covenant college, looking back

**stephanie, if you are still reading my blog, could you send an email to amanda@equalityride.com**

Backtracking to Lookout Mountain, Georgia:

Our day at Covenant College started with a police escort up the mountain to the school. Covenant College is located on top of a mountain… the same mountain where civil war battles took place and where a subsequent Union defeat occurred. I visited the mountain last summer actually on a road trip with friends, but this visit was anything but leisurely-oriented.

We arrived, filed out of the bus, and were immediately told that if we stepped one foot onto the grass that we would be arrested.



We looked up the hill and saw several tiny faces looking over hedges down at us. They were students peering down watching us. We waited for a while and one by one they slowly made their way down. We waved at them, letting them know that it was okay. And thus it began.



Students eventually poured down the mountain. We probably spoke to over a 100 that day. They all came eager with questions, concerns. They asked amazing questions about gender and sexuality and their intersections. We sat on the pavement, dialoguing and eating lunch together that both the school and the local MCC provided.





Many expressed their opinion that they wanted us to be allowed on campus. Others said they thought the administration made a wise choice. We learned that prior to our visit, the student senate passed a resolution saying that they disagreed with the administration’s choice to not allow us on and felt that Covenant should offer us a hospitable welcome. I met an awesome girl named Sarah there, and we talked for a while about my experiences and our families.



About midday, several riders read aloud the new covenant that we brought to Covenant. This covenant was designed by the Equality Riders asking Covenant College to end suffering of LGBTQ students and to recognize the harmfulness of the college’s policy. Then, Jarrett Lucas, our co director, announced that he was going to simply walk across the grass and deliver the covenant to a member of administration that he had been communicating with.



Then they walked across and were immediately rushed toward by police. They offered out their wrists in front of their bodies and were arrested for simply delivering a piece of paper. I believe the students saw the hypocrisy of their school. They saw that Christ would never treat nonviolent, loving people in this manner. I saw several students weep at the site of the arrests. We then began singing as they sat in the paddy wagon waiting to be hauled off. Many students started singing with us, as most of the songs we sing are Christian hymns, or are songs from the Civil Rights Movement that are learned easily.





I talked with several students about their feelings on the arrest. Many were shocked and didn’t know how to respond. This is good. Having questions and not knowing what to think immediately is a great response to be had.

Several Covenant students led a prayer for us—a gracious prayer full of love, hospitality, and an earnest seeking for truth.



We eventually left and went downtown to a coffee shop and a park. We learned that our riders would be held in jail over night. I met up with Sarah again, and we talked with Curtis in the park for over an hour. She then joined me for dinner at a local restaurant. We eventually delved much deeper into my spiritual approach in general. She asked questions that I was almost afraid to answer because many conservative Christians are quick to criticize Queers for the answers that some of us have.

Q: “So, to you… what is the purpose of marriage?”

A: “Well, quite honestly, I am not sure that there is one…But I can see how a couple would want to announce their commitment to one another before God. I’m fine with that.”

Q: “So you don’t think that there is a hell?”

A: “No, I don’t. I don’t think my God would ever do that to anyone.”

Q: “Do you think that sex before marriage is okay?”

A: “Yes, as long as it’s done wisely. Knowledge about what you’re doing and being responsible is always the most important thing.”

There are certainly many people on the bus who do not believe any of these things. But these beliefs are mine, and I was going to tell her the truth. She had a really hard time understanding same-sex attraction… which I thought was a foundation, an understanding that didn’t need to be touched. But, it really amazes me the things that students don’t know. I have talked to several people who thought AIDS magically appeared in gay men. I talked with students who didn’t know that same-sex love was just that—love.

I am really frustrated with people saying, “They are a private institution. They have a right to have these policies.”

Yes, they have a right. But there is a higher truth to be sought—a truth that ends oppression and ignorance. And these institutions are not seeking this truth by any means.

That is really all I have to say about our Covenant stop. I walked away with a headache from all of the talking I had been doing, but it was good. I know I made at least one friend that day and planted a seed where there was not one before.