Journalists and friends Wendy Zoba and Dave Cullen spoke to eager but pensive students Tuesday night about the tense relations that exist between the American homosexual community and the Evangelical Christian community.
The discussion was co-sponsored by the Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF) and Tufts Transgendered, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Collective (TTLGBC) in an effort to facilitate reconciliation between the groups after the conflict between the two last fall.
Zoba and Cullen discussed the need for respect and communication between the communities. Tolerance is not enough, they said. Zoba, a journalist for Christianity Today, attacked the notion of "how the Evangelical community has failed the gay community." Cullen, a gay journalist, agreed and spoke about his own wariness of the Evangelical Christian community, which he said lessened after he became friends with many Evangelicals while doing research for an article a few years ago.
"We are not called to tolerance, we are called to love," Zoba said.
Both Cullen and Zoba spoke about their experiences and misconceptions in dealing with the other's respective community. They also provided some solutions to the problems of communication that they have used in the growth of their own friendship. "We don't have to compromise any beliefs on either side," Cullen said.
Event organizer and TTLGBC Co-Coordinator Mike Lambert said the two journalists' friendship was one of the main reasons they were chosen. Their bond, he said, would hopefully bring about similar feelings among Tufts students.
"We can't let things stagnate. The way they were was unacceptable," Lambert said.
Both TCF and TTLGBC leaders said they felt that the event was successful. They expressed the essential need to have the groups interact on at least the most basic levels. "Just because it is controversial, it should happen," Lambert said.
TCF Senior Leader Jonathan Crowe said that both groups must now analyze and discuss the effectiveness of this event and what implications it will have on future programs and relationships.
"We have clear goals to create understanding and respect," Crowe said.
The idea for the event - the first the two groups have co-sponsored together - came last fall during the annual activities fair, according to Lambert, who said he received a suspicious note under the table saying "TCF wants to talk."
During the question-and-answer session, students asked more about the "terms" of Zoba and Cullen's relationship and whether they avoid certain topics of conversation. Both Zoba and Cullen recalled times of disagreement and tension because of their differing beliefs, but said they do not let these differences become the end-all and be-all of their friendship.
"Getting to know Dave, however, I have come to appreciate the emotional struggles and the feelings of isolation many in the LGBT community feel. I have also come to appreciate how much our two communities actually have in common," Zoba said.
Zoba and Cullen both urged greater interaction between the Evangelical and LGBT communities to combat tension by fostering friendship, respect, and understanding. "Most gay people I know don't know any [Evangelicals]," Cullen said, highlighting the lack of interaction between the groups.
One student expressed how the LGBT community is oppressed and discriminated against in a way that the Evangelical community can never understand, and that this was a unifying force among them in the same way that Evangelical Christianity's moral and religious beliefs unite its followers.
