Students were confronted with a sign stating “Ask me why you deserve to go to hell” outside of the Student Union on Tuesday, Sep. 1. Greg Davis of the Mission Independent Baptist Church displayed the sign with the help of two young boys dressed in military fatigues. This initiated a discussion about why people deserve to go to hell and caused dozens of students to crowd around him and voice their own arguments about religion.
Lieutenant India Moore and a few other officers of the campus police were at the scene to keep students in line and prevent the assembly from escalating into more than just verbal blows of religious versus secular texts. Some students thought that Davis had a right to be on campus. Others thought that he should keep his views to himself and not bother the students with messages that they felt should not have been forced upon them.
“When it comes to religion I think that it is a very serious topic, so I don’t think that they should be allowed on campus. This university is very diverse and everybody has different religions so I don’t think it is right in my opinion,” said Diana Perez, a junior communications major who was standing away from the crowd.
“I absolutely think that people should be allowed on campus, but the only thing that worries me is that the students themselves are supposed to practice free speech in zones,” said junior art major David Villaseñor. “It disturbs me that anybody can walk in and not have to take the same steps the students do.” Villaseñor passed the large gathering of people on his way to class and heard the two groups talking in loud voices but could not tell exactly what was being said.
In response to Davis and the religious group students created their own signs stating such things as “What about the dinosaurs?” and “Jesus doesn’t exist.”
Davis arrived on campus at 12:10 p.m. and left of his own free will at 3:45 p.m. According to Moore he was not breaking any laws, so he could not have been forced to leave the vicinity. The campus police stayed nearby just to make sure things did not get out of hand.