Special to Page One by University of Kentucky student Robert Kahne
Ask any student of the University of Kentucky about Brother Rick, Soulwinner Ministries, and the man dubbed “Crazy Old Guy” and they will invariably remember the first time their ears were assaulted with the words of these street preachers. It is a time-honored practice of street preachers to spread their message of hate in free speech areas at institutions of higher education. Recently, a street preacher at Morehead State University caused quite a controversy.
Here at UK, Soulwinners Ministries is a well-known group. This group of 4 African-American people and their children pop up on our free-speech area once or twice a semester, and hold up a sign decrying homosexuals, abortion, popular culture, anything sexual, and many other things. These guys always yell really loudly at passers-by and are always willing to argue for hours on just about anything. Soulwinners usually generate more debate and agitation than any of the street preachers because of their obvious commitment to their cause. Other street preachers are easily joked about because the things they say are so over-the-top and ridiculous that it is hard to think that even the preachers themselves take themselves serious. (See our friend, Brother Rick)
Now, Soulwinners Ministries are quite ridiculous. They claim on their shirts that “Real Christians Don’t Sin” among other things. They are also very hateful, saying “Homos Go to Hell” and such. Their jaunts to UK have always passed without incident; however recently, a trip to Morehead State sparked some controversy.
At Morehead, Soulwinners was met by dozens of protesters that spanned several races, ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations. Many of these appeared to be kids from campus ministries who are pissed that their religion is being hijacked. Others appear to be homosexuals who don’t like the fact that hate about them is being spewed on their campus. Other people seem to be there just to see the show. Soulwinners and the subsequent protests prompted the Dean of Students to e-mail the campus calling on people to protest peacefully and to avoid the free speech area if Soulwinners offended them.
Free speech is a fundamental tenet of our democracy. The ability to say anything we want without fear of prosecution has been used effectively to end slavery, give us women’s suffrage, end war, and to fight for civil rights. However, with the good comes the bad. Hate speech is still free speech, and as a society, we would do well to tolerate those whom we disagree with, and to protest them peacefully. While I hope we all agree (no matter what our political affiliation) that the message of Soulwinners is laced with hate and malice, I hope that we also agree that the protests that accompany our objection should be in good taste.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Jeff Noble // Oct 17, 2007 at 3:13 pm
There is some irony to the Dean telling students to avoid the Free Speech area if they don’t like what they hear. There is also some history to it.
I know of Mr. Kahne the writer to be a good, loyal, and liberal fellow, and an active member of the Baptist Fellowship on UK’s campus. As I read his entryI recall one of my favorite books, written in 1989, called Berkely At War by Professor W. J. Rorabaugh.
It recalls all the problems encountered by the Free Speech Movement, the events on Cal-Berkeley’s campus, the marches on Sproul Plaza, and Mario Savio’s famous speech – some of the most passionate words ever spoken anywhere on the subject of antiestablishmentarianism.
If you’ve never acquainted yourself with Savio’s words, spoken at Sproul Plaza from December 1964, I’ve printed them below my comments. And the next time you are in your Public Library or a Barnes and Noble, check out Professor Rorabaugh’s book. It is a great historical read.
Here is the speech – the second paragraph is the part most often quoted –
“We have an autocracy which runs this university. It’s managed. We asked the following: if President Kerr actually tried to get something more liberal out of the Regents in his telephone conversation, why didn’t he make some public statement to that effect? And the answer we received — from a well-meaning liberal — was the following: He said, “Would you ever imagine the manager of a firm making a statement publicly in opposition to his board of directors?” That’s the answer! Now, I ask you to consider: if this is a firm, and if the Board of Regents are the board of directors, and if President Kerr in fact is the manager, then I’ll tell you something: the faculty are a bunch of employees, and we’re the raw material! But we’re a bunch of raw material[s] that don’t mean to have any process upon us, don’t mean to be made into any product, don’t mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone! We’re human beings!
“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
“Now, no more talking. We’re going to march in singing “We Shall Overcome.” Slowly; there are a lot of us. Up here to the left — I didn’t mean the pun. “
2 My name is Robert Kahne » Midterms are done, so I ought to update, right? // Oct 17, 2007 at 4:19 pm
[...] all for now. You should check out my latest post over at Page One Kentucky October [...]
3 Teeheehee // Oct 17, 2007 at 9:07 pm
He came to UofL last week, had quite a crowd….though the campus interfaith center placed a sign near him that said “We think this guy is crazy too..”
4 jerry bills // Oct 18, 2007 at 10:16 am
I love the pics, wodering where you got them!
5 jake // Oct 18, 2007 at 10:26 am
If you look at the photos, Jerry, you’ll see that we emblazoned your… er… the photographer’s name on them.
6 jerry bills // Oct 20, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Oh they were not mine but i was just wondering they are real good. Espiclly the one with the wings in the back ground behind the kid with the big fro. Pretty awesome..
7 Documenting My Audacity » Blog Archive » Real Blogging // Jun 9, 2008 at 2:34 pm
[...] Which is equally hilarious. While Chris is mostly right, I think I should comment. First, I’m sure that there are a lot of homophobic nasty people at UofL. Maybe not as many at there are at UK, but they still exist. Chris was spot on when he said that’s who UK caters to, however. Next, Chris is wise to point out that UK has an Outsource and a GSA. In addition to that, we have Domestic Partnerships. However, we didn’t have any of that first. UK’s administration has consistently said “we will do it when somebody else does it.” 100% of the time, that “somebody else” has been UofL. So, good job UofL for being on the cutting edge. Way to not be a leader, UK. And street preachers are everywhere. [...]
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