David Ghan/The Falcon A sign hangs from junior Rachel Krebs’s dorm room window in Moyer.

If there is anything that proves SPU needs Haven, it is a water ballooning incident that happened last Friday on the Day of Silence.

The Day of Silence is a nationwide event in which participants take a vow of silence to symbolize the silence perpetuated by bullying, intolerance, and harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) people. Members and supporters of Haven, SPU's "unofficial" GLBT discussion group, honored the Day of Silence on campus with an exhibit in Martin Square featuring statistics and information about hate crimes against homosexuals.

At about 12 p.m., when Martin Square was at its busiest, a group of students ran across Upper Gwinn and threw water balloons down at the Day of Silence exhibit and members of Haven.

The mentality of students who would throw water balloons at something they didn't agree with, rather than engaging in meaningful conversations, shows an extreme lack of maturity and tolerance.

Haven is a group promoting dialogue and reconciliation on campus, and the water balloon incident was a startling display of the very intolerance Haven wants to address. Is this how SPU students treat individuals looking to begin dialogue, debunk stereotypes and enact reconciliation? If this is the case, then we better tell John Perkins to bring a raincoat next time he visits our campus.

This article is not about whether homosexuality is right or wrong. We are too hung up on whether homosexuality is sinful or permissible and who falls on which side of the debate. We are so entangled on rightness and wrongness that we forget to ask the most important question: how are we to treat each other?

SPU sophomore Jenny Gist said it best at Haven's Breaking the Silence gathering: "It doesn't matter whether you agree with homosexuality. The point is acting humane and realizing we are all people and deserve respect and a voice."

Whether we love homosexuals and treat them with respect or not should not depend on what we think of their actions. Loving your neighbor is not contingent on your neighbor's yard or your neighbor's decisions; loving your neighbor relies on Christ's commandment that says we are to simply love one another.

Some Christians will "love" homosexuals in the hopes of changing them, or "bringing them home from the dark side," as I overheard one SPU student explaining to a friend. This is a dastardly concept of love. It suggests, "I love you not for who you are, but for who I think you should be."

You do not love a person when you say this; rather you love an ideal of how you think they should act. It is time we start loving people unconditionally.

Many times in Christian circles, it is "the homosexuals this," and "the homosexuals that." Homosexuals are presented as a ghostly sociological group, a theoretical possibility, the night life scene in Capitol Hill, anything but what they are: people.

It is easy to make sweeping judgments when we allow ourselves to think of homosexuals as a group concept, rather than as individuals. Haven's exhibit displayed a pertinent question: do you have any friends who are gay?

By not allowing Haven to be an official campus club, SPU is keeping homosexuals a foreign, detached concept, which continues their marginalization in the Christian community. This marginalization allows us to form opinions about "them" based on what we've heard, and not on whom we have actually met. It discourages openness and allows stereotypes about homosexuals to blaze on like a forest fire across campus.

Haven should be accepted as a club on campus, but first, homosexuals need to be accepted as people on campus. This decision does not begin with administrators stamping their signatures on a document in the boardroom. It doesn't begin with ASSP writing them a check for club money. It begins with you. It begins with me. It begins when we can blur the lines between you and me with acceptance and create a community that welcomes all students. It's time to let SPU be a haven for Haven.