Protesters meet counter-protest on campus

Anti-gay and anti-abortion protesters clashed with Bloomington United and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender representatives in front of the IU School of Law Tuesday afternoon.\nMembers of the Old Paths Baptist Church of Indiana came to IU with posters featuring aborted fetuses and anti-gay slogans.\n"We're not protesting so much as we're exercising our religion," said John Lewis, the church's pastor. "Christ tells us to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature."\nWhen GLBT supporter and junior Phillip Bergmann noticed the Old Paths protesters, he quickly organized a counter-protest.\n"I happened to see them across the street, and I called the director of the GLBT services on campus, Doug Bauder, and I told him get over here and get me some signs and some buttons," he said. "It's been a pretty civilized protest."\nSoon after, IU Police Department officers responded as a precautionary measure, said IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger. Though nobody was arrested, officers informed the church members they needed to leave IU property and stop disturbing the educational environment. \nSigns with slogans such as "AIDS cures fags," and "Christ is our only escape from hell" prompted passersby to stop and debate the protesters.\nCandace Abrew stood in between two church members with her own sign stating, "My God loves everyone ... except these two."\n"I think that they have a wrong interpretation of what God is trying to say," she said. "And the fact that they're trying to interpret God's judgement on people in such a demeaning way and breed hate is disgusting."\nOld Paths Baptist Church member Eric Baker said, contrary to popular belief, God actually does hate people.\n"In a university, (the acceptance of) sodomy is pretty prevalent," he said. "Also, a lot of the young ladies end up getting abortions because they mess around with a young male without being married and get themselves in a family way but don't have a husband ... and God hates that."\nAs more protesters from either side arrived, GLBT supporters held hands on the steps of the law school while IUPD officers paced the scene, maintaining order.\nBergmann explained how his views differed from those expressed by the Old Paths Baptist Church.\n"My belief is very simple," Bergmann said. "My belief is that God loves all. My belief is that these people are preaching sheer ignorance. I guess my belief is just that you don't preach hatred to anyone. Of course, there are some small-minded people who think differently."\nTuesday was not the group's first visit to Bloomington.\nIn the past, Old Paths Baptist Church members have visited Peoples Park and Dunn Meadow, where they're known for inciting arguments with people, Minger said. \nWitnesses said Old Paths members initially blocked the entrance to the law school, denying entrance to students and professors. However, Lewis disputes this claim.\n"If we were blocking it, they would have arrested us," he said. "They're looking for disorderly conduct, which is nothing but a heckler's veto of the First Amendment."\nMinger said IUPD had actually planned for the possibility the Old Paths Baptist Church might visit Bloomington in response to publicity surrounding the upcoming film "Kinsey," based on IU's Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. However, the film did not appear to be the focus of the group's protest. Police will continue to monitor the possibility of the church members' return.\n"Since the (1970s) and the Vietnam era, we're quite familiar with dealing with civil unrest," Minger said. "And we go to great ends to allow people to do that because that's what college campuses are for."\n-- Contact city & state editor Mike McElroy at mmcelroy@indiana.edu.