Permanent link for Standing Together On Campus: Presence as Activism on September 26, 2023

Last week, the Kaufman Institute partnered with United Campus Christian Fellowship, Campus Ministry, and InterVarsity to host a food drive. We were stationed front and center on the Allendale Campus, at the Cook Carillon Tower. We started out with high spirits and a beautiful day.

About an hour later, we were joined in the public courtyard by several enthusiastic preachers, some very boisterous with t-shirts declaring “Only Christians Can Be Saved,” some with flyers, and others with whiteboards about sin, salvation, and who would and would not be included when that day came. We as an interfaith organization with our signs advertising our “Interfaith Food Drive” were quickly labeled a “false path,” ultimately leading students away from the only true path to redemption, namely “born-again Christianity.” This continued for hours. Needless to say, it was a rough day.

The beauty and the challenge of freedom of speech was in full-effect. As a public university with a public campus, this group had every right to be present and to make themselves heard. A number of students engaged with them, many in protest of their presence and their message.

In watching all of this unfold, I was reminded of just how difficult it is to engaging with those with whom you disagree, especially when their message and manner is antagonistic, aggressive, and unwieldy. I felt waves of emotion wash over me, from disbelief to exasperation to anger to hurt and back again. I was frozen. Despite my knowledge of good conversational tactics, of how to disagree well, of the ineffectiveness of fighting emotion with fact, in the moment, I remained in a mode self-preservation. Best I could do was to listen, to hold space for those passers-by who were verbally assaulted to find a moment of respite, and to remind them where to find spaces of support on campus. It did not feel like enough.

Balancing self-care with activism, self-preservation with bravery, is a skill I have not yet mastered. However, that we stayed in that space for the full 5 hours that we reserved our tables, that we chose not to engage with hateful speech, is itself a form of activism. We demonstrated an alternative to their message in our presence alone, something that did not go unnoticed. Many students, faculty, and staff approached us with expressions of gratitude, support, and apology for having to experience such a barrage, which we returned in kind.

I am very grateful for the team of co-sponsors that stuck it out, that broadcast messages of acceptance and affirmation, and that helped hand out pizza to passing students as a compassionate attempt to offer nourishment during a trying situation. While I hope the next food drive will prove less traumatic, I am also grateful for the lessons learned and the reminder of the importance of cooperation as we face these challenges together.

Liz English

Posted on Permanent link for Standing Together On Campus: Presence as Activism on September 26, 2023.