We are not sent here to judge. That’s not our job. Depending on what you believe, the final judge of all things happening here on Earth resides in a much better place. So why do people continue to constantly judge those around them?This past week, as I’m sure almost everyone has heard about by now, our favorite Christian fundamentalist group showed up on campus to protest against abortion, including a man ‘preaching’ about the Bible. When these protestors realized that members from the LGBTQA on campus were protesting against them, they conveniently had signs in their vans proclaiming that homosexuality is a sin, citing verses from the Bible for support.
I believe in free speech and everything else that the constitution represents and it does not matter if I agree or disagree with what they had to say. One of my qualms with this group is how they represent other Christians, more importantly Jesus Christ. The Christian God is a loving God, and I’m positive does not condone what had occurred Wednesday. Sure, these people are allowed to protest and state their beliefs on any state property, but when someone is trying to spread the word of God, there is a right and wrong way to go about doing so.
I was not there to witness any of the name calling, or the “You are going to Hell” threats, but I know enough about extremists and heard enough people complaining about some of the rude comments they heard Wednesday to know that name calling and threats of eternal damnation were there.
Frankly, that just isn’t the way to go about spreading the word of God. No one listens to name calling. It only gets everyone angry, and when people get angry, they get closed-minded and nothing sinks in. It is obvious that the extremists feel strongly about their beliefs, which I completely respect, but if they would have had a conference, where there was a panel of them talking to an audience of students, I feel that would have been a much more effective approach to spreading their beliefs than slandering those who did not agree with them.
One thing that I really liked that I saw at the rally the other day was a student standing up, trying to spread the word of God in a nice calm manner. A crowd of students had crowded around everyone’s favorite attraction, the guy with the Bible, and nothing but screaming could be heard. However, one student stepped up and tried to explain what the real message of the whole protest was. He then proceeded to offer his time to those who wanted to speak about the issues by saying he would be more than glad to sit down and talk to anyone who wanted to talk him calmly about the situation over by a bench in the academic quad.
Even though I did not really see anyone approach this student to engage in a conversation with him about the topic, I really admired what he did, and I feel the rest of the Christians on campus should really follow his example. I know I don’t do nearly enough to spread the word of God, and that’s nobody’s fault but my own. I’m not saying that every Christian on campus doesn’t spread the word of God, either, but just that I thought what this student did was a nice paradigm of what we, as Christians, should be doing. I know the campus Covenant Fellowship group on campus goes out and talks to people about Christianity, and I admire that.
We need to go out there and spread the word. We need to show everyone that Christian extremists are indeed a minority, but they get the most attention because they’re the most extreme. We need to show them that our God is a loving God, not one that is full of hate, which is a message that these extremists portray without even realizing it.
I’m a Christian, and I’m anti-abortion (although I do believe that the issue of abortion extends beyond just religion, and is a fundamentally moral issue). I agreed with the message they were trying to get across about abortion, but I didn’t agree with the means they went about it, such as the slandering. The giant pictures of the aborted fetuses, I don’t think I’m for them simply against the fact that it gets people talking about them. Almost everywhere I went on the day of the protest, everyone in the room was usually talking about the protestors and the signs they were holding up. Sure, most people were disgusted by them, but it got them talking, and it could easily introduce two people of opposing views and actually implement a conversation about the topic. I know I’ve engaged in many conversations with those who are pro-choice because of this group coming to campus over the years, but this is the only advantage I can see coming from these pictures.
What I’m basically trying to say is extremists inaccurately portray Christianity day in and day out. Take the group God Hates Fags and their appearance at soldiers’ funerals. Most Christians are not like this. I think it’s the job of other Christians, including myself, to try to stop this inaccurate portrayal by spreading the word as much as possible. We need to show everyone that most Christians are sompassionate, loving individualls, not people filled with hatered and contempt for most of mankind. Who will join me?
Amy Larson is a junior at West Chester University.