Religious speaker stirs students on SSC patio
The religious speakers engaged students in a heated debate at the SSC.
October 24, 2019
The Warren Student Service Center patio quickly turned into a debate scene this past Tuesday as a religious speaker drew a large crowd of questioning students.
Matching the somber mood of the campus, the rain started to drizzle as the speaker shared his message, shouting, “We are all children of God in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.” Several students took offence to his remarks and questioned him on several aspects of Christianity.
Senior Bloomsburg University student Emel Rasim was one of the major voices to question the speaker.
Commenting on the issue of free speech on campus and her feelings towards the speaker, he explained: “I believe that we are a public state university. Free speech I understand, but yelling? He literally did not have a smile on his face. His eyes were red and bulged out. It was actually kind of scary, in a sense.”
She later went on to propose that he should hold an information session in which he can have a civil conversation with students.
The speaker did experience agitation from the crowd he drew in, as multiple students interrupted him, yelled at him, and attempted to take his Bible.
The main speaker could not be reached for comment, but a supporter of the speaker commented, saying that college students assume that those who preach the gospel hate the students.
Bryan • Oct 28, 2019 at 11:47 PM
I want to spark a new thought for Bloomsburg University students. Now I don’t know the whole story of how this dispute or argument got started, but calling one a child of God is about as insulting as a Naga priest assuming I am fellow Hindi worshipper. Get my point? So first off I am left thinking possibly misguided and misinformed students started something. But I am not writing to only cast doubt and blame, the real thing I want to ask the student body WHY ARE CHRISTIANS THE BAD GUYS? Really look up Christian history, look up facts and then answer me. Don’t use the tired examples of attacking nonbelievers and minorities, look up the whole story of Christianity and then answer. Look at Japanese Christians and their influence on the entire nation, what about Saint Thomas and Christianity in India? What about the order of the Knights Hospitaller where we get the word Hospital from. What about Balian and his surrender to Saladin? The Quaker Christians that built most the communities we live in along side the Indigenous Native Americans of this area? What about the Agnostic Christians? Don’t judge people based on gossip, look into the facts first. It’s okay not to agree, and you all don’t have to be Christian or believe in Christ. I would agree to doubting that one so omnipotent as Christ would need to force all mortals to volunteer into a religious organization, half of the new testament makes Jesus sound like he’d opposed main stream organized religion. What I want to stir is for more people to seek out the truth. There is a fascinating culture and history to Christianity that we all have forgotten by mimicking the old stereotypical American protestant format of the religion. Why not look into it and then tell us all what’s wrong with Christianity.