Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Free Speech Zone: Alive and Well at EKU

I had heard about this guy.

When the recent flap over free speech on campus errupted and EKU's "Free Speech Zone" was misinterpreted by campus police as precluding students from protesting outside of certain designated areas, President Whitlock clarified that the restriction only applies to folks who were not a part of the university.

One of the examples given in justification of a free speech zone was a certain minister who accosted students on campus to tell them they were all sinners and were going to hell.

Perhaps, this is the guy.

Some students will tell you that he is part of a university hoax, purpetrated by the psychology department; or the sociology department; designed to gauge the reactions of students.

Whatever this effort is - they were asked to move away from the Powell Building by universtiy staff to a very particular spot on the nearby plaza.

Here' the gist:

"You're not a Christian. You don't love Jesus."


You have a filthy heart, Sir.




" You're doing a terrible job of living."

I'm here to stop your sinning."

"If you are living the wicked lifestyle of homosexuality,

then you are the reason God is angry today."


"If you love Jesus Christ, you will stop your sinning."


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this man used to be the director of student affair at Meade County Schools.

As a Wiccan principal here in Fayette County Public Schools, I so disturbed by this man's message.

Anonymous said...

Why are you giving so much exposure to such a negative message? one picture and a couple of quotes would have been plenty.

Richard Day said...

Perhaps so. But I found his take on epistemology and his scant acquaintance with rational thought amusing.

But the issue here is free speech. This just happened to be the content.

Most often, the speech that needs to be protected is that with which many disagree.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like Oliver Wendell Holmes to me...

Citation needed.

Richard Day said...

Holmes? I'll take your word for it. Or, does it go back to Voltaire?

In Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 at 630 Holmes wrote:

"I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country."