![]() I am still unsure what sort of an impact it has had, but I am proud of the work, proud of us, and proud of all the brave, amazing people who shared their stories and allowed Luke and I to turn them into this project.Įvery time I start to feel like nothing happened or nothing changed because of this I remind myself of a Facebook message I received from a fellow student the night we released the documentary. Now, over a month later, there have been 1,636 listens to the prologue and over 7,000 visits to the website. After the listening, we had a Q&A with a few of the students who lent their voices and stories to the documentary. Overall, we had an attendance of over 60 people, including a few faculty and two of the administrators who put a hold on the event. Paul’s Lutheran Church kindly hosted our event, and a Wheaton alumnus paid for pizza and soda. We could not have a public event on campus for a project that contained such “sensitive material”-it was a complicated process with several appeals made by us, but in the end the administration still decided they did not have enough time to prepare the campus. During this time we were still trying to schedule a communal listening event on campus, but were stopped mid-process by our school’s administration. This was something Luke and I were not expecting at all. ![]() On April 22nd, we posted the documentary online, and in its first week it received over 1,000 listens. This documentary ended up becoming the More Than a Single Story Project. The stories are powerful and helped shape Luke and I as individuals to build upon the vision we had for the project. We got to work gathering interviewees, getting studio time, and recording hours worth of stories. Luke inspired me with his vision and helped me to believe there were more individuals in the world who believed in justice, cared for humanity, and wanted to use stories to help create change. We wanted to create this space for students of Wheaton College who have not had this type of experience. Often, a personal experience such as a friend coming out to them or something similar causes an evangelical Christian to re-examine their beliefs. Our thoughts were that if we changed the game of this entire discussion, then we could actually make an impact. I am a media studies major, and the idea seemed revolutionary for Wheaton’s campus. We would tell stories-just stories-and that would touch people’s hearts. About a month after this, Luke Vander Ploeg, a fellow ally I met on the day of the demonstration, contacted me with an idea for an audio documentary filled with the voices of current and past Wheaton students representing minority sexualities. And I wasn’t doing it alone-more than a hundred students sat with us that day, taking part in what I feel is one of the most beautiful acts of worship I have ever been a part of. I felt I was actively pursuing God’s love and justice. When I was sitting on those steps I felt the presence of God in a way that I hadn’t before. I co-led the demonstration with Justin in response to Rosaria Butterfield-a former lesbian and feminist studies professor who has since repented her “lesbianism” after converting to Christianity-coming to speak at chapel. This was the More Than a Single Story chapel demonstration that occurred January 31st on Wheaton’s campus. ![]() My friend Justin Massey was sitting next to me holding a sign that read, “I am gay and a beloved child of God-this is my story.” I was holding a sign that read “I am a feminist, a LGBTQ ally, and a Christian-this is my story.” ![]() Sitting on the front steps of Wheaton College’s Edman Chapel in the middle of winter amid a hundred fellow students calling attention to there being “more than a single story” was one of the most life-changing experiences I have ever had. ![]()
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