By Connor Small
Contributing Writer
Outside the Elaine Langone Center earlier this week, many passersby heard a man with a microphone reading Bible verses and preaching Christianity. The street-corner preacher was met at first with stares, then resistance. His presence and the opposition that followed raised the idea of freedom of religion. Across the street a student held a spiral notebook with the words “Hail Satan” etched onto a page. The student and the preacher traded words, and as I walked by, I was asked if I had “worshipped Satan yet today.” Personally, I saw this as no more than a joke; in my view, it was somebody simply calling attention to himself. But his actions very well may have offended a large group of people on this campus.
I understand that the University prides itself on strong community and increasing diversity, and protests have historically been a part of many colleges, but as I thought more about the events that occurred earlier that day, something just didn’t sit right with me. It was not so much what the man said that upset me, but rather how he went about getting his message across.
The real question here is this: was there a better way for the preacher to get his beliefs across? Preaching on the streets has its pros and cons: you reach everyone who happens to walk by, but you risk persecution, as is the case here. When I talked to my fellow classmates and heard their opinions on the matter, I came to the conclusion that maybe the University is not as accepting as many think. Many I talked to were hostile towards the idea of a Christian preaching on a corner: “I really don’t want to have somebody telling me that ‘God is the only way’ over a microphone while I’m trying to have a conversation with my friends,” one student said. “He should keep it in the church,” another said. Others were more pragmatic about the issue: “He can do say whatever he wants, as long as I have the right to argue against it.” Any belief system is going to be met with some form of resistance, but in my opinion, there is a better way to reach college students than standing on a corner reading scripture.
College is meant to be a time of experimentation, of challenging your ideas and of self-exploration. There are many options available to fit pretty much any interest at the University. Everybody is different: some know what they believe, others are still searching. To me, it seems we are past the days of street preaching. While the preacher feels it is his duty to spread his beliefs (and he has that right), he might have been met with less resistance had he chosen a more passive approach. Everybody has the right to his or her beliefs, and everybody has the right to challenge those of others. People are encouraged to formulate their own opinions, but in letting them out, one should be aware of how others are affected by their methods of expression.