Old paths, same story

It was a strange sight.\nThey were children, probably dressed in some of the nicest clothing they own. They had violins and guitars and awkwardly screeched out string notes, as many of us probably did in third grade.\nThey were singing songs of salvation. \nAnd they were holding ghastly posters of twisted, aborted fetuses. Other posters had messages such as "GOD HATES." It didn't specify what he hates, just that he does.\nThe Old Paths Baptist Church made its grand return to our fair campus. As I exited class Monday morning, I saw a large crowd between Ballantine and Woodburn. I could make out the screaming in the distance. I didn't need to hear the words to know it was the Old Paths Church; this was exactly what I remember from the church's weekly visits last spring.\nBut the children made this visit different. The dichotomy was at once staggering and heartbreaking. The church had set up a rotation. First, an older red-faced man would screech about the fags and the fornicators and the Satanic verses we are taught at an institution of godless secular liberalism. Next, he would step down and the children would play and sing. Then, a different red-faced man would step forward and bellow. I'm not sure I had even heard the word "abortion" when I was as young as these children. Many of them appeared to be no older than 6.\nThe student response was typical. Some booed. Others tried to argue points about how their God was a loving God and not the hateful deity the church was representing. Two girls even made out in front of the children. A few said things I can't print here. Between the brimstone of the church and the student response, I felt bad for the children; none of them should have been subjected to this nightmarish spectacle.\nI stayed after most had left and talked to one of the men who had only moments earlier been screaming. Despite the image he presented from the bully pulpit, he was strangely calm in individual conversation. I asked him to imagine for a moment that he was a typical college student at IU. "If you were one of us, and you were to walk by and see posters of mutilated fetuses and hear the shouting, what would be the chances that you would change your mind and open yourself to the views reflected by those of the Old Paths?"\nHe was frank. "Almost none." He said God had sent prophets before but that humanity killed them. Likewise, he didn't expect a crowd of college students to respond well to his message. But, he said, it was his goal to save that one troubled soul who happened to walk by.\nAs I left, I took one of the pamphlets they were handing out. Inside was a gruesome picture of an aborted fetus. The pamphlet was handed to me by a boy who might have been 5 or 6 years old. I wonder if someone can save him.