Gospel of Hate
As the September weather turned cooler, many students heard yelling and shouting from the Russell House patio or saw colorful rainbow flags waving from the middle of a gathered crowd.
During the third week in September, representatives from the conservative Christian group Soulwinners ministries gathered on the Russell House patio and in front of the Thomas Cooper Library to preach to students about giving up sin. Many students, it would turn out, had a very different idea of what exactly sin was.
Jessica Foster, a second-year nursing student, shouted arguments back at the Soulwinners group when they told her she was going to hell.
“He told me because I’m black I listen to rap and I’m going to Hell,” Foster said. “For him to say that God hates people – that’s just not right.”
Foster said she feels like this type of hate speech has no place on her campus.
“I understand the whole freedom of speech thing,” Foster said. “But students pay $18,000 a year to go here; we shouldn’t have to hear this.”
Owen McKagen, a third-year business student and president of the BGLSA, has been attending protests lead by conservative evangelicals on USC’s campus for more than two years, and said he always does his best to undermine their credibility.
“We’ve built them up into these massive student demonstrations,” McKagen said. “It makes ideologies like that look even more fringe.”
McKagen, who leads the anti-evangelical demonstrations, has done everything from dress in drag to throw tea parties to play loud music. However, he said the main way they protest is by firing back situationally-based comments to counteract the serious mood of the preachers.
“The most incorrect thing they say is that homosexuality is a choice. From personal experience, I know there’s no way it can be a choice,” McKagen said. “Debating them is never useful.”
Students gathered around the red tape barricade separating the two groups, waving homemade signs and snapping pictures, while the preachers, including one woman with a small child, screams at students to “obey Jesus or burn.”
Justin McCoy, a first-year business student, said that he couldn’t take either side seriously.
“It’s so extreme. I come here to laugh at the people and the protestors,” McCoy said. “I’m political too, but this protesting is just so ridiculous.”
“The Bible says have no fellowship with sinners,” said Chris Nada, one of the Soul Winners representatives. One-on-one, Nada is soft-spoken, polite and understated – an image hardly compatible with the angry, Bible-thumping character that loudly informed students “homo sex is sin.”
Nada said that the negative reactions from students were expected, but that he feels called to keep spreading the SoulWinners message.
“People get angry and mad because they don’t want to stop doing what they’re doing,” Nada said. “The Bible says it’s an abomination.”
For Justin Hoard, a second-year linguistics student, the group’s message of hate towards homosexuals hit close to home. Hoard’s ex-boyfriend, Sean Kennedy, was killed in Greeneville earlier this year. The police ruled it a hate crime. He came to the protest wearing a shirt with Sean’s picture that read “Love is not a sin.”
“The same hate they’re preaching has killed a lot before,” Hoard said. “It killed Sean Kennedy, it killed [1998 hate crime victim] Matthew Shepard.”
Hoard said that he hasn’t seen anyone identify with the message, but that several people had to leave because they were too upset.
“He told one girl that her mother didn’t love her, that her girlfriend didn’t love her,” Hoard said. “I haven’t seen anyone get saved.”
Kevin Lewis, a religious studies professor, said that individual religious protestors have been around campus for as long as he remembers, but louder, larger groups are a recent phenomenon.
“All my students agreed – they’re so in your face that people are doing their cause injustice,” Lewis said.
Lewis said that people who believe the Bible condemns homosexuality could be misinterpreting the text.
“I know that this will be an endless debate, but those who wrote the Bible really had no clue about homosexuality,” Lewis said. “I have a hard time taking two or three or four lines in Scripture too seriously.”
Nichole Mix, a first-year classics student from Goose Creek, said she feels the preachers do more harm than good.
“I have a lot of gay friends who would be offended by this,” Mix said. “I’m taking a picture to show my friends back home what idiots there are out here.”
Jennifer McCurry, a third-year business student, said that religious preachers on campus target more than just homosexuals.
“I think its bullshit, it’s a load of crap,” McCurry said. “I’m a Christian, I’m straight, they told me I was going to hell for smoking cigarettes and wearing designer clothes.”
However, McCurry said that she doesn’t take the Soulwinners threats seriously.
“He’s a hypocrite,” McCurry said. “The only being that can judge me is God.”
Antonio Rivera, a fourth-year marketing student, says hearing the preachers does not effect his Catholic beliefs and that he only comes to listen for his enjoyment.
“If you don’t want to listen you don’t have to be here,” Rivera said. “I think the people who are unstable in their religious beliefs are being swayed.”
Todd Jenkins, a third-year psychology student, just transferred to USC this semester. Like Foster, Jenkins was told he would miss out on eternal salvation.
“They said because I have gold caps [on my teeth] I’m a gangster rap wannabe and a follower of Tupac and I’m going to Hell,” Jenkins said. “It’s not a nice welcome.”
McKagen said that while students generally understand that the views expressed by the preachers are not mainstream, he’s seen a few students break down. He said that last year a similar group was on campus after the shootings at Virginia Tech saying that all the victims went to hell. One of the girls in the watching crowd had know one of the slain students.
“She just broke down, right there,” McKagen said. “I’m there for when they cry.”
However, McKagen said that there have been some positive side effects to the preachers as well. Most recently, Soulwinners was protesting South Carolina Pride week, which McKagen said had a better outcome because of the publicity. Also, McKagen said that he sees increased support from straight students who are supportive of the gay community.
However, the Bible-thumping Soulwinners aren’t the only kind of evangelicals USC has hosted over the years. Students may remember everything from protestors with guitars singing that “It’s not OK to be gay” to men in clean, tidy suits handing out tiny copies of the New Testament.
David Hallman, who USC students may recognize as an older man with a long white beard who quietly hands out fliers on sidewalks around campus, said he takes a different approach than his louder counterparts.
“You have to get me to talk – my sign says what I want it to,” Hallman said. “I used to do it like that, and sometimes we did it just to be heard.”
Hallman doesn’t target a specific group or groups.
“The one thing I don’t do is challenge things,” Hallman said. “It’s not about specific issues. It’s about a lifestyle.”
Hallman, who has been “standing on corners” for 22 years, said that he gets a wide variety of reactions from the students he meets.
“I count it all positive, what good is faith if you can’t test it?” Hallman said. “I welcome the challenges.”
One preacher, who identifies himself as “Steve,” has come to USC this semester to protest contraception and abortion with signs that say things like “Planned Parenthood. Planned Murder.” Beth Hinson, a second-year international studies student and co-president of USC’s chapter of Voices for Planned Parenthood, said that she talked to him, and the two even exchanged fliers.
“He was way more accepting that the other extremists,” Hinson said. “It was more of a conversation.”
Hinson said that while a few students seemed interested in what he had to say, he was mostly getting ignored.
“While I certainly do not agree with what he says, he has the right to say what he wants. I’m not too worried about him,” Hinson said. “It did not seem like anyone’s views on abortion were shaped that day.”
A USC police officer on the scene of one of the protests said that on city property, such as the sidewalk in front of the Thomas Cooper library, citizens have the right to state their opinion, as long as they don’t stand still and it’s not considered a disturbance.
Keith Minor, a second-year English student, said he doesn’t think the university should let groups like SoulWinners come to campus.
“They say they're a center of tolerance and diversity,” Minor said. “By giving them a permit, that’s not what they’re saying.”
Brian Oxendine, event services coordinator with the Russell House, said that as long as groups are approved by Residence Life, any organization can hold events on the Russell House patio.
The religious community at USC has generally agreed that the method with which a message is presented is just as important as the message itself.
Juliette Nalepa, a fourth-year HRTM student and president of Campus Crusade for Christ, said that many campus extremists have misinterpreted the message of Christianity.
“My initial reaction is always just sadness and disappointment,” Nalepa said. “It makes us hurt not only for students but for them as well.”
While Nalepa said that many Crusade members were upset by groups like Soulwinners, she doesn’t think it would be appropriate for campus ministries to try to argue with evangelicals.
“It would just be a lot of yelling,” Nalepa said. “They’re not doing this because they love the Lord, there’s really no way to appease them.”
McKagen, an Episcopalian, said that he doesn’t have a problem with religious fanatics on campus as long as they don’t spread hate.
“As long as they preach a loving God, I’m fine with it,” McKagen said.
Nalepa said that the message of Christianity was a message of love, and that groups that preach damnation of groups like homosexuals and Jews have twisted the Bible.
“God created everyone and loves everyone,” Nalepa said. “They don’t even understand the book they’re speaking from.”
Foster also said she feels like religious extremists have warped a positive message.
“There’s a better way to go about this,” Foster said. “Yeah, maybe he’s a Christian and maybe he believes in the Bible, but there’s a better way to go about this.”
Nalepa said she worries about students who are already conflicted about their faith getting the wrong idea.
“Some people aren’t sure what they think about God,” Nalepa said. “Instead of telling them the truth, that God loves them no matter what, what they do -- if anything -- is drive people away from God.”
