Year: 2009

Golden Rule Pledge: How about something really different?

On April 17, 2008 thousands of high school and college students will attempt to remain silent during parts of the school day to bring awareness to bullying and harassment of gay, lesbian and bisexually identified students. In its 12th year, this student-run event, called the Day of Silence, is supported by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Some social conservative groups have advised parents either to keep their children home or have them walk out if the Day of Silence is being observed. The groups advocating the boycott are concerned that the Day of Silence promotes homosexual behavior. However, to me, the strategy seems off the mark.
I know that many evangelicals feel conflict about an event like the Day of Silence. Despite moral misgivings about homosexuality, they loathe judgmental disrespect, harassment or violence toward any one, including their gay friends and neighbors. So even though there is dissonance, I think there is something wrong with not showing up.
Are we missing a teachable moment?
What if evangelical kids and college students led the way to make schools safe for all students? Where could we start? How about on the Day of Silence?
Without altering convictions about sexuality, I propose that evangelicals should have something more to contribute than a protest toward the elimination of hostility and aggression against gay people and other people who are viewed as different. Indeed, we should be leading the way to make schools safe and build bridges to those who often equate “Christian” with condemnation.
To pursue those bridges, Michael Frey, Western PA Director for College Ministries with Campus Crusade and I are promoting an alternative. We encourage Christian kids to demonstrate the grace of Christ by pledging to follow the Golden Rule in their interactions with all students. Last year, students in over 30 high schools and colleges participated by agreeing with GLBT peers to respect each other as Image bearers of God. Students distributed pledges to honor the teaching of Christ to love as He loved and to treat others as we want to be treated.
In the process, some bridges were built. For instance, a Christian group at Slippery Rock University entered a dialogue with a gay support group on campus and helped lead a call for respectful treatment of all students on campus. Randy Veccia, student leader, said the efforts of both groups served “to raise awareness that everyone deserves to be loved.” Christian students in high schools in Greensboro, NC reached out with Good News in unprecedented ways. On the campus of Appalachian State University, Christian students took part in anti-harassment activities alongside students from the GLB support groups on campus.
Rev. Bob Stith, Gender Issues Strategist for the Southern Baptist convention had this to say about the Golden Rule Pledge:

Several years ago I stood outside a church which was being picketed by two very vocal and rabid “Christian” groups. Also standing on the sidewalk were some young lesbians doing their own picketing. The first group became more and more vocal in their opposition and insults. They began telling the young women how despicable they were and how God despised them.
At that point I walked over and told the girls, “I am a Christian and I do believe the Bible says homosexual behavior is sin. But I want you to know what these people are saying is wrong. I want to apologize to you and tell God does love you very much. Don’t ever let anyone convince you He doesn’t.”
I have long thought Christians were missing a great opportunity by not being more vocal in helping to make our schools safe places for all kids. It doesn’t require that we compromise our beliefs. Indeed it can give us a great opportunity that we might not otherwise have.
What a wonderful opportunity to express our convictions in a way that is positive, loving and redemptive. What a wonderful opportunity to train our children to care about all people, to model the example of Jesus and the woman at the well.
Who knows but what this could even be the beginning of a movement that will turn the tide of school shootings and violence in the hallways?

I hope you are correct, Bob.
In most schools this year, the Day of Silence is slated for April 17. Students and leaders can learn more about the Golden Rule Pledge by going to the Golden Rule Pledge website: www.goldenrulepledge.com or contacting me at [email protected].

Newsweek/Washington Post blog reports on Golden Rule Pledge

Jacqueline Salmon reports on the proposed conservative school walkout on the Day of Silence and the Goldren Rule Pledge.
About the Goldren Rule Pledge, Ms. Salmon notes:

A Pennsylvania educator and an evangelist have yet another approach.
Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a professor of psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, and Michael Frey, Western Pennsylvanvia director for College Ministries with Campus Crusade, want Christians to adhere to the golden rule.
Saying Christians should be “leading the way” to create schools safe, even if they disagree with homosexuality, they’ve created the Golden Rule Pledge to encourage respectful treatment of all students.
If approached by gay-right supporters asking what what they will do to end the silence on what they see as discrimination against gays, Throckmorton urges Christian students to carry cards pledging adherence to the Golden Rule: “I pledge to treat others the way I want to be treated. ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you.'”

The article is featured on the On Faith blog which is described as a “conversation on religion and politics with Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn” and appears to be a collaboration of Newsweek and the Washington Post.

Christian Post reports on Golden Rule Pledge

Actually, the article reports on various responses from evangelicals to the Day of Silence with mention of the DOS, Day of Truth, Golden Rule Pledge and the proposed DOS walkout.

Students Encouraged to Skip School on ‘Day of Silence’
By Lawrence Jones
A national coalition of pro-family groups are urging parents to keep their students home this coming Friday in protest of the annual “Day of Silence,” when students vow silence to bring attention to the discrimination of gay students.
Over 20 Christian-based conservative groups have called for the massive walkout from middle and high schools participating the April 17 event, arguing that the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)’s sponsored event politicizes the classroom to support the belief that homosexuality is moral. They include state chapters of American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Illinois Family Institute, Liberty Council and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays.
“This day is not about ‘tolerance’ as it claims, but about forcing propaganda and acceptance of high-risk behavior into the schools with no opposing views allowed,” said Linda Harvey of Mission America, which also supports the walkout.
Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute said that while “all of civilized society must oppose bullying,” she opposes the “illegitimate means of using public education to affirm volitional homosexual behavior.”
Campaign for California Families said the demonstration will serve as financial “leverage” to get the message across, saying public schools in California lose $100 a day for each child absent.
The groups have encouraged parents and teens who are not willing to risk teacher retribution or missing school to send a letter to schools officials expressing their objections to Day of Silence.
The coalition has also called attention to a resolution sitting before Congress that would urge the federal government and public schools to officially recognize and celebrate Day of Silence. The legislation also requests that “the President issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe the National Day of Silence with appropriate ceremonies, programs, and activities.”
House Concurrent Resolution 92 was introduced on April 1 and has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
GLSEN claims that over 8,000 students participated in last year’s Day of Silence. The organization says the observance is needed, pointing to its 2007 survey showing 86 percent of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation while 44 percent report being physically harassed.
The band of pro-family groups, meanwhile, says that by opposing the event they are in no way endorsing the bullying and harassment of those in the LGBT community.
One Christian professor, however, has come against the walkout, saying it’s not very productive.
“How can we get anything accomplished if we leave the field?” Dr. Warren Throckmorton, professor of Psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, wrote last week on his blog on Crosswalk.com.
The expert in mental health and sexuality issues contends that students taking part in Day of Silence have a point, saying he has spoken with Christian students who have admitted to bullying or harassing gay students.
Throckmorton has created an alternative response to Day of Silence, asking Christians to take The Golden Rule Pledge and show up at school to live out the teaching of Christ to treat others as they want to be treated.
When Day of Silence students hand out cards asking, “What will you do to help end the silence?” Christian students should respond: “This is what I am going to do. I pledge to treat others the way I want to be treated. ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you.'”
Meanwhile, several other Christian-based conservative groups are promoting the Day of Truth on April 20, the following Monday, as a direct response to Day of Silence. According to Day of Truth’s Web site, it was established to “counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective.”
Alliance Defense Fund and Exodus International, the promoters of Day of Truth, are encouraging students to speak the “truth in love” and engage in conversation about homosexuality.
Participants are also asked to hand out cards reading: “I’m speaking the Truth to break the silence. True tolerance means that people with differing – even opposing – viewpoints can freely exchange ideas and respectfully listen to each other. It’s time for an honest conversation about homosexuality. There’s freedom to change if you want to. Let’s talk.”

For the record, I do not see the GRP as counterprogramming, but as an appropriate response to a request for respect and fair treatment. I simply cannot find any teaching in my religious tradition for walking away from people who are asking for respect.

And the award for the most extreme, outrageous headline goes to…

Not anyone I have written about before…
The rhetoric is getting so outrageous that I didn’t think any more societal ills could be blamed on gays but I was wrong. But Robert Peters of Morality in Media (Can the irony get any thicker?), put out a news release just now with this headline:
“Connecting the Dots: The Link Between Gay Marriage and Mass Murders”
His news hook is the horrific shootings in Binghamton, NY where 14 people were killed, including the perpetrator of the crime. In the release, he says mass murderers and gay marriage stem from the same source – a post-Christian society. He says near the end of the release that he isn’t blaming the murders on gays:

It most certainly is not my intention to blame the epidemic of mass murders on the gay rights movement! It is my intention to point out that the success of the sexual revolution is inversely proportional to the decline in morality; and it is the decline of morality (and the faith that so often under girds it) that is the underlying cause of our modern day epidemic of mass murders.

So why bring gays into it?
Most mass killings, as in this case, relate to mental illness, notably that involving thought disorders. His thesis is tired and in this release without a shred of substantiation. And then to use that awful situation in New York to bash gays takes it to a new level of immorality in media.
UPDATE: David Corn at Mother Jones weighs in…