By early September, the fall semester had been off to a great beginning at Baldwin-Wallace College, a small liberal arts school of about 2,800 students in Berea, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland. The InterVarsity chapter had started less than three years before, shortly after Urbana 2000, but it had already grown to include about 75 members. Student leaders in the group came into the semester with high hopes and a vision of God’s doing big things on the campus, and they were excited to see the initial activities drawing so many new students.

Sarah Juzwik, a senior Conservatory student, had been involved with I-V almost from the beginning. She had also been involved with the Campus Crusade group on campus, and though she currently is a leader in that group, she continues to be a friend of the I-V group and a proponent of unity among the Christian groups on campus. She came up to me with a big smile at the campus coffee shop and said, “Steve, I have this idea for an outreach event, and I was wondering if InterVarsity would want to co-sponsor it with Campus Crusade.”

Sarah and other students had been frustrated during the last few years by presentations that were clearly from only one side of the homosexuality issue. Allies, the gay activist group on campus, had even brought in two lesbian pastors to speak about how the Bible condones homosexual practice! While so much had been said on one side of this issue, Sarah felt that the only message being heard from the Christian perspective was one of condemnation and judgment. Sarah and three other students (two of them from InterVarsity, and another from Campus Crusade) had formed a planning committee for an event to present a third voice, one of compassion and hope. They wanted to let people know that there is hope for those struggling with same-gender attraction, and that people could in fact leave the gay lifestyle and begin to follow Jesus.

As I listened to Sarah speak so enthusiastically about this event, I couldn’t help asking myself, Wow, do we really want to step into these waters? Would the I-V chapter go for this idea or not? For the chapter to take such a strong stance on the issue of homosexuality was sure to be a challenge for many of our members. What was striking, though, was the level of friendship that Sarah and the others had with people in the gay community. One of Sarah’s good friends is the president of Allies, and they had been talking about this event for weeks. The student committee had plans to talk with the chaplain and others in administration, as well as all of the students in Allies, in order to build bridges for discussion. Holding such an event was sure to bring controversy, so we cautiously hoped that any controversy would not drive people away, and that 100 or so students would come.

The I-V exec team decided that we should co-sponsor “Coming out with Courage,” so preparations went ahead throughout September and October. Sarah wrote a letter to the members of Allies, letting them know that the event was taking place, and that there would be publicity going up during the first week of November. InterVarsity and Campus Crusade students prayed together, asking God to open people’s hearts to the gospel.

The first round of posters, designed to provoke discussion in the weeks leading up to the event itself, went up on November 2. Phrases were hung all over campus such as, “It’s crowded in this closet. Is there any way out?” and “How can I change? I was born this way.” However, within hours all of the posters had been torn down. Many members of the gay community on campus are not involved with Allies, so they were unaware that the posters would go up, and they expressed deep anger and hurt. Interestingly enough, the poster that caused the most controversy said, “Jesus loves gays.” To many in the gay community, seeing these signs told them, “Jesus loves you, but you need to change.” For these students, such a message is not acceptable, since they see their sexual orientation as being central to their identity.

On November 4, in response to these posters, an intense but good conversation took place between students on both sides of the issue. Through this discussion, it was clear that the spiritual battle was both emotional and deeply rooted. Several Christian students from both Crusade and I-V were peppered by questions for two hours, and part of their message was to apologize to the gay students for not anticipating the level of offense that these posters would cause. Though gay students strongly disagreed with the position of the Christian students, they did acknowledge the right of free speech, and they said that they would actually come to the event and hear what speakers had to say. However, the Allies group set up an additional meeting to be held one hour before our event, where they would bring in several clergy from more liberal Christian denominations to show that many Christians, in fact, affirm homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle.

Discussion and debate soon reached the college administrators. The Dean of Student Affairs and the Director of Residence Life (who is in charge of all on-campus housing) are openly supportive of the gay lifestyle. In fact, much of the programming on campus is biased toward affirming the homosexual lifestyle. In response to the controversy, the president of the college called a meeting on November 11 with student leaders of InterVarsity, Campus Crusade, and Allies, as well as all of the deans of the college. It was determined that the venue for the event would need to be changed to accommodate the anticipated crowd. Security and city police would be present, and the college would contact the Cleveland newspaper. All the while, these administrators remarked about how good this event was for the college, that it was promoting discussion and consideration of diversity around a very difficult issue.

Discussion around the campus concerning the issue of homosexuality quickly reached a high level of intensity. Within days of the posters being hung up, the number of e-mail messages passed back and forth among faculty had reached the hundreds. Faculty even spent class time talking with students about the issue. A student bulletin board on the college Web site, which normally receives at most a few dozen “hits” in response to an issue, received more than 400 hits within a week. Though publicity was no longer necessary, a second round of posters and “table tents” were posted in buildings and on dining hall tables that said, “I used to be gay. Come hear my story. It’s all about Jesus.” Christian students gathered to pray three times a day during those last two-and-a-half weeks, praying for God to move mightily on the campus and in people’s hearts.

In the end, the event on November 19 went very smoothly, and the crowd that came was mostly from the Baldwin-Wallace community. The timing of events around the country was fascinating, since the Massachusetts Supreme Court had ruled the day before that it was unconstitutional to bar gay couples from being married. As that decision was mentioned during talks given that evening, loud cheers went up from those in attendance. About 30 protesters from the college and the surrounding community were present, though they did not deter people from attending the event. Some of them held up signs that said, “Love and acceptance saved me from anti-gay ministries,” “Campus Crusade for Hate,” and “Don’t use God to defend your bigotry.” Many of them later came in for the presentation as well.

In all, about 700 people came to the event, with one theater being filled to capacity and another half-full overflow theater providing people with a video feed to view the event. The Allies meeting was first, with pastors from Lutheran, United Church of Christ, and Episcopal churches sharing how they and their churches affirm diversity by honoring those who are gay. One of these pastors was a lesbian, and another was a gay man. The unanimous opinion of these speakers was that God is love, and that he is not calling anyone to change their sexual orientation. The Lutheran pastor asserted that one must consider the weight to be given to various passages of scripture: verses addressing the issue of homosexuality, just as those in Leviticus that address the wearing of mixed fabrics, are not to be taken literally because of how we have progressed as a society since biblical times.

Following the Allies presentation, those in attendance heard three testimonies of people who had come out of the gay lifestyle and begun to follow Jesus. In their stories, hundreds of students and dozens of faculty and staff heard how God changes lives. They heard the message of the gospel. Most likely, the vast majority of people in attendance would not have come to a meeting to hear the gospel being presented. Through the controversy, God had seen fit to draw hundreds of people to hear the good news of Jesus.

The third speaker was particularly challenging and effective, and his life story had a deep impact on those in attendance. At one point, he read from 1 Corinthians 4. “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” Then he paused and said, “This verse applies to every single one of us in this room. This is not just speaking to those who are homosexual.” He then went on to finish the passage, “And that was what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

After the excitement of the event itself, it became clear that there was much work left to do. The next day, when a few students and I attended an Allies meeting which was held in response to “Coming out with Courage,” several of the 30 students in attendance were vehement in their anger. One of the leaders, with whom I had developed some level of rapport during the weeks leading up to the event, was so angry that he was shaking and nearly in tears. Staring straight at me, he said, “I was disgusted with the meeting last night. It was not a message of compassion, but a message of hate. If you tell me I need to change, you are not loving me for who I am as a gay man. I let all of my friends down by letting this event take place, and I want to make sure that never happens again on this campus.” Hearing that from a leader in the gay community, as well as similar emotion from several others in the room, reminded us of how deep the battle lines have been drawn, and how emotional this issue is.

In the midst of all this residual anger and discussion, we also heard stories about how students were deeply impacted by the event. Our third speaker prayed afterward with several students who are struggling with homosexuality. One student rushed up to him after his talk and said, “I related so much with your story. I was crying while you spoke.” After some time talking, the student burst into tears again as they prayed together and as he heard again of God’s grace and transforming power.

Another student, several days after the event, wrote an e-mail to Sarah with his reaction. He is a former student leader in Allies, and though he had not been able to attend the event, he was struck by the negative emotional reactions of those in Allies. He’s concluded that he and others in Allies “have built their lives on a faulty foundation,” and he wants to explore the truth of God’s Word.

Even as I was writing this article, Sarah told me about a meeting she and the InterVarsity chapter president had with the Dean of Student Affairs. While this Dean expressed some frustration and reiterated the amount of hurt that students felt, she also expressed a desire for further conversation, particularly about the call that Jesus gave for people to surrender all to God. A book she had taken from the event, titled Coming out of Homosexuality, was sitting on her desk.

Much of the discussion around homosexuality has died down with the new semester, but the topic still simmers just below the surface. Articles asserting the bigotry and intolerance of InterVarsity and Campus Crusade are still appearing in the school newspaper. On February 11, InterVarsity’s regular large-group meeting, advertised as “Love, Lust and God,” focused on the topic of sexuality. The meeting drew more than 80 students, our largest meeting of the year, and among those in attendance were the president, treasurer and several other members of Allies. We still have a long way to go, as negative responses have shown, but we pray that the spiritual questions raised in the minds of so many students, gay and straight, would continue to be asked. As the I-V chapter keeps on praying and building relationships with friends outside the chapter, including those who are in the gay community, there is an energy and excitement in anticipating what God will do next.

—Steve Benedict has served as staff with InterVarsity for five years and works with students at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. He is a Boston sports fan, rejoicing when the Patriots won the Super Bowl and agonizing when the Red Sox lost to the Yankees.