For months a debate has raged between The Insurgent, the publication that printed cartoons of Jesus with an erection and commentaries satirizing Christianity, and members of the Christian community on campus.
But after two hours of discussion in a public forum Thursday, it looked as though an understanding was nearing between offended Christians and the students who printed it.
About 80 students and community members gathered on campus Thursday evening to address The Insurgent’s cartoons, which drew national media attention, calls for punishing the publication and demands that University President Dave Frohnmayer be fired.
Apologies were dished out from all sides, including from the moderator who hoped people wouldn’t leave the forum angry, but most were accompanied by accusations from the other side of insincerity. The Catholics felt attacked, they said, while The Insurgent said the Christian institution has for too long dominated and oppressed people, including their own members.
University graduate Michael Tarascio, a member of Students of Faith, which was created solely to address the issue of hate on campus, said the publication’s content doesn’t add to the cultural and physical development of the University, a requirement for student groups receiving mandatory student-paid fees. He shouldn’t have to pay for it, he said.
Pira Kelly, a contributor to The Insurgent, said the cartoons of Jesus and editorials criticizing Christianity have been misunderstood. She clarified to the crowd that the purpose was to address what she called Christianity’s bigotry toward the gay, lesbian and transsexual community and to incite some sympathy for the Muslims outraged over Danish cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad published in September 2005.
General Counsel to the University Melinda Grier and Oregon Student Association Campus Organizer Brett Rowlett said the incidental fee is legally protected as long as it is distributed in a fashion that doesn’t take into account the content of the publication.
Ian Spencer, editor in chief of campus conservative opinion journal the Oregon Commentator, encouraged students to get involved with student government so they can choose where student fees should be distributed.
Those arguing it shouldn’t get money because it doesn’t contribute to the cultural and physical development of campus are being shown otherwise by the debate that it has incited, he said.
Several Christian students said The Insurgent’s publication was an attack on Christianity that misinformed readers with false ideas.
“It’s not OK to pay people to attack us viciously,” music major Jethro Higgins said. If it’s not already against the law, “it should be,” he said.
Spencer told Higgins it’s OK to make fun of and offend people.
Whether fees go toward racist, anti-religious, religious or diverse
publications, they are protected by the Constitution, Grier said.
Rowlett said that “if you don’t like the speech on campus, more speech should be used to challenge.”
Students opposed to the publication said they’re not looking for censorship or having the publication’s funding cut. They only want an apology, they said.
Nearing its end, the discussion became what one student called a “therapy session,” where a facilitator and counselor encouraged each side to apologize and empathize with each other’s pain.
Rowlett encouraged people to pay attention to the services and publications they like instead of focusing on condemning one group they dislike.
“Come into the ASUO office” in Suite 4 of the EMU “and see everything your fee pays for,” he said.
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