Deep Thoughts Daily: I'm a Liberty University student- and proud!

Well, dear readers, I've brushed off the dusty keys. I used Google to find my blog- because, shamefully, I couldn't remember the address. I got totally fired up and a facebook status just wasn't enough!

So, I was harmlessly browsing the web earlier when I saw something really disturbing. There are thousands of people petitioning Tim Tebow not to speak at a conservative university. They said the school bans gay students and is anti-gay. If I didn't know better, I'd probably sign the petition. See, that's a terrible thing. No school- especially one that claims to be Christians, should ban gay students. And no one should bully LGBT people- not ever, ever, ever. My reasons for believing that might vary some from yours. I might have a slightly different take on the situation than you do. But I would never, ever, ever be okay with bullying someone for their sexuality. I feel pretty confident in saying that 99.9% of the people at my university agree with me. But, here's the thing, my university is the one they're talking about. I had to sit and read the petition that says that my school is 'a symbol of everything that's wrong with the religious right'. Now, hold up a second, what are your sources?

Let me be clear- I'm really proud to be a student at Liberty University. If I could go back in time and decide again what school to go to, I would pick this one every time. Now I will not stand here and say that there are not any people at this school who hold extreme views that I don't agree with. I'm sure there are many types of jerks at this school. But those people do not represent the majority of this school! The majority of the people at this school are nice, respectful people. We are not 'anti-gay'. And we do not, I repeat DO NOT ban gay students!

I'm proud to go to this school for a lot of reasons. The professors here are really helpful. They genuinely care about their students. The students here are fun, friendly, and hard working. The campus is beautiful and getting more beautiful by the day. The activities are super fun (football games, open mic nights, concerts, etc). The classes are rightfully hard. There's the people considered boring, the people considered hard partiers, and a lot in between. In case you're interested, no one thinks or expects that every student here is a conservative Christian. And we're totally okay with that. There are a lot of viewpoints expressed. We're all taught to find out for ourselves what we believe- and then stick to it. I can't tell you how many times I've been told "You are not a Christian just because your parents are. You have to do your own research and make that decision for yourself if that's what you believe". Wow, that doesn't sound like brainwashing, does it?

So, why do people think that of us? Why are people telling Tim Tebow not to 'give his faith a bad name by speaking at Liberty University'? People are saying things that sound really hateful to me. And, why? Because we're Christians and we hold traditional Christian viewpoints? Is that in and of itself wrong? No. Now, there are a minority of people that claim to be Christians that say really terrible, hateful things about the LGBT community. They treat people badly because they disagree with them. That's wrong. But, today, I'm seeing a lot of conservative Christians- kind, respectful people- get treated badly. Christians are getting badmouthed by others because they disagree with us. That's wrong.

P.S. There are a lot of rules at this school that sound crazy. Like- I'm pretty sure that there is still technically a rule that says no public dancing is allowed. I think there's also a rule that says you're not allowed to have any unnatural hair colors. And, up until last year, it was against the rules for girls to have their nose pierced. I did all of those things anyways. Maybe I'm just a rebel.... But they still love me.

Link to the petition: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2518/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=12691