ACU Pride

During the last couple of days, I’ve been extremely proud to be an alumnist of ACU.

The reason is this.

There is a group call Soulforce which represents the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities who is traveling by bus to about twenty universities in the US who have policies against homosexuality. The group is modeling their journey after the Civil Rights Freedom Rides of the 50s and 60s. They chose ACU as one of the schools to visit.

ACU was the seventh school visited. Of the first six, two of them had members of the Soulforce Equality Ride arrested for ‘trespassing’ on campus, two barred them from campus, and two allowed them on campus only to severely restrict their activity.

Then, Soulforce’s buses reached ACU, and they found, instead of fear and hatred, hospitality. ACU provided meals and places to stay. ACU invited Soulforce to participate in forums and to give presentations for the whole day. ACU invited them to one of the most packed (and best) chapels I’ve seen at ACU (because I was leaving town, this was the only event I got to see). Unlike the previous schools Soulforce had visited, ACU never tried to shelter the students from the group. They never saw any reason to do so.

I’m sure that not everything went perfectly during the visit. I’m sure a lot of the conversations were difficult for both groups. I’m sure that there was a lot of ignorance to work through on both sides. But I was proud that ACU was not hateful to Soulforce and that ACU was willing to enter into those much-needed discussions. I’m glad that they met the group with love rather than with fear. From everything I’ve read and heard, this visit was a blessing for both ACU and Soulforce.