In its mission statement, the MSU Residence Halls Association asserts it is "committed to continuously improving the on-campus experience at Michigan State University."
In satisfying the unyielding demand for box-office movies at budget prices, RHA does a punch-up job. There's no complaint there. But if you're looking to be converted - or convert others - to any religion or lack thereof, RHA has nothing for you. It won't be "continuously improving" your on-campus experience as long as that includes any religious conversion.
Wednesday night at a meeting of the RHA General Assembly, representative and East Lansing City Council hopeful Derek Wallbank hastily redrafted a bylaw to amend specifications of who is eligible for RHA funding. Any event "whose sole or main purpose is to convert people to a certain religion or lack of religion" henceforth will receive no RHA monetary support. So sayeth the RHA.
In intent, we support the amendment, but our full approval of the language is far from being extended. We agree religious groups with the intent to convert should not receive any money from a public institution. That's simply a matter of keeping a public body secular, and actually appears to be an effective way of upholding the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Well, part of it, anyway. What RHA has made abundantly unclear is exactly what constitutes an event whose purpose is to convert people to one faith or another. It's believable that Wallbank and his supporters had the likes of Billy Graham and his pulpit in mind when drafting this amendment, but the act of conversion doesn't require a sweaty, bellowing preacher with a chorus behind him. Depending on which perspective you utilize, a Christian rock band can be interpreted as conversion. An anti-Semitic art display could be considered as such, along with any event that emphasizes the benefits of one particular religion.
What the RHA amendment has most effectively done, in our opinion, is open the floor to debate on what conversion really is. In February, RHA brought Switchfoot to campus, a highly stylized San Diego-based rock group of Christian influence. A post from the message board on the band's official Web site asks if the band's dive into the mainstream has anything to do with their apparent lax in spreading a Christian message. Are the song lyrics of a known religious band attempted conversion, or is it just music?
The argument can swing both ways - in cases of musicians or other forms of non-explicit religious conversion. The line between what this amendment seeks to prevent and what would contradict it is blurred, and the gray area produced by the amendment's language is expansive.
A conversion-minded proactive evangelical group needn't be limited to the traditional image or expectation.
We all have the chance to be enlightened each time we're on campus. Funding a group to make that choice for us assuredly has no part in a public institution, and for that, we support what RHA is attempting. But the ingredients of what RHA believes to be conversion need to be sharply detailed.
