A Drive for Understanding

A group of "Freedom Riders" gets non-violence training. (Linda Davidson/twp - The Washington Post)

"It's a touchy topic, and we don't want to be viewed as homophobic. We know every church is struggling with it, so if our students are going to be prepared to be leaders in this society, they need to experience the real world," Andringa said.

At Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., the first stop and the one closest to the Washington area, officials made it clear that the Equality Ride was not welcome.

"The parents of our students have entrusted their sons and daughters to our care," Chancellor Jerry Falwell said in a statement. "Liberty has an obligation to these parents not to expose their children to a 'media circus' that might present immorality in a positive light."

Fifteen of the activists and 10 of their supporters were arrested yesterday morning when they tried to walk onto the Liberty campus and deliver a speech.

Soulforce, a Lynchburg-based group, helped raise $250,000 for the ride. The group advocates for religious acceptance of gays and is led by the Rev. Mel White, who lived closeted for decades as an evangelical seminary professor and ghostwriter for Falwell, Pat Robertson and Billy Graham before coming out.

Even at schools that have organized events for the riders, there have been questions about officials' openness. Several students at Biola University, a nondenominational school in Los Angeles that is hosting the activists, said the school's Internet screener this week did not allow them to open the Equality Ride Web site or Soulforce's site. Biola spokeswoman Irene Neller denied that officials were intentionally preventing access to the sites.

The visitors and their hosts said they are hoping for the same thing: to supplant stereotypes.

"Scripture would say Christians will be known by the way they love. Christians have dropped the ball. They are known by hate," said Andrew Mollenbeck, 21, an editor at the student-run Chimes newspaper at Biola. "I'd like to see an interaction of love."

Dawn Davridge, one of the riders, isn't sure what to expect. The 23-year-old said she was expelled from Union University in Jackson, Tenn., in 2004 after school officials found out she was in love with her roommate. Raised as a conservative Christian, she had come to the Baptist school in hopes of quashing her lesbianism but later found books in the county library and on the Internet that led her to conclude that homosexuality is not a sin. "I can't believe I sat there and blindly listened to these people," Davridge said. "I want to teach students to think for themselves and to let them come to beliefs on their own."

Several of the riders said they also intend to read desperate letters they have received from gay students at Christian colleges.

To White, the sight of Andringa and other council officials handing out candy bags to the gay activists Tuesday was amazing. The officials gave a two-hour presentation about the schools on the route. "This is a historic moment," he said as the meeting began at Luther Place Memorial Church on Thomas Circle. "They know it's time."

Yet neither side expected minds to be changed.

"You aren't going to stop for a day as young people who haven't studied in seminary and take it on, on a theological basis," Andringa said. "I'd advise them to stick to telling their [personal] stories and don't get in over your head.

"We agree with them that our campuses, to be consistent with our Christian worldview, should not be a place where any student feels unsafe or condemned or rejected," he said. "But we disagree about what the Bible says about sexuality."

At Abilene Christian University, which is affiliated with the Churches of Christ and will host the Equality Riders in Texas on March 27, school spokeswoman Michelle Morris said she didn't think the visit would change the atmosphere on campus. "I'm not sure if on our campus, or in Texas, or in the South . . . [gay] students would be comfortable being open, to be honest," she said.

White said of the colleges: "We're not asking them to change their policies. We just want to expose to the country the spiritual violence that is being done" to gay, conservative Christian youths. "We want academic freedom and personal safety."

Standing before the 35 Equality Riders, Andringa tried to find common ground with this question: "Would you mind if we opened with a word of prayer?"