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Things you don't expect to see on your college campus:Submitted by vkitty17 on Tue, 04/15/2008 - 10:39pm.
1. A giant lizard monster. 2. The Prime Minister of Canada. 3. A prayer tent. Guess which one I saw? That's right, heathens and non-believers! A prayer tent! To Jesus! On a public college's campus! Is it okay that I was put off by this? What am I to think? Should I say something? It's not the first time, either. Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Enlightenment? it is not my religion, but i dont see the harm. let them pray. i am more offended by the credit card companies recruiting new debters. They stop students who walk past and ask them if they can pray for them, if they've found God, if they have a church, etc. They turn praying into preying. I think I'm gonna create a sacred space with an alter and a ritual circle and hold a wiccan ritual to bless the campus. What do you think? Think they'll go for it? We've had issues like this before on our campus. You must be sure of several things: 1. You clear it with the appropriate people. Up at U of F, there are always Hare Krishnas singing and offering the best veggie food i've ever tasted, free. I love those folks. Right across the way from them were the bible thumping hateful of everything but what they believed f***er's. I personally feel, stay away from me, i'll come to you if free awesome food is involved, and yeah, you got the right to express your religious beliefs on campus. just don't expect me to join your camp! A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. - Chinese Proverb as a poor college student i looked forward to tuesday night dinner w/ the hare krishna folks! best vegetarian food i've ever had coming right out of acting class with a big appetite me and my buddies would chow down! and of course enjoy the chanting!! Love is all fun and games until someone loses an eye or gets pregnant. - Jim Cole Because I don't see other religious organizations doing this. Because it's one thing to offer pamphlets and an entirely other thing to actually practice it. Because it's evangelism. I think if I saw other religious groups doing this, I wouldn't be as put off. But last time they did this, one of the occupants of the tent came out and shouted at me to come back, and then asked if she could pray for me. When I told her I didn't believe in her religion, I got a lecture as to why I should. Now when I see the tent, I get a little nervous about being accosted... And because I'm afraid of Christians, but that's a long story that I'll have to get into at another hour. Hmm. Around here we have three camps: bible beaters, the casual take-it-as-it-comes people, and the atheists. Of course, there are various shades within each major group. Being mad about stuff that other people believe really doesn't do you any good. Obviously I live on middle-ground. I find it just as offensive for an avowed atheist to practice anti-theism as you do someone praying for you (which, really, can't do any harm and might even help - who knows?). Doesn't that mean that the atheist DOES actually believe in something, even if it's anger at someone else's religion? Maybe you should be mad at those other groups that don't take advantage of these 'free speech' opportunities. Or, maybe, engage the soul-praying girl in some soul shakedown of your own. they do campus outreach at a university. i always wondered too about what that was all about in terms of it being a state school and christianity being promoted on campus and all but i guess it's free speech. perhaps the university would allow other groups to freely "outreach"? interesting thoughts. i wonder if this university would be cool with muslim groups for example recruiting college kids to attend koran studies like my friend and her husband invite college kids to attend their bible study group. also, i don't know for a fact if they use campus facilities but if i had to guess i think they do based on what she's told me about what they do. i never really get into the details of her work with her. and i might be inclined to try to hold a satanist tent revival or whatever the hell those people do, on campus. i would prefer that no religion was allowed on campus, but i think the common interpretation of the law is that they have the freedom to express their religion, and no religion can be barred. hence the satanist hoedown. i'd want to test that. or you could protest christianity on a day that they will be there. free speech is free speech. but i think they're allowed there. in reality, i might just walk in there and talk to them and find out why they feel the need to poop on my college, whether they are being hostile or bullies... i graduated from their law school, and when i was there, we read a case from oh, maybe it was the seventies, i think. umkc was sued because they refused to allow a christian student group to use campus facilities for their meetings. they lost. the university thought they were doing what you reference above - keeping church and a state institution separate, but the supreme court held that they were taking state action to suppress religious expression and could only ban the christian student group from using university facilities if they banned all student groups from doing so. that being said, i'd be put off, too. organized religion just gives me the wiggins in general, but being from the midwest, christians hold a special place in my wiggins-response system.
"if i pass for other than what i am, do you feel safer?" ~ lani ka'ahumanu dragon knows dragon And I'm thinking of doing just what Etta recommends. I mean, it's a free country, right? and i'm sure you'll get a strong response of some kind. if you have a personal belief system around this stuff, it'd probably strengthen your position if whatever you did was rooted in that, so it would be more likely to be recognized or at least easier to challenge if it wasn't. i've seen the placards, etc. set out for cal's {uc-berkeley} welcome week, and they have pagans and wiccans and muslims and buddhists {i know, i know - not a religion} and atheists right in their with the jesuscrispies, so there's some solid precedent. let us know how it progresses?
"if i pass for other than what i am, do you feel safer?" ~ lani ka'ahumanu dragon knows dragon |
I wouldn't be too crazy about a prayer tent either but I think that if you take away these students' rights to assemble then it's a slippery slope, leaving any group open to discrimination. If the tent was not a student group and something initiated by the administration of a public university then it would be bullsh*t. Otherwise I think that as long as the students are respectful and aren't harming anyone then they should be able to have their tent or whatever.
If you want to test your school then try something like Etta's suggestion- you don't have to have a Satanist rally (unless you are a Satanist, then go for it)- you can form your own anti-religious/anti-christian or athiest or whatever group to counteract what the Jesus freaks are doing. I think a strong counter-religion movement is long overdue... maybe it needs to start at a grassroots level on college campuses and work its way to the mainstream (maybe too optimistic, but still...). If you don't like what they're doing then there's plenty of things you can do about it without the school needing to censor them. Y'know?