"Acceptance of identity." Eight months of debate over one of the most controversial issues with which our nation is wrestling seems to have boiled down into these three words. I have great respect for the principles of diversity and acceptance for which TSAD has long argued and the determination with which they have fought, but I have been saddened by how narrowly these principles have been applied throughout this controversy.
We all agree that this University should seek to promote a diverse student community where all individuals, identities, and beliefs are accepted and ideally respected. TSAD has taken this principle and applied it very forcefully to individuals and identities, but acceptance of beliefs has been curiously absent from their arguments and demands. They have used very principled arguments, but when met with principled arguments defending rights to religion and belief, they have been quick to turn to legalistic arguments of what University policy prohibits and protects. This argument follows along the lines of: "Universal acceptance of all identities! Change the policy... Freedom of religion, yes, but you have to conform your views to comply with the (infallible) policy." Recognition is the price paid by those who refuse to surrender their differing views. But recognize this: religion is an identity.
Religion has come to mean little to many people. Religion has been relegated to a set of beliefs, a set of ceremonies, a set of rules. At this University, the religion department speaks of it as if it were various collections of archaic views barely surviving from the past - various cultures struggling to attach meaning to their lives. From this perspective, people believe only because they were taught to believe, they want to believe, or they need to believe, not because there is any knowable "truth." Belief in "freedom of religion" has become a charitable act of an "enlightened" world to protect an endangered species.
But religion lives on. Faith lives on. Because true faith is an identity, and one that stems not from within individuals, but from a true and real God who desires to reveal Himself to a world that has turned its back on Him. I know myself - I see the many ways I have followed this path of rejection, but I know a God who sees a vision of me free from this sinfulness and longs to conform me to that reality. This is not theology for me; this is a deep reality that has transformed my life and being. This is my identity: one who is in need of forgiveness and transformation from God, worthy of neither, but forgiven and in the process of renewal. I submit every facet of who I am to the Creator in whose image I am made, and to whose will I seek to conform my life. Nothing within me - no part of my identity - holds the answer for the fulfilling life and security of person I seek, only the identity I have been given by a God who knows me better than I know myself.
This is the identity I have embraced, and the identity around which TCF was formed and continues to gather. As an evangelical Christian group, we believe this identity can be understood through a holistic understanding of the Bible and application of its teaching to our lives. We believe scripture presents a consistent view of God, though naturally a complex one, and that our intellectual knowledge of Him is confirmed by our spiritual experience through a relationship with Him.
These beliefs about self and identity differ fundamentally from the views TSAD carried to Bendetson demanding the Tufts Administration affirm (which they did, but not to the exclusion of other beliefs). I believe accepting my identity means accepting the identity God desires to give me, not embracing an inherent quality of myself. I acknowledge those qualities and in doing so I accept them as realities, but I do not embrace them as good or right unless they are consistent with the identity God desires to form in me. I believe this is similar to the process most people use to analyze themselves: the difference is only in the notions of "good" and "right" used in that process of introspection and the source of those notions. And it is here that the source of the conflict lies...
What is "good"? What is "right"? Who determines that? How do we know? Can we determine standards that are applicable to everyone or must this be decided by each individual for him or herself?
Notice that each of these questions will be answered with belief. People can argue and disagree on whether homosexuality fits into the category of a positive identity or one which should be struggled against, but true diversity requires that both opinions be accepted. Clearly people have strong feelings on this subject and I respect their views, but they must understand that they are views and not unquestionable facts of reality. Professor Jonathan Strong and others have argued that one's inherent qualities or identity is not a belief or a value, but a truth about oneself, which should be embraced and lived out. Again, I respect this view but disagree with it. Our disagreement highlights the unfortunate dilemma of a postmodern world and a pluralistic society: even the belief that something is "not a matter of belief, but universally true" is itself a belief. It may be a true belief, but in the absence of unanimous agreement, it is not one that should be enforced by a democratic society or a university claiming to uphold tolerance and diversity.
I want to make one more thing clear: despite accusations, TCF does not believe that anyone is "inferior". We believe all people are created equal and loved equally by God. However, this does not mean that all of their actions and beliefs are in accordance with His will or equally valued in His sight. We thus return again to the distinction between orientation or identity, and belief and practice. I have been wrestling with the reality that this distinction is offensive to many people, confusing to others, and perhaps foreign to most. Nevertheless it is what I believe and what TCF believes. I do not ask that every person or every student organization agree with these beliefs or even respect them. I ask only that there be a place at Tufts for me and for those who share my beliefs and my identity. And at least an attempt at understanding my beliefs, and accepting and respecting who I am.
Jonathan Crowe is a senior majoring in international relations. He is a senior leader of TCF.
