They Agree With Kyle: Christian Groups Seek Greater Unity

For one week before Easter, M. Kyle Sims '02 became the most famous student who nobody knew.

Sims lent his name to the ubiquitous "Do you agree with Kyle?" campaign, which popped up on posters and t-shirts during Jesus Week, a celebration of Christianity organized by Harvard's Christian student groups.

At the beginning of the week, Kyle was a mystery. By the end, students might not all have shared his beliefs, but at least they knew who he was.

Campus Christian leaders say that's exactly the result they were hoping for. At a College notorious for its longstanding indifference to religion, many Christian students say they want their peers to recognize their growing numbers.

"We feel like there are a lot of people who don't actually realize that there is a sizable Christian presence on campus," said Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship (HRCF) president Alicia E. Ingalls '01.

Jesus Week, which included Bible study sessions, interfaith dialogues and a well-attended Good Friday speech by Sims, was the most prominent--and unified--display by Christian student groups in years.

But despite the outward show of unity this spring, Christian students have found it difficult to reach agreement on sensitive subjects like homosexuality and race. This year marked a renewed effort among Christian groups to close ranks.

"Jesus prayed that his disciples should be unified," Ingalls. "[Disunity] does not happily reflect the community."

One God, Many Goals

Christian students had different emphases during Jesus Week.

Ingalls said the official purpose of the campaign was to highlight the presence of Christians at Harvard. Others took a more active approach.

"People know we exist," said Benjamin T. Littauer '03, a member of Christian Impact (CI). "We just wanted to spread the Gospel across campus."

Jill C. Stonehouse '03, another CI member, said that although the goal of Jesus Week was not to convert non-believers, organizers wanted the campus to know that anyone can join a Christian group.

"We wanted to extend a invitation to others to let them know that we do love all people," Stonehouse said. "Anybody is welcome in our group. Anybody."

But while virtually all members of Christian groups say that Jesus Week was successful in spreading awareness about their groups, others say the more important purpose was helping Christians build ties to one another.

Li-Chung Chen '01, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Christian Fellowship (AACF), said that Jesus Week achieved that goal.

"There seems to be more interaction between the Christian groups," Chen said. "I feel that the Jesus Week event has helped bring Christian groups together."

Although group leaders agree that Jesus Week successfully increased interaction between their organizations, they differ on how much of a problem unity was in the past.

Ingalls says that the campaign for unity was not a response to a problem but merely a fulfillment of Christian teachings of togetherness.

But Matthew S. Vogel '01, president of the Catholic Student Association (CSA), says that members of his organization have felt a genuine lack of connection to other Christian groups in the past.

"For a long time, the CSA had stronger times with non-Christian

religious groups than they did with Christian groups," Vogel said.

Vogel attributed the tension to the historical split between Catholics and Protestants.

"Catholics don't know a lot about Protestants generally, and Protestants generally don't know a lot about Catholics," he said.

Vogel calls Jesus Week a step in the right direction towards connecting CSA to the larger Christian community.

Tough Choices

Although Christian group leaders claim newfound unity, some difficult questions still cause splits between their members.

One controversy at a nearby college brought the issue of homosexuality to the forefront for Christian students.

In May, a committee of the student government at Tufts University "de-recognized" an on-campus evangelical group after the group refused one student a leadership position because she believed that homosexuality was not immoral. She brought a complaint alleging anti-gay discrimination; the group countered that they were merely obeying their religious teachings.

The Tufts organization was reinstated following an appeal, but the affair--which brought headlines in The Boston Globe and pieces by national columnists--forced Harvard Christian groups to examine their own policies on homosexuality.

Not everyone has reached the same conclusion.

Ingalls said HRCF would "probably not" allow a student who condoned homosexuality to become a leader, although she added it would not be an easy decision.

"We'd take that position sadly; we wouldn't want for it to come up in that way at all," Ingalls said. "It's such a difficult issue. Essentially what it comes down to is that God's wisdom is greater than man, and he knows much, much better than we do."

Stonehouse noted that the Tufts student was refused not because of her sexual orientation itself but because of her religious tolerance of homosexuality.

"Born-again Christians believe that homosexuality is a sin, but so is lying and stealing and fornicating," Stonehouse said. "What's at stake here is not that anyone was sinning but that they were condoning that type of a lifestyle."

"It's not appropriate for someone who thinks that homosexuality is completely wrong to be in the leadership of the BGLTSA [the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters' Alliance]," Ingalls added.

But not all Jesus Week sponsors take the same position.

Vogel said the CSA would "definitely" welcome gay and lesbian students into leadership positions. In fact, he said that the CSA has a branch specifically geared toward Catholic homosexuals.

Vogel said the disparity between the CSA's position and other groups' is due to the personalities of their leaders rather than the doctrines of their churches.

But Stonehouse said the difference is indeed a Scriptural one.

"I'm not sure that they regard all of God's word as being sovereign, whereas born-again Christians do," she said. "That may not be true for every individual Catholic, but in the church that is the trend."

Littauer said that Chrstians who tolerate homosexual behavior had little Scriptural support.

"In light of several passages...I feel that they will have an extremely difficult if not impossible time reconciling this view with what the Bible actually says," Littauer wrote in an e-mail message.

Whatever the reason for the dispute, leaders say that Christianity itself does not advocate discrimination against gays and lesbians or personal animosity towards them.

"I do not in any way hate homosexuals," Stonehouse said. "And I think to do so is sinful."

"Divorce is also strongly spoken against," Ingalls said. "[But] in a lot of conservative Christian churches, homosexuality is on a completely different level. And that's really sad."

Future Challenges

Although they disagree about outreach to gays and lesbians, leaders of campus Christian groups say they would like to focus more attention on other kinds of diversity, noting that they have traditionally had trouble getting minority students to join.

Although black and Hispanic students tend to be underrepresented in their groups, Christian leaders have not yet decided what actions to take, if any, to eliminate the discrepancy.

There are no specifically black or Hispanic Christian groups at Harvard. By contrast, the AACF is one of the largest religious organizations on campus.

"Black students especially tend to find their Christian community more through their church" rather than through a student group, Ingalls said.

Stonehouse said minority underrepresentation might imply the need for significant changes, however.

"I don't know if [interracial worshiping] is an uncomfortable setting," she said. "If it is, then I think there needs to be an adjustment made."

But Littauer, who said he did not know why some minorities were underrepresented, said that the lack of black and Hispanic members is not a problem.

He added that focusing on specific groups might be polarizing.

"We shouldn't target one racial group over another," Littauer said. "The Gospel is equally intended for all people."