, seemingly, more productive civil discourse was achieved-—due partly to an agreement to share space (i.e. at Dordt College in what is listed as “Sioux Center,” Iowa, perhaps as a typographical conflation of Sioux City and a campus “Sioux Center.” Either way, I like the accidental emergence of “center” in this context).

In reprinting what follows, I’m don’t want to denigrate or simply “pick on” a place, its faculty, or people I know due to the decisions of its administrators, mission statements, policy rhetoric, etc. (Homosexuality is made coequal to gambling and drinking on pg. 3B; two days later it is equated to the “immorality of adultery” on pg. 1A). Instead, I’m interested in how both groups engage in a territorial rhetoric reminiscent of what we were reducing to absurdity in Crowley (i.e. “The Christians are coming! To arms, fellow liberals! Man the gates!”). I freely admit I’m on the Soulforce “side” yet question the approach of both sides in negotiating public and private space before any “densely articulated ideologies” can be leveraged.

From the CBC homepage, a well-publicized memo from Jim P. Vigil, Vice President for Student Development:

“Central Bible College is making preparations for a possible protest outside its campus, located at 3000 N Grant Ave., by members of the Soulforce Equality Ride. Despite this, the College will still hold a regular day of classes on March 12.
“In the fall of 2006, a representative of the Soulforce Equality Ride contacted Central Bible College to inform the College about the group’s bus tour schedule and their intention to hold a series of events on our campus.

“The Central Bible College reviewed the Soulforce Equality Ride information, their event plans, their materials from their web site and reports from 19 institutions who were confronted during last year’s Equality Ride tour. Last year during their first Equality Ride tour this group made stops at 19 campuses in which there were a total of ninety-nine arrests. This group has contacted Springfield Police Department notifying them of inevitable arrests on that day.

“After this review, Central Bible College decided to decline the request and the Equality Ride organization was informed of this decision. Central Bible College does not intend to allow these individuals to come onto our campus and offer the legitimacy of any kind of official forum. Despite the verbal and written decline, members of the Equality Ride still intend to visit Central Bible College on March 12.”


*I’ll only highlight “making preparations for a possible protest,” “19 institutions who were confronted,” and, of course, “the legitimacy of any kind of official forum.” I guess I’d also marvel at the irony of his surname being “Vigil.”

Consider, too, the shorter version as dispatched in an in-house email from CBC security and later leaked to the web. Note the ideological impasse delicately implied by “we would not change what we thought about the matter and we are not interested in a dialogue with them.”

From an in-house CBC security email:

“A group known as soulforce is coming to CBC on March 12, 2007. They sent a letter to the President expressing a desire to dialogue with our students about being Gay Christians. They do not like our CBC's statement on the homosexual lifestyle and want us to accept them as fellow Christians.

“They were sent a letter informing them that we would not change what we thought about the matter and we are not interested in a dialogue with them.

“They are coming any way and called the Chief of Police and told them they were coming and expected to be arrested.”


Consider, then, the only related blog entries I could find on the Soulforce website:

From Amy Brainer-Medillin, one of 52 Soulforce “equality riders,” blogging from the bus last week as it leaves stops in Madison and Milwaukee:

“For me personally, these two days in Madison and Milwaukee have served as a period of both rejuvenation and reflection. I recall the apathy we encountered at Notre Dame and ask myself whether prejudice is better served by hostility or by passivity – by a physical or verbal attack, for example, or by invisibility and silence. Can inaction be violent? After Notre Dame, I believe that it can – indeed, that the choice NOT to act, speak, welcome, listen, hear, think, reflect, question – is often the most violent and damaging choice of all. The absence of space is a psychological barbed wire fence, as limiting to the human spirit as any prison.

* * * *

“May questions and conversations like these multiply across and beyond the campus. May the students who spoke out so courageously call on that transformative sense of self as they use their bodies and voices to create space where none is granted.”

* * * *

From the same blog written this week as the writer, Abigail Reikow, left my hometown. (Please note that while the local media didn’t report it, a “common space” was offered by the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Springfield):

“It has only been over a week since we began and I already miss my family. That feeling of loss, however, was rectified today when the Equality Riders arrived at the First Unitarian Universalist Church here in Springfield, Missouri. We were welcomed to their congregation this morning, greeted with smiles and affirmed with a service titled “The Inherent Worth & Dignity of Me.” Together we sang, shared stories, and were even the privileged audience of a poetry reading from one of the congregation’s members. While my family rests miles away, it is comforting to know that family I had never met rests within pocketed communities that punctuate the plains of the Midwest.

“We were provided lunch following the service, including two vegan dishes to accommodate the dietary needs of certain riders, an effort that required certain members to stay awake half the night when they had realized that they had forgotten certain ingredients. A small detail it seems, but is helps to illuminate the way in which we were welcomed and embraced today during our visit. As we laughed about it over lunch, I looked around and realized how long it has been since I have been in a church that felt like home. I have spent half my life as a member of numerous congregations but always feeling like an outcast, even as a heterosexual. At twenty-two years old I am, after today, reconsidering my stances on serving as a member of a spiritual congregation.

“We returned to the church later this evening for a candle light vigil that Equality Riders opened in a singing of “Amazing Grace.” Our directors led a discussion concerning relentless non-violence and civil disobedience for those members who demonstrated interested in visiting Central Bible College with us tomorrow morning. This congregation, in realizing the lack of welcome we may possible face, will send some of its own members to stand beside us tomorrow outside school parameters. To emphasize our mission, philosophy, and the necessity of this movement, the directors revisited the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King by reading passages from “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” I turned around in my pew to witness the movement of spiritual energy that fluctuated throughout the room, finding comfort in the expression of a common conviction: truth is found in movement and transformation requires tension.”


**OK, so for Faith this example offers positive news from the Land of Lakes, for Maggie the continuing impact and affect of “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” for Chad an echo of the key question as to how discourse is “better served by hostility or by passivity,” for David a mention of yet another Christian denomination whose tenets I can’t explain, for Mark an example of discourse within the worship space of a congregation, a la your great Ted Kennedy example, for Court I deleted the gross misreading of Habermas at the end of the CBC security memo, for Aaron “Amazing Grace,” which I have the Man in Black singing somewhere, and for Donna, beyond the Madison reference and the power of blogs, a Massumi-lite reference in the final statement: “truth is found in movement and transformation requires tension.”

* * * *

I’ll conclude with a sample of the rhetoric from the purportedly objective staff writers at the local newspaper:


Anonymous staff writer for The Springfield News-Leader:

- Monday -- The approximately 30 Soulforce riders, as well as local supporters, will meet at 10:30 a.m. in front of Central Bible College, on the sidewalk on the north side of Norton Road, about one and a half blocks east of Grant Avenue. Following a brief news conference, some of the group members will step onto campus and risk arrest. The rest of the group will continue to stand off campus until at least noon. They will then move to Panera Bread, 2535 N. Kansas Expressway, at 2 p.m., where students are invited to talk with them.


(So, Faith, you can add Panera Bread to your list of postmodern agora, right after MySpace, Facebook, some blogs, and the Speaker’s Circle.)

And finally. . .

Linda Leicht, news and feature writer for the Springfield News-Leader:

Headline: Gay-rights group plans Monday visit to CBC:
But the college won't allow them onto school grounds, citing group's methods.


"About 30 Soulforce Equality riders will arrive Monday at Central Bible College hoping to have a "conversation" about the school's position on homosexuality.
They will more than likely be arrested, said one of the group's leaders

"They're so fearful of the issue of homosexuality that even one of us coming on the campus ... for a respectful dialogue" is unacceptable, said Curtis Peterson, 22, of New York.

"Ron Bradley, campus pastor, said the Assemblies of God Bible college is not taking an "antagonistic posture" toward the group, but they are not welcome on campus.
"We have no difficulty discussing this issue (of homosexuality)," said Bradley. Instead, it is the organization and its method that led to the decision, he said. "Their track record has been ignoble at best."

* * * *

"Soulforce is an organization started by the Rev. Mel White, who worked for evangelical Christians — including the Rev. Jerry Fallwell — before coming out as a gay man. Its mission: "... Freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance."

"The first Soulforce Equality Ride was held in 2005. This year, the ride includes two buses, with about 30 riders on each, that will visit 32 schools around the country, including Baylor University, Bob Jones University, Brigham Young University and Central Bible College. The schools were selected because they are perceived as having policies that are homophobic.

"Bradley rejects that description of CBC. Homosexual activity, along with behavior such as drunkenness, adultery or theft — "any sort of behavior that is not Scripturally endorsed" — is subject to disciplinary action, he said.
But discussion of issues of sexuality is not off-limits at the school, Bradley said. "You have to," he said. "That's part of life."

"The school does not want the Soulforce riders to lead that conversation, however.
"Our concern, having studied their patterns," said Bradley, "is while their initial contact calls for dialogue, their pattern has been much more combative and on some campuses, deceptive."

* * * *

"Some will step onto campus, said Peterson, who has twice been arrested for trespassing during Soulforce activities. He explained that the action is "civil disobedience" as used during the civil rights movement.
Peterson, a gay man and the son of a Baptist preacher, has been in contact with Springfield police and is aware that they have been called by the college to keep the riders from coming onto college property.

"We go out of our way to be in contact with the police," he said. "We are not violent, and we always submit to arrest."

* * * *

"Not every college has refused to admit the Soulforce riders. Last week, the group visited the campus of Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, for what one pastor described as "the biggest day of spiritual growth that campus went through all year."

"Although the school, affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church, originally declined to have the group on campus, when administrators realized that the visit would take place regardless, they decided to welcome the riders.

"We made the choice that it would be a more effective Christian witness to interact with them on campus," said Ken Boersma, vice president of student services.
The college provided faculty, staff and students who served as hosts for each individual rider as they accompanied them on campus for a day of planned activities.

"We decided to share our Christian commitment in a way of being gracious to them," Boersma said.

"The school presented its own position — that sexual activity outside of marriage, including sex with someone of the same gender, is grounds for dismissal — during a panel discussion attended by students and invited guests.

"The Rev. Aaron Baart, who pastors a church in the community, was among the panelists representing the school's position. He said he expected anger and deep emotion but discovered that the students, faculty and the Soulforce riders were all "very respectful."

"Following the campus activities, Baart invited the students and riders to continue the dialogue. "It is a reality in our culture," he said. "They have to learn how to dialogue on it in a constructive and respectful manner."

"Baart was pleased with the university's response. "I think Dordt did a great job," he said.

"Not everybody in the community was as welcoming. Three men in pickup trucks harassed the group at their hotel and defaced their bus by writing insults and obscenities.

"But that, too, offered the school an opportunity for Christian witness, Boersma said. In addition to the college issuing a public apology on behalf of the community, Dordt students washed the bus."


* * * *


So there's some broader coverage that suggests not all Christians, fundamentalist or otherwise (and I belong to none of these churches), are essentialist or hard-wired into the apocalypto-network. Likewise, not all of the Soulforce members are ipod-toting Abbie Hoffmans hellbent on getting arrested in each town (though, potentially, some may be). Here, too, is some glimmer of a successful space located within the supposed “opposition’s” territory.

Well, let me vow to never go on at this length again. I’m sorry if I wore out the Down Arrow on anyone’s keyboard.

Read you soon,

Kevin


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