Dordt College

Yesterday we awoke in Sioux Center, Iowa to a bus painted with vulgar words and painted signs… and a painted gourd in the shape of a phallus. This unwelcoming “welcome” was not indicative of the overall presence we felt at Dordt College, however. We were welcomed there and had great conversations with students throughout the entire day. The college actually cleaned our bus for us and told us how deeply sorry they were that someone in the Sioux Center community had welcomed us this way.

What we learned at Dordt is that most students just needed to put a face to the issue of homosexuality. Many had never met openly Queer people who were also Christian and completely okay with their own sexuality. I found that a lot of students just wanted to talk to me about my life, the Equality Ride, and just random stuff not necessarily related to scripture. I only opened my Bible once while on campus.

They were hungry. Hungry to understand human connection, human worth, and our value as all of God’s children.

My host for the day, Emily, was AMAZING. She asked wonderful, thoughtful questions, so thank you Emily.

Today we spent the day in the community meeting with students and community members. A professor from Dordt came to meet the riders at the mall with a student from her class and asked us how she could better prepare her students for work in criminal justice with LGBTQ issues in mind. We talked to her about the high numbers of LGBTQ youth who find themselves homeless and thusly often get into crime to survive. We gave her a list of terms/identifications so that her class could better understand how to talk about LGBTQ people.

We then met with students at a coffee shop in town called Butler’s… that was totally cool and allowed us to leave our buttons and pamphlets at the counter. We played games with students and just talked to them about their general feelings about our visit. They seemed really willing to continue the conversations about homosexuality and faith at their college. I hope this comes to fruition.

I could definitely see a Gay-Straight Alliance being established at Dordt if enough willing and courageous people came forward. The administration said that they wanted to know how to better serve their same-sex attracted students. A GSA would be a perfect way to fulfill this.

Tomorrow we head out for Springfield, MO to visit Central Bible College. We get our new bus driver and our new bus! (Our bus broke down, so we’ve been in a rented one)

More updates will come from Springfield, where do not expect such a successful and open visit :\