Brian's turn

It's officially Brian's turn to update the blog (not that we really take turns), but he's extra wiped after a long week of work, so you'll have to put up with my (Kate's) blogging for now. It's been a rough two weeks for me, which explains my complete disappearance for those of you who have emailed/called/texted me recently. Last Wednesday, on a beautiful sunny morning, Proclaim (the Christian student group I work with) sponsored a hip-hop concert. It was a bunch of folks who tour around the country singing and dancing because God saved them from drug and alcohol abuse. They were loud and a little in-your-face for our reserved group of Minnesotan students, but things really took a turn for the worse when one of the group members shared his story of how God brought him out of homosexuality. Then he/someone else in the group (the facts are a little fuzzy still) prayed for God to "purge" the campus of homosexuality. Well, that certainly set people off! Within minutes, groups of students had assembled to protest/yell at them to get off campus. The Proclaim leaders were absolutely caught in the middle of this. They certainly didn't intend to bring speakers to talk about homosexuality (Proclaim itself has no stance on the issue since there are so many diverse viewpoints among group members), but they were blamed for sponsoring "hate speech" on campus. As you might imagine, this issue took up a considerable amount of my time in the following days. The Proclaim leaders issued a heartfelt apology to the GLBT group on campus (the people who were most upset) for any hurt they caused by sponsoring the group. Some members of the group accepted their apology; some still seem out for blood. All in all, I was very proud of how the Proclaim leaders responded, though. Things on campus have certainly calmed down since then and the whole incident has led to many good conversations. I actually spent about 20 minutes talking about it with one of my classes the day after. I hope it will end up being a good growth experience for people on both sides. The other good thing was that it happened during Shane Claiborne's visit to campus. He addressed it in his chapel homily and in his keynote address, but in a way that resonated with people rather than just provoked them. It's a little too hard to put into words, so you'll just have to take my word for it :)

Okay, I think that's all for now. We also have a really cool story to share with you, but I'm going to leave it to Brian to tell. He has this weekend off, so maybe he'll get around to it soon.