This week, we salute our friends in the Abilene Christian University community, who recently began an online e-zine to create “a space for dialogue between Christians, the LGBTQ community, and all of us who find ourselves standing awkwardly in between” at VoicelessZine under the editorial direction of a current ACU graduate student who uses the pseudonym Stewart Headlam.
The following statement from the F.A.Q. section of their site speaks powerfully to the larger movement for dialogue and change within Christian colleges and universities:
“Many of us love and respect this university and the people who make it beautiful, and would sooner spend our lives toiling unsuccessfully for reform and reconciliation from within than forsake the place that made us who we are today.”
We furthermore applaud their editorial decision in saying “we do not provide unanimous, conclusive answers to the most important questions about faith and sexuality, but we make every attempt to explore these questions openly and honestly.”
We proudly support all of our LGBTQ sisters and brothers in the ACU community, and look forward to the ways in which this new, honest dialogue can promote safety and understanding.
If you have such questions yourself within the BJU student, faculty, staff and alumni community (or from another similar fundamentalist institution), please write to us at lgbt.bju@gmail.com. Your privacy is important to us. Confidentiality is assured. We are here to help you know that you are not alone, to facilitate your safe journey to your own conclusions to questions of faith and sexuality, and to provide friendship and support along the way.