One of my nicest and dearest friends is a smoker who likes to have a drag occasionally on campus.
In between Ballantine Hall and Woodburn Hall — as I’m sure most of the students on campus have seen — an extreme Christian group set themselves up for a gathering and were berating the gathered crowd for their sins about two weeks ago.
My friend turned away from the group, started to take out a cigarette and, upon seeing her do this, a man from the group pointed her out and started yelling at her and berating women who smoke as “whores” and “sluts.”
These Christians, as they like to call themselves, have been on campus since I was a freshman and even before then. They’ve been demanding students repent and follow Jesus the entire time.
And as I wrote in a previous column about Kim Davis and her refusal to allow same-sex couples to marry, religion and freedom of speech are rights protected by law in this country. Anyone and everyone has the ability to exercise these rights.
So I’ve never minded this group, even if I didn’t agree fundamentally with what it was saying. We cannot force people off our campus for preaching on street corners.
There are many student-led Christian organizations that create healthy and safe spaces for students to practice their faith, like Hoosier Catholic and CRU. I fully support a student’s right to be a part of religious organizations.
But my friend’s experience and stories I’ve heard about girls and women being pointed at and called vicious slurs are not preachings gone awry — it is harassment, plain and simple.
At DePauw University, a rally took place against another Christian extremist group at the end of September. Members had made a big leap from simply holding signs.
They were calling students “whores” and were asking specific people how many STDs they had. Brother Jed, a notorious religious speaker who harasses students at IU several times a year, was among this group, according to pictures posted on Twitter from the DePauw rally.
To me, that crosses a major line. I understand and fully support someone’s right to preach and practice their religion, but I strongly encourage IU to take a serious look at this group’s actions, as I firmly believe they are now harassing and, to a certain degree, endangering students — especially female students — on campus.
I would also encourage students to leave them alone.
Gathering in front of them and trying to have religious debates in the middle of campus is simply adding fuel to the fire. Instead, I suggest people start asking IU’s administration why they are allowing this group to harass and endanger our students with impunity.
I’m fine with religion. I understand we need to protect the right to practice it. I understand we need to protect the right to freedom of speech.
But this group is blurring the line between rights and harassment, and it needs to go.
ewenning@indiana.edu
@emmawenninger
