Musician Josh Ritter, who refused to perform again at a private Christian college because of the school's anti-gay beliefs, is now the target of backlash from students who say they and their school are not homophobic.
Ritter defended gay rights in a Facebook post criticizing Messiah College, a private school in Mechanicsburg, Pa., that embraces the "evangelical spirit rooted" in Christian traditions. In his May 4 post, Ritter blasted the school as anti-gay after discovering a school-wide document called the "Community Covenant."
Messiah College requires all students to sign a "Community Covenant" promising to, among other things, “avoid such sinful practices as…homosexual behavior….” This policy, which I see as exclusionary and bigoted, could not run more counter to my personal beliefs. If I had done my homework, and read about Messiah's policies ahead of time, I would never have agreed to play there.Ritter -- who performed at the school on May 4 -- continued by saying he would not play at Messiah College again until the school welcomes all Christians, gay or straight. He plans to donate the fees he received for the performance to suicide-prevention group the Trevor Project.
Messiah students are now striking back at Ritter saying their school is actually an accepting place.
"[Y]ou have succeeded to put all of us Messiah students in a box, when in reality this characterization couldn't be further from the truth. The student body here is a diverse group, many of which are passionate for seeing change happen within the schools policies regarding homosexual behavior," wrote one Facebook user. "Your words are hurtful to many of us here who do not apply to the group you called out."
"I love Messiah, and I love my faith, but I also believe that everyone has the right to love who they love and to be with you makes them happy," wrote another. "If you ask around campus, there are many things that students generally disagree with in the Community Covenant."
Messiah has a copy of the "Community Covenant" available online. This document, subtitled "All of Life Under the Lordship of Christ," says that the teachings of the scriptures apply to all those in the school community. Students are asked to avoid: drunkenness, stealing, dishonesty, profanity, occult practices, sexual intercourse outside of marriage, homosexual behavior, and sexually exploitative or abusive behavior.
A spokeswoman for Messiah told Christian magazine World on Campus that she was surprised Ritter wasn't familiar with the school's stance on sexuality until now, even though he performed there in 2009.
"We are a Christian college, we would think it wouldn't be surprising that we hold a traditional Scriptural interpretation of sexuality," Beth Lorow said. "We feel disappointed that he opted to publicly express his disagreement with name-calling and labeling and passed on doing it in a more productive way."
She said Ritter refused to speak to school administrators about his differing opinions and accused him of "not extending the openness and tolerance he spoke about to religious freedoms."
Spoken like a true faux Christian bigot Beth Lorow..beginning your statement by saying you find it hard to believe he didn't know the schools policy on homosexuality then in the next sentence accuse him of being judgmental and intolerant.
Your schools policy IS homophobic and anti-gay, add that with the fact you force your students to sign such a declaration and the fact they sign it, demonstrates both yours and your student body embrace bigotry and homophobia...the hypocrisy is yours Messiah College, shared by both staff and students.
Kudos to you Josh for making a stand against their bullshit.
8 comments:
I think you are confused between homophobia and Christian doctrine. Christian doctrine has and must always oppose homosexual acts as disordered as they do not follow God's law. It does not preach hate towards homosexuals. On the contrary it professes to love those who are in error, but hate the act of out of wedlock sexual activity. This includes hetero and homosexual acts. Any sexual act outside of marriage between a man and a woman is intrinsically wrong. You twist things to make it sound like its a bigoted philosophy, but it is nothing of the sort. Some groups and individuals have acted shamefully in acting out with homophobic speech and actions, but this is not at all what the Christian religions teach.
If you were really concerned about religion teaching hate or intolerance, go look at the Muslim religion, but it looks like you don't have the balls to take them on. They might actually fight back! Instead you decide to pick on the religions that do not preach hate and retribution and spin lies about them.
I don't know what rock you've been living under, but you couldn't be any more full of shit.
I'll be more than happy to educate you on your own religion if that's what you want, but faux Christians like the ones from this school, have used their religious dogma to oppress minorities since the Roman empire.
Read a fucking history book, before coming here and preaching your nonsense to me!
Well I think you are the one that needs to read an honest history book, read the Chatecism and Bible and learn what is really taught versus your twisted idea of what you spout off here. You twist things to suit whatever argument you want to make here. So intellectually dishonest.
Honest history book?
I suppose in your infantile mind that would be the revisionist one spouted by the Catholic church.
Intellectually dishonest?
The Bible is a spiritual guide numbnuts, not a history book and as far as twisted goes, Catholicism and the Catechism has me beat by well over a thousand years.
Here's an idea, prove one thing I said was wrong instead of just gainsaying and being a whiny little bitch.
I wasn't referring to the Bible as a history book... Rather you should look at what the consensus history books say about human history and not revisionist history books that seem capture the minds of simple minded fools the world over. I can't prove a negative statement... that is, I can't prove to you that the Church teaches hate towards gay people, because you won't find it anywhere in the Bible or Catechism. Show me an entry where it teaches hate if you think it exists.
Didn't say the Bible teaches hate.
That church you speak of is made up of people, and the leaders of the Catholic religion, like so many others, are the ones with the message of hate.
And about those consensus history books...would those be the very ones that must first pass the approval of a mostly Christian fundamentalist board in Texas before they go into print each and every year, with omissions referring to evolution, homosexuality, etc, before going into print nationwide?
If you think for one minute, your going to convince me the Catholic church and indeed most major Christian denominations don't teach against homosexuality, then your wasting your time.
Anyone with eye's and ears can see and hear their message loudly.
In every single country where the Catholic church and fundamentalist have taken a stand against equality, violence against homosexuals has dramatically increased.
If the congregations/members of these churches, like those this article is about, don't agree with their leaderships views, then why are these people still leaders, and why do these very same people allow such teachings to go unchallenged?
If your not part of the solution, then your part of the problem.
I for one will continue speaking against what ever religion uses it's pulpits to turn it's constituents into fag bashers.
I know I won't convince you of anything because you are completely closed minded and blind to the truth.... Of course there are bad people in the Church who teach the wrong thing, but they are very definitely a small minority who go beyond what the Church teaches to espouse a personal view. That no doubt is wrong. But they are very few and you use the very few to generalize that all are bad and think that way. That is what makes your argument dishonest. For someone who wants to argue against generalization against gay people, you go back and use the same tactics against anyone who might respectfully differ. Look at the content of this blog.... Filled with such hate, violence, disregard for human dignity... Do you really think you have any credibility with anyone other than the mind numbed zombies who only have the most selfish of thoughts and think only with their dicks? Astounding!
Whats astounding is the fact your as blind to your own bigotry and intolerance of any differing views that don't bow to your insipid indoctrination.
Your arguments are devoid of any facts or insight.
Just like a true self righteous faux Christian you only pass judgement on something you obviously know so little about.
The fact your opening, bigoted remarks about me not daring to take on Muslims so aptly illustrates.
Keep your bullshit trapped in that underused little organ you laughingly refer to as a brain.
If you had read only a fraction of the articles on this blog, you could clearly see the hate world over that you faux Christians perpetuate where ever you happen to infest!
Either way boi, live in your dark little world, I'm done with you and people like you!
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