College Kids Go Demonstrate at Anti-Gay Preacher's Church
Let us now give praise to some college kids who did something clever and upstanding. Their school was plagued by a shouting, anti-gay preacher. The school couldn't legally kick him out. Solution? Students took their own message to his church.
John Chisham (pictured, on the job) is a preacher at the River of Life Alliance Church. He travels around preaching in public on college campuses, which is his right. He sometimes tells women they're dressed like prostitutes, and he tells students that gay people will burn in hell—though, to be fair, he tells Inside Higher Ed that "he thinks many people are facing eternity in hell, not just gay people."
Students at Minnesota State University, Mankato were disturbed by Chisham's preaching on their campus. But instead of shouting him down, or calling for him to be banned, they simply exercised some free speech of their own:
Rather, students followed his most recent visit to the campus by going to the service at which he preaches on Sundays (at a YMCA), where they walked to the front of the room and held up signs with the names and photographs of gay youth who have killed themselves this year after bullying incidents.
Since Chisham "repeatedly invites students to attend his services" during his campus diatribes, you'd think he'd be happy with the turnout, but instead he calls them "bullies." Ah, well. Some people just can't handle freedom of speech. Cheers to you, Mankato State students! Best college kids of the week, so far!
