John Walcott: When the editor shared with me that the February 2016 issue would focus on LGBTQ-related issues in Christian schools, my first response was that I would like the contributors to this column to have the opportunity to participate in the discussion. I have both appreciated and learned from the ideas, suggestions and perspectives that the contributors have offered over the course of the past few years, and therefore I wanted to help share their wisdom with the broader community of Christian educators.
At the same time, I realized that this sort of conversation is difficult, and this sort of platform may not be the best for this type of dialogue. When talking about contested issues, we usually want to choose our words carefully and consider our audience. That is easier to do when talking with friends or colleagues with whom we interact on a regular basis. For that reason, I was not sure if this column would be the appropriate space for such a conversation. In the end, however, I felt that we should try to add to this conversation, and so I began the conversation with the following thoughts:
LGBTQ-related issues and concerns have been the subject of a great deal of conversation and argument in society and in the church in recent years. As Christian educators, we often have the opportunity, or may feel pressured, to respond to questions about these issues and to offer guidance and perspective to our students. This is an important and needed conversation.
With this context in mind, please respond to one or more of the following questions:
- What are some foundational perspectives or attitudes that you try to promote in your students (considering their age) that will help them navigate issues or questions they may encounter?
- How do you, as a Christian educator, seek to live out your call to love, seek justice, and show mercy to LGBTQ students in your school who often feel marginalized?
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Rebecca DeSmith: Hello all! It’s time to begin this conversation.
Grace . . . I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately. I am thankful for God’s amazing grace that saved me as a sinner, the grace that is sufficient, free, and inclusive. I am familiar with the grace that I show to my family, friends, and students when they mess up, and the grace they show to me when I make mistakes. But I wonder where grace fits into our world—into the bombings and shootings and the countless injustices we see on the news and hear about every day.
A few months ago, a line struck me in a TODAY devotional by Thea Luenk: “Grace and forgiveness are about transformation.” It got me thinking: What needs transforming in my life, in my classroom, in our world? And if grace and forgiveness are part of that process, I better start practicing them more intentionally in my life, living them out each day, and letting my elementary students experience them more often in my classroom.
Leading with grace may be the starting place in helping our students navigate the tricky issues we encounter within our families, our communities, and our world. I’m not saying that we dismiss biblical teachings, but rather, through understanding, experiencing, and being able to genuinely show grace to others perhaps we can find space to grapple with the difficult issues that challenge our faith.
In an article in the online magazine at <inallthings.org>, Rev. Mark Verbruggen wrote, “If we read the Bible carefully we will see grace overpower the messiness of sin.” That is a truth I need to remember. It is also a truth we can hold onto as we disciple and nurture our students through the chaos and uncertainty of our broken world, working to show grace and bring shalom and reconciliation.
Blessings to all!
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John:
Thank you, Rebecca, for getting this conversation started. I appreciate that you’ve pointed us to transformation and grace. I think these are always great places to start. Thank you for sharing the quote about grace overpowering “the messiness of sin.”
As I reflect further, I think these comments may be crucial in answering both of the questions that I had posed. As we think about perspectives to offer our students and as we think about how to live out our call to students who often feel marginalized, grace (along with love, mercy, and justice) seems like a fitting starting point. Too often discussions related to LGBTQ issues have started with folks articulating their understanding of biblical truth or with a focus on what is or is not appropriate behavior. We might provide a strong testimony to our community and give our students a better foundation if we start with grace and a desire to nurture and care for those in our community.
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Gayle Monsma:
This is a challenging topic and one that has had me thinking for the last while. I really appreciate John’s comment, “Too often discussions related to LGBTQ issues have started with folks articulating their understanding of biblical truth or with a focus on what is or is not appropriate behavior.” When we begin discussions at this point, people are quickly drawn into aligning themselves with a particular perspective and then having to justify or defend. Then there is way more talking than listening and that is not a helpful situation—we all remember that old saying about God giving us two ears and one mouth so that we could use them in that proportion.
Twenty-eight years ago when I started teaching, the conversations around LBGTQ concepts (when they happened) were mostly theoretical for me. Now when I think of the topic, I have the faces of several former students in my mind who have “come out,” and it is no longer just an academic or theological discussion. I think about those kids and what their experience may have been at my school, and I am not always confident that it was a safe and caring environment for them. That makes my heart ache. Regardless of my stance on the biblical truth, all students need to be treated with respect, love, and be nurtured in their journey, and anything less than that is untenable.
Now, I’ve also been around long enough to know that the working-out of a principled statement like this is where the complexities arise. “What about . . . ?” “What happens if . . . ?” “What will we do when . . . ?” I will readily admit that I don’t have the answers to most of those questions, but I will continue to learn, to listen, and to do all I can to have my school be a safe place for all students.
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Justin Cook:
I really appreciate the tone and content of what’s been said. I don’t have anything that’s new to add. We are living in the tension of this issue here in Ontario. Unfortunately, because the issue is so divisive, we struggle to engage in it well, and I lament that deeply. But we are trying. There was a saying that appeared on most of the bulletin covers of the church I attended while living in British Columbia: “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. And in all things, charity.” I cling to this, but I also recognize, as Gayle mentioned, that it does little to navigate the concrete situations “when complexities arise.” Like Gayle also said, anything less than students being offered respect, love, and nurture in their unique journeys is untenable. In my own participation, I yearn for clarity, humility, and for a communal commitment to open engagement, dialogue, and an intrinsic gratitude for others—the same desire for grace that Rebecca yearns for in her life, and offered as such an important starting point for this conversation.
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John:
A wise teacher educator once told me that the most important thing for young teachers to learn is the need to “keep their eyes on their students.” In different words, our panelists have pointed us in that direction as well. The questions that I posed are difficult to answer, and as Justin stated, “we struggle to engage” this issue well. I do believe, however, that if we start by considering the needs of our students, we at least have a chance of engaging this issue positively. I believe the responses above point us in the right direction in meeting the needs of students who may be struggling with their understanding of themselves and/or of how they should think about LGBTQ-related issues.
The panel consists of:
Justin Cook, who serves as the Director of Learning at the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools in Ancaster, Ontario
Rebecca De Smith, who is the Discovery Room coordinator and the curriculum coordinator at Sioux Center Christian School in Sioux Center, Iowa.
Gayle Monsma, who serves as principal at Covenant Christian School in Leduc, Alberta
John Walcott, who is assistant professor in the education department at Calvin College.
