Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Our campus is hellbound, apparently

As I was walking to fiction yesterday, I passed the green and saw a big commotion that included several huge signs and rainbow flags. I wanted to stop to see what was going on but I was already late for class so I kept going towards Welles; on my way in, I ran into my classmates and professor, all of whom were going to see what the deal was.

It was an anti-homosexual rally consisting of this man in a leather jacket and mirrored sunglasses and his twentysomething daughter. They held up huge signs emblazoned with misconstrued Biblical passages while the man shouted about how gays and their supporters were all condemned to Hell. About twenty students with Pride Alliance flags were lined up in front of him, singing All You Need is Love while he kept shouting bullshit about how John Lennon was evil. I was seriously proud of us all as a collective because while some choice words were deservedly thrown at him, nobody got belligerent. We just started singing things like "Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so," while same-sex couples stood in front of the guy on his platform kissing and we cheered them on. During this, some kid started waving around a big sign that read I LOVE SCIENCE, so we hooted and hollered about that, too. After about forty minutes of rallying, this kid waving a pole with colored ribbons on it yelled, "Let's all leave! Don't give him anyone to preach to!" That seemed like a fairly good time to regroup for class, so we headed back to Welles and power-workshopped for the 50 minutes left of our class time.

According to that guy, I am hellbound on two counts: for supporting gay rights and for being a Catholic, because apparently the religion does not exist. Oh, darn. A girl interviewed me for our paper, and when she asked me what I thought I told her that he was making a mockery of faith in general. Because he was. Not to mention the fact that he was telling some of my friends and classmates that they are fundamentally flawed. Which is bullshit. Whoever he is, that man is a repulsive waste of a human being and I couldn't be prouder of my campus for responding to his mindless slander in such a positive way. The man and his daughter left around six, finally giving up after six hours of shouting nonsense to the wind. I couldn't help but think about the conversation they would have on the ride home--were they proud of their day's work?

All I can say is that we should all invest in SuperSoakers before he tries stepping foot on our campus again.

Post script: I realize that this was not the best-written entry. Sentence structure hath given way to strong sentiment . . . sorry.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think the campus would enjoyed the Times SQuare "naked cowboy" instead of the father & daughter shouting their hate for those that do not follow their path of life...Stand tall you all !

cici

wimp said...

I agree. Naked for Peace is a better utilization of said space.

Anonymous said...

If you are a Catholic, (not saying you are not) what do you make of this, "The Catholic Church thus teaches: "Basing itself on sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2357). - I didn't know that Catholics had the option to choose which elements of their faith they do and do not uphold. The pope is considered infallible in matters of faith and morals; this is part of the catholic faith.

-I am not Catholic myself, I just don't think you are consistent.

MEP said...

My personal faith is not a matter to be decided by a man in red slippers. Sorry if that makes me a heretic.

Anonymous said...

Hey anonymous,
You sure know a lot for not being a Catholic yourself. My question is why then, do you care? I personally believe that religious authorities telling me not to support gay people because they are "intrisically flawed" is unjust and immoral. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, even within following their own religion. Are we not allowed to think for ourselves? Must we blindly follow the pope and hierarchical structure of the Church? My opinion is that Catholics should focus on Jesus' message of loving everyone and judging no one. But that's just me. Guess I'm a bad Catholic.
You go Meg. I agree 100%
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