A Tempest in a Tulip

My alma mater is in the news again.

Being outside the West Michigan vortex, this is the first I’ve heard of any of this. The controversy is convoluted, but it goes something like this: Last year, Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter for Milk, the biopic about gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk, was in Holland working on a new project (go here for a critical review of Milk’s historical accuracy). Black’s attempt to show a screening of Milk at Hope College, my alma mater and one of three colleges affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, was rebuffed.

Not surprisingly, this prompted some to rally around Black and his film in an effort to combat the town’s perceived homophobia and to encourage conversation about homosexuality in this conservative part of the country. A few months later Black came back to Holland to show Milk to a sold-out audience in town. Black even blogged about his experience in Holland, Michigan and at Hope College for the Daily Beast. The not-so-subtle title: “Milk Screenwriter Battles a Gay-Bashing College.”

Two days ago the issues surrounding Milk and homosexuality resurfaced again with a lead story in the Grand Rapids Press.

Influential alumni are lining up against Hope College policies they claim shun homosexuality on campus and create an unwelcome environment for faculty, students and guests.

The alumni group — formed in the wake of the college rejecting Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s offer to show his film and hold a discussion about sexuality — has sent trustees a petition calling for change and a new panel to advise the president.

Among the leaders pushing for the moves are two children of past Hope College presidents, a retired Reformed Church in America minister, a former ambassador and distinguished journalists and athletes.

As is often the case, those agitating for this kind of institutional change are doing so in the name of open discussion. One recent graduate, Karis Granberg-Michaelson, argues, “”We are simply not having a dialogue. We’re having a monologue, and that doesn’t help anyone.” According to Black, writing in December, “They [Hope College and Holland] had simply never discussed gay rights openly before, and here I was, an interloper, threatening to thrust this hot-button issue into their community.”

I beg to differ. I was a student at Hope College from 1995-1999. There was no issue talked about more than homosexuality. The Dean of the Chapel, Ben Patterson ironically enough, was openly disdained by some faculty (and fewer students) for his public opposition to homosexuality. We had television crews and reporters on campus frequently. There were clotheslines draped across the pine grove protesting our “intolerance.” Mel White, a pro-gay advocate now with Soulforce, spoke on campus to a packed-out chapel. I was there. Students wrote letters to the editors back and forth in the student newspaper. The campus community talked about homosexuality, it seemed like, for two years straight.

Hope College has discussed this before. Holland, Michigan, even though it is conservative, is not just hearing about homosexuality for the first time. There are open and affirming churches in Holland. There are still GLBT supporters among the faculty. This issue tore through the campus over ten years ago, and, I imagine, has never completely gone away. The RCA, the parent denomination for Hope, just concluded three years of intentional dialogue on the subject. A new subject this is not.

And yet, Hope College, and the RCA, still believe that homosexual behavior is not consistent with biblical teaching.

Some Hope alumni disagree (whether they are “influential” as the Press calls them remains to be seen). They have a right to make that disagreement known. But no one can say that there hasn’t been discussion or that West Michigan has never consider this issue. Besides, a private Christian college has a right to decide what it does and does not want to promote. Some conversations are worth having. Some are not. And some conversations are actually advocacy in disguise.

One final thought. As providence would have it, Dr. James Bultman, Hope’s president, spoke at our Classis meeting Tuesday night, the same day this latest story hit the papers. I don’t want to attempt to quote President Bultman for fear of misquoting him. But from what I heard at this public venue I want to convey how impressed I was with his remarks, the last few minutes of which directly addressed this controversy. Bultman is passionately committed to preserve Hope from secularization, wanting to the college to excel in academics and maintain its Christian identity. He is not reactionary in any way, nor as conservative as I would be in some areas, but he is unapologetic in insisting that faculty members know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And judging from his courageous comments on Tuesday, he will not budge on the issue of homosexuality.

The ministers and elders of our Classis gave him a long and loud round of applause when he was finished.

If you love the word of God and the health of the Reformed Church in America (and there are a few of you out there who read my blog), President Bultman and Hope College deserve your prayers.