To the Gordon Community

    

As I read through different status updates, and tweets as an outsider looking in, the campus climate in regards to issues of diversity seem shaky at best. This is disappointing to say the least, considering I spent the last couple of years working with minority students on campus. I can't help but feel guilty for leaving Gordon for another opportunity when there was much work left to be done. My heart hurts for the students. The minority students who are left to endure, and try to piece together what is happening on their campus. I'm sorry that you have to go through little micro-aggressions throughout your daily lives. I'm sorry that there are not a significant number of minority faculty and staff in which you can confide and find comfort in on campus. I'm sorry that you have been given so much responsibility to educate the community in efforts of diversity with limited institutional support and resources.

I hope you realize that your voice and opinion matter. I urge you to please continue to pursue administration and make them aware of the things that are happening on campus. If incidents are not reported, it is easier to keep blinders on and not realize the lack of inclusiveness. If Gordon truly  "strives to graduate men and women distinguished by intellectual maturity and Christian character, committed to lives of service and prepared for leadership worldwide," than they must

-teach intellectual maturity in the classroom from diverse perspectives
-teach Christian character from a deeply rooted position of reconciliation

Which leads to the majority students on campus...
Matthew 22:36-39 states:
³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

There is a wide spectrum for where you can lie in regards to your understanding of diversity. No matter where you are on the spectrum,  please ask yourself, how are you loving others as yourself?
I'm sorry that you have not enjoyed Chapel worship. I was actually on the selection committee and thought that I was doing the right thing in helping to select Mr. Mooney-mccoy. After such positive responses to the Gospel Choir and gospel music I thought the campus was ready to be challenged and be exposed to a different style of worship. I really do understand that you may not be comfortable with the type of songs that are being played.

But do you realize that this is something that our minority students go through everyday? This feeling of being exposed to something that is foreign, this feeling of not having control over something that use to be "normal", this feeling of "ugh, what is this, I don't know what this is, so I don't like it," these are small sacrifices of moving towards reconciliation. In order to love others, even if they aren't the majority population, means listening to them and learning what is important to them. It means giving up a position of privilege at times,  it means humbling yourself to learn a new song, and it means realizing that there are several ways to worship God.