A Christian college in Massachusetts cancelled three planned talks by a Kansas City speaker after students called his remarks misogynist and transphobic. Marvin Daniels, executive director of The Hope Center, spoke on biblical themes regarding the human body from II Corinthians 5 in his first talk during Gordon Deep Faith Week, an annual program focused on spirituality.
Daniels said at the event that he was concerned about Christian men “treating young ladies like they’re urinals” and Christian women “who dress like desserts on a menu and then they get upset when a brother want to place an order. We got a culture in chaos. And they trying to redefine sexuality for us. Always crossing lines left and right.”
Daniels added that individuals say, “I feel like I’m female” to participate in female activities, and as a younger man he might have said the same to “get into [the] girls’ locker room.”
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“Our sexual behaviors are being corrupted and co-opted,” said Daniels. “We got individuals commingling what God has said, with what the culture has said, and we become enculturated.”
“Many students in the audience, particularly Gordon’s young women, reached out to members of the college’s leadership to complain about what they deemed a degrading and demeaning presentation,” Rick Sweeney, vice president for external relations, told “The College Fix.” “While the source material was biblically grounded and very appropriate for a chapel service, his rhetorical style and illustrations, which may have been intended to connect with a younger audience, had the exact opposite effect.”
The Deep Faith program continued without Daniel’s other three planned talks. Students had organized a walkout of Gordon’s second talk that evening. An Instagram account called gossip.girl.gordon posted that the protestors wanted “to show Gordon that they cannot continue inviting someone who will spread more hate than love.” A student organization concerned with supporting students of color shared details in an Instagram post about a “solidarity rally” to stand with “the women and LGBTQA+ community that were traumatized by the degrading statements made in the chapel.”
Daniels said he “went to Gordon College to encourage students to a deeper faith and not to offend students. Since I received over 100 supportive and encouraging emails, DMs, LinkedIn messages and phone calls from pastors, parents, students and faculty from Gordon and across the country, I believe my message, character and integrity have been spoken for.”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
