In a bit of a shake up to a usual religious protest in the EMU Amphitheater, students brought and wrote their own messages along with the religious presentation Nov. 9. The student signs said things such as “I’m a sinner and I like it,” and “This is hate speech,” in reference to the religious signs that were being carried.
University sophomore Katie Barberis noticed the commotion while walking back from the career fair.
“I’m impressed by the free speech in this pool,” Barberis said. “I hate this kind of display of religious affection or pushing this kind of speech on people.”
Barberis is disturbed that people can come to campus protest in this way.
“I think that even though it’s against freedom of speech, I don’t think they should be able to come here and do this,” Barberis said. “I think that religion should be completely separated from politics and education.”
Religious protester Michael, who withheld his last name due to security reasons, has encountered similar reactions to their presentations.
“This is a normal reaction to the gospel in most senses,” Michael said. “Yesterday we were at Corvallis and we had people standing up with cardboard signs.”
For Michael, this is a just another day in his mission to spread his message.
“We warn people who practice sin by proclaiming these things at places like this,” Michael said. “Obviously we want to come to places where we can reach as many people as possible.”
Barberis applauds the student protesters willingness to speak for themselves.
“I think that they have every right to have a sign out there, and I agree with many of them” Barberis said. “The ‘This is hate speech’ sign speaks more of a truth than many other signs out here.”