If you wanted some quiet time outdoors to study or catch up with a friend last Tuesday afternoon, the Park Blocks was not the place for you.
Around 1 p.m. a handful of people from a Christian evangelical group called Bible Believers U.S.A. took the amphitheatre stage and began aggressively espousing fundamentalist religious beliefs. They told students they were going to “burn in hell,” attacking our “sinful lifestyles” and crossed the line into hate speech with homophobic and sexist remarks: “You homosexuals are all sissies! You wear girls’ pants! Learn to be real men!” A woman who began arguing with the leader, Grant Mercy (bedecked in a colorful blue sweatshirt reading “Turn to Jesus or Burn in Hell”) was told, “Sit down and shut up, feminist! Learn to behave like a real woman!”
The same group visited last year, when Mercy allegedly shoved two students, which required some intervention by PSU Campus Safety. This year’s ordeal did not get physical.
It wasn’t long before a number of incensed students began responding back in kind, and a verbal free-for-all ensued until the evangelicals left around 2:30 p.m. to cheers from twhe crowd.
The hour-and-a-half of shouting made for a fascinating reflection of how PSU students react to such an intense and hateful message. What students shouted back at the preachers ranged from the rational: “How can you say we’re full of hate when you’re preaching hate yourself?” to the scriptural: “What happened to ‘Thou Shalt Not Judge’?” to the emotional: “Nobody wants you here! Shut the fuck up and get the fuck off our campus!” to the stupid: “Let’s have a National Burn Christians Day!” (Funny, dude. Real funny.)
There were other highlights. Former ASPSU Sen. Michael Schocket took a theatrical bent and spent the last half of the 90 minutes mimicking the evangelicals, satirically (and hilariously) preaching to students a profanity-laden and wildly inaccurate version of Zoroastrianism. And to whoever it was from Blackstone who played AC/DC’s “For Those About To Rock” so loudly from their dorm room that it drowned out Mercy’s screaming, ultimate kudos to you. If you show me your stereo system set-up, I’ll seriously buy you a beer.
While the ruckus didn’t get physical, it got close. On at least half a dozen occasions, the screaming between individuals got so intense that Campus Safety officers had to take aside both students and evangelicals to calm them down for a minute or two.
Many people have wondered if we can’t just kick the preachers off campus. Unfortunately, as the Park Blocks are part of a City of Portland-run park, there is no jurisdiction to remove them as long as they are not using amplification, disturbing a previously scheduled event, or attempting to provoke a violent response.
So the question is, of course, how should we be reacting to such a blatantly hostile and hateful group that comes onto our campus with such aggression? It is a classic dilemma: one doesn’t want to imply apathy to such garbage by just walking on by, but one doesn’t want to fuel their fire by verbally sparring with them, as that is exactly what they want and expect.
One of the preachers triumphantly noted to furious students, “You say you don’t want us here and you don’t want to hear our message, and yet you’ve been standing here watching for over half an hour!” To them, the more people who listen to their hate, the more successful they’ve been.
Is there any middle ground? One young student seemed to find some last Tuesday, as he silently followed Mercy shadow-like around the amphitheatre, doing nothing but sucking on a lollipop and smoking a cigarette. He ignored him, yet did so actively. It was effective–Mercy didn’t quite know how to react.
Perhaps this is something we as students can learn how to do en masse the next time hate-mongers come on to our campus (as they no doubt will). Let’s communicate our displeasure without playing into their hands, and perhaps doing so without such anger. As funny as the AC/DC episode was, a girl remarked as the argument heated up, “Maybe it’s time for some Beatles now? ‘Let It Be,’ anyone?”
Finally, it has to be noted that one of the more inspiring student responses was a man who stood up to “apologize on behalf of Christians.” The crowd quieted its yells as he said, “I was a prostitute on Stark Street once, and I got saved and got out through Christianity, and I never thought I’d be here today as a sophomore at Portland State University. But I was saved through a message of love, of compassion, of hope–not what these people are preaching here today!”
At the end of his speech, students cheered, perhaps an indicator of the kind of message we are willing to listen to.