Soulforce: 'We'll Be There'

Arrests or no arrests, GLBT activist group Soulforce says it will come on campus April 17

By Chuck Bahr, News Editor

Despite North Central’s declination of GLBT activist group Soulforce’s request to visit campus, the group has maintained its plans to hold a demonstration at the school Monday, April 17. The group plans to come on campus that morning as well as hold a rally in Elliot Park in the evening, according to Soulforce Equality Ride Co-Director Jacob Reitan.

“Even if North Central won’t allow us a forum, … we’re still going to come to North Central because we believe the discussion is that important,” Reitan said.

According to Director of Media Relations Susan Detlefsen, who also serves as co-chair of the school’s task force on the Equality Ride, the school is still discussing how it will respond to the group should members attempt to come on campus grounds.

Reitan said the group will come on campus to make speeches, pass out material, and converse and eat lunch with students. The group also plans to attend that day’s chapel service.

Later that evening, the group plans to hold a rally in Elliot Park, according to Reitan.

As a private institution, North Central holds the right to arrest members of the group who attempt to come on campus against the school’s wishes. According to the ACLU’s website, “The general rule is that free speech activity cannot take place on private property absent the consent of the property owner.”

Detlefsen said the question is what members of Soulforce would do to get arrested. She pointed out that the group has a legitimate right to protest on public sidewalks around the school, and questioned what would motivate ride members to move beyond those areas.

“I guess I’m not sure what the purpose would be of the group to violate any kind of property rights that North Central has, beside publicity,” Detlefsen said.

Reitan said he respects the school’s right to make arrests, but that the group is not seeking to get arrested.

“We don’t want to get arrested,” he said. “I don’t want to talk about arrest. I don’t want to mention it because that’s not what our goal is.”

If North Central allows the group on campus but refuses to let members give presentations, Reitan said the group might assemble in commons areas or station members at entrances to speak.

As for the evening rally, Reitan said its primary purpose will be to “support our friend [David Coleman] who was mistreated at North Central.”

Coleman, now a member of the ride, was dismissed from the school following the spring 2005 semester. University officials cannot comment on Coleman’s dismissal due to privacy restrictions.

Reitan said he cannot give an accurate estimate of how many might attend the rally. He said the group will look to local churches and colleges that are friendly to his cause. Soulforce will also contact public officials and the local media, he said.

According to Detlefsen, North Central is still working on forming a strategic plan for how to approach local and national media. Detlefsen called Reitan’s decision to speak negatively about the school to the media “unfortunate.”

“I think that’s too bad,” she said. “I think that’s too bad that he’s kind of threatening to throw our name through the mud and use the media to do that.”

Reitan, however, emphasized that he will speak favorably of colleges that welcome the group, including Bethel University in Arden Hills.

Reitan was clear that the group’s goal is more than simply to attain dialogue.

“Honestly, if there’s anybody that’s a radical gay, it’s Soulforce,” he said.

Reitan listed five goals espoused by the ride: to inspire the gay community to be active in defending its humanity, to send a message to gay students at colleges like North Central that God accepts them how they are, to break down stereotypes on both sides through dialogue, to change hearts and minds about homosexuality, and finally to change policy at the schools it visits.

Reitan said that although the group will not be satisfied until all those goals are met, there are still lesser ways for the school to take steps forward and demonstrate good will.

“Our motive is to get people to think and get people to know us and to understand us and to hear us,” he said. “So I think just understanding us differently as people would be a proactive step forward.”

According to Soulforce Equality Ride Co-Director Haven Herrin, the group’s most important goal is that a school demonstrates it allows academic freedom. Ride members will work with a school as long as it allows them to conduct open discussion while on campus, she said. If a school welcomes the group but then bans discussion, including the distribution of literature and books, the group will turn its efforts outward to the surrounding community and the press.

Detlefsen, however, questioned the group’s stated goal of academic freedom.

“I think ultimately their goal is to sway opinion,” she said, “and the profession of academic freedom is, I think, a laudable goal, but I also don’t think that’s truly the goal. I think the goal for this is media attention more than anything else.”

Reitan said a true Christian response by school administration would be to welcome in even those they disagree with.

“I think it’s in the spirit of Christ—even if you think we’re sinners as gay people—I still think it’s in the spirit of Christ to invite in those who disagree with you and to talk with those who disagree with you,” he said.

Detlefsen, however, said Reitan’s motives are not simply to sit down and talk.

“If that was the only motive that he had was to sit down and talk to people, I would say fine,” she said. “But I find his motives to be beyond that.”

Detlefsen also took issue with Reitan’s description of North Central’s view toward gays.

According to Reitan, “Places like North Central are places that teach a worldview that being gay is sick and sinful, and that worldview not only affects the gay students … at North Central, but it goes out into society and it affects people like me or your everyday gay and lesbian person.”

Detlefsen said she has not heard anyone at North Central espouse that worldview.

“I have heard people express concern, express pastoral concern for this issue,” she said, “and the people from student life that I’ve talked to, their concern is one of a Christian caring for a brother or sister, a brother or sister in Christ. I have not heard vehement derogatory language like that.”

Detlefsen emphasized that the school did its homework before deciding to decline Soulforce’s request. She said administration reviewed material from the organization, both submitted and online, as well as contacted other schools that have had experiences with Soulforce in the past. Upon completing those measures, administration determined that Soulforce was not ultimately interested in dialogue, and decided to turn down its request.

Detlefsen said that students doubtful of the school’s choice are welcome to talk with any of the task force members, which include Dean of Residence Life Jake Smith, Human Resources Director Sara Biskey, Business Administration Department Chair Clint Watt, Director of Security Mike Cappelli and Detlefsen.

Reitan said he still hopes North Central will change its mind and welcome the group on campus.

“We’d certainly be willing to change the plans for what we would do during that day,” he said, adding that he still hopes to have a lunch with administrators to get to know them.

Detlefsen, however, said the school will stand by its decision.

“This is an opportunity for us to both look at what we believe and why we believe it,” she said, “and then also an opportunity to extend Christ-like love to people we don’t necessarily agree with. They might disagree with some of the ways we go about doing that, but that doesn’t mean that we wish ill of them at all.”

Detlefsen said one of the biggest ways the school is expressing Christ’s love right now is through prayer.

According to Herrin, North Central was chosen for a visit by the group from among 200 possible schools under consideration. That list was pared down to 40 final candidates, from which Equality Ride members voted to determine the final 18.

About 25 members voted for five schools each. North Central received votes from five of the 25 members, or 4 percent of the125 overall votes.

Other schools slated for Equality Ride stops include Bethel University, Brigham Young University, the United States Military Academy at West Point, Wheaton College, Oral Roberts University, Liberty University and Texas A&M.

Of the 18 schools that the Equality Ride is scheduled to visit, North Central has the smallest enrollment.

All of the colleges, except for Texas A&M, were selected because they ban the enrollment of GLBT students. Texas A&M was chosen because it bans GLBT students from participating in its ROTC program, the largest such program in the country outside the U.S. military academy.

Although similar groups have protested at colleges in the past, including at Bethel University, the Soulforce Equality Ride is the first group ever to organize an effort of such magnitude, Herrin said—including its two-month duration and its nationwide approach.

Reitan said he hopes North Central students won’t be afraid to say hi to group members and get to know them.

“We’d love to talk with them,” he said. “From the beginning, I know a lot of them have seen my message and our viewpoint as disagreeable, but that doesn’t mean our conversation has to be disagreeable.”