Although Jesus commands us in Matthew 22:39 to “Love your neighbour as yourself”, the Christian church still struggles with how to love our neighbours when they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. Trinity Western University has similarly struggled with this same question, particularly over the past few years.

 

Motivated by a desire to make our community a more loving, accepting, and safe place for all students and inspired by the example of movements such as OneWheaton and OneBiola, One TWU seeks to give a voice to LGBTQ+ community members and their supporters at TWU. Towards that end, we seek to affirm and promote the following:

 

• We believe in the equality of all people. LGBTQ+ community members are in no way inferior, abnormal, or less than their heterosexual or cisgender counterparts. Therefore, we affirm the humanity of our LGBTQ+ neighbours and seek to include them as equals in all our endeavours.

 

• We believe that homophobia and transphobia are affronts to our Creator God. We stand in opposition to the stigmatization of LGBTQ+ people just as we stand in opposition to racism, sexism, and the like.

 

• We believe that LGBTQ+ people should be able to live their lives freely without fear of shame, harm, or punishment.

 

• We believe that love has no asterisk. “Christian Love” should never be characterized by condemnation and judgment, which can still be deeply felt regardless of how carefully worded or well intentioned the church’s statements on LGBTQ+ people may be. Rather, we believe in a church where LGBTQ+ people are loved and accepted free from conditional statements and impossible burdens.

 

• While we accept that we will not always see eye to eye on every issue, we refuse to engage in judgment or tearing down one another. We will always seek to express discordant views in a way that respects the humanity of others.

 

• We believe reconciliation and healing is needed to bridge the gap between the Christian church and the LGBTQ+ community at large. For too long, the relationships between Christians and LGBTQ+ people have been characterized by distrust, cynicism, and even hatred on both sides. Instead of accepting this as the status quo, we believe that this is a situation that can change, and we seek to be catalysts in bringing people together. ​

 

One TWU seeks to live out these goals through healthy dialogue, relationship building, and peaceful activism. In order to achieve these goals, OneTWU seeks like-minded individuals in our community to support us.

 

If you are a member of the TWU community and would like to sign this letter as a public show of solidarity with our values, contact us at one_twu@outlook.com with the subject line “OneTWU Letter” and we will add your signature to the bottom of this letter. We hope that by collecting numerous signatures, we may show a united group of people ready to live these values out and bring change to our community and our world.

 

With much love,

 

One TWU

 

Signed:

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