Repent America Questions Eastern University's Welcome of Homosexual Activists
by Jim Brown
May 5, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The leader of a Philadelphia-based Christian group says a private Christian university in Pennsylvania seems to be embracing homosexuality, and he believes the school is on the verge of abandoning the very biblical principles on which it was founded.
Recently the group Soulforce brought its "Equality Ride" bus tour to the campus of Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. The intention of the homosexual group's tour was to "confront" colleges that bar homosexual students from enrollment.
While the young homosexual activists were on the Eastern campus, members of the group Repent America (RA) attempted to pass out literature to students regarding what the Bible says about homosexuality. University officials, however, ordered the Christian group to leave the premises.
RA's director, Michael Marcavage, says the school appeared to be embracing the homosexual agenda while claiming to hold Christian beliefs. "It was a very grievous situation," he contends. "Many of the students had no problem with the Equality Ride's lies."
These members of the Eastern student community, along with some of the school's administrators as well, indicated apparent support for Soulforce "by wearing buttons that promoted the group's agenda," Marcavage asserts. "They called RA's information offensive because it addressed homosexuality as a sin."
The Christian activist says some of the students present "unashamedly declared that they sin every day, and therefore it is possible to be a practicing homosexual and a Christian." Only a few students vocally agreed that homosexuality should be addressed as a sin, he notes.
Marcavage is outraged that Eastern officials would welcome the Equality Ride participants and allow them to engage in homosexual activism, but would try to kick Repent America members off campus. He says RA is calling on the supposedly Christian university to repent for "embracing the homosexual agenda."
Although most school officials and students RA encountered on the Pennsylvania school's campus were sympathetic to Soulforce's cause, Marcavage says the Word of God is "very clear" on this issue. "Homosexuality is sin, and Christ can set you free," he says, "but this message was not the message of the administration; nor was it the message of the students on the campus, and that's why we're grieved by this situation."
The RA spokesman adds that he is concerned about Eastern University and its witness. "I do believe the school is on the verge of apostasy," he says, "just like many other schools that started to train ministers to spread the gospel."
Although university officials initially tried to remove Repent America from the Eastern campus, Marcavage says God showed he had a different plan by intervening so the Christian group could set up an information table and speak with students for six hours.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
