The Hawk

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: News

Taken on 10/9/07 at Kutztown University in front of McFarland Student Union building. Kutztown students gather around Repent America member, man in white t-shirt, while students part of the Silent Witness program hold umbrellas to shield the abortion and anti-homosexuality signs.

A West Chester University student holds his homemade sign as he stands next to a member of Repent America conversing with another West Chester student. Taken on September 25, 2007 at West Chester University in front of Main Hall.

On Sept. 25, 2007, two women crossed Church Avenue, the central vein of West Chester University's campus in West Chester, Pa., about 35 miles from Philadelphia. Each of the women held one end of a large sign that read "Choice." Accompanying the word was a graphic color photograph of the body parts of a 10-week-old aborted fetus positioned, for comparison, next to a dime. The women headed towards a spot where about 50 to 75 people clustered in front of Main Hall, an academic building on West Chester's campus. Oversized signs, some larger than the people holding them, read, "Thousands of ex-homosexuals have experienced the life-changing love of Jesus Christ," "God is angry with the wicked everyday. Ps. 7:11" and "The Wages of Sin is Death." "It's a baby, not a molecular glob. It's a cute, little, innocent baby," a young man sang as he strummed a guitar, wandering across the grounds and through the crowd. Although the temperature was only in the 70s, the air was deceiving, feeling more like the thick humidity of summer rather than the air of early fall. Moisture clung to the skin of those in the crowd, causing a layer of sheen to spread across cheeks and foreheads and an uncomfortable condensation to seep through fitted apparel. This cluster of people was comprised of both West Chester students and members of Repent America. The groups intermingled, moving around each other cautiously. Since its start in 2002, the Philadelphia-based Repent America, headed by Michael Marcavage, has grown to be one of the largest Christian evangelical organizations in the country. The group can be found front and center at abortion clinics, pro-choice, and gay pride events, as well as on college campuses. The group considers pro-choice advocates, homosexuals, and those tolerant of homosexuality to be sinners and demonstrates in order to free such people from what members believe to be a life of sin. According to Repent America's Web site, the group preaches "boldly and diligently because we care about homosexuals and want to see them set free from sin and to love and serve God." Why so much focus on homosexuality? Because it is "a lifestyle associated with a massive political lobby and propaganda campaign" and because "the attempts to normalize homosexuality, as well as efforts to suppress any dissenting voice, are fronts where the devil is certainly attacking with much fury and might," the Repent America Web site states. The scene at West Chester University is similar to other stops on Repent America's campus tours. "They come, say what they're here to say, and some people choose to engage in conversation, some don't," a West Chester police officer said, recalling that Repent America has been coming to West Chester's campus for years. On this particular day at West Chester, members of Repent America, including children ranging in age from 5 to 17, stood with large signs on the sidewalk in front of Main Hall, while students gathered with their own homemade signs, reading, "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries!" and "Jesus is love, not hate or judgment." Eventually, the two groups began to communicate with each other. The majority of these conversations were calm as small clusters of students gathered around single members of Repent America to discuss the issues at hand. "Why are you brainwashing your own children?" a female West Chester student yelled, pleading with David Green, a member seen regularly at Repent America events. The student tried to convince Green that having his small children hold pictures of aborted fetuses is not good parenting. "I'm not brainwashing," he told her. "My children choose to get up and come here." Green compared having his children at the event to "telling a kid not to go into the street, doing what is best for him. It's not brainwashing." "Yeah, I'm sure your 7-year-old son wanted to get up this morning and come here to hold signs of dead babies," the student retorted. "He wouldn't have chosen to come here on his own." An older boy, tall and lanky, appeared at Green's side. "My son here chose to come," Green said, gesturing towards the boy. The boy nodded in agreement. As Green and the student continued arguing, the boy stepped to the side. At 17, Caleb Green has had a lifetime of training for these campus tours and other Repent America events. The younger Green said he explores other belief systems and even reads atheist books by David Hume, an 18th century Scottish philosopher. While he said he also believes in the Big Bang Theory, which opposes his father's belief that the earth is only 6,000 years old, he still maintains the idea of God as Creator. "God lies outside the law of causality," Caleb Green said. "God created the Big Bang." At just under six feet, Caleb Green stands taller than most of the college students now walking all around him on campus. Home-schooled his entire life, Caleb Green said that he does have a few friends who are of other denominations, but they are still Christians. As for religions outside of evangelical Christianity, Caleb Green spoke on behalf of Repent America. "It's in how you follow the Bible," Green said. "Other religions read the scripture wrong. We try to separate fact from fiction." Caleb Green said he plans to attend college at some point in the future. Soon, more students gathered around the Greens and other members of Repent America. The students wore homemade T-shirts and carried signs scribbled with magic marker. Some held large banners, while others grouped together and spoke out against Repent America. As a few of Repent America's members yelled out verses from the Bible, a female student waved a neon striped flag and shouted about freedom and tolerance. A young woman nearby held a sign in the air that read, "Keep your God OFF my vagina!" A lemonade stand sat outside of Main Hall in the middle of the crowd. "Project Lemonade" was written across the yellow wooden stand in purple paint. This was a project of LGBTQA, West Chester University's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, and Ally Alliance, which hoped to "turn sour words into something sweet," according to the group's Web site. At the stand, students could pledge a set amount of money for every minute that hate speech was spoken on campus. The longer that groups like Repent America preach, the more money is raised to support the funds of LGBTQA, which pays for events and speakers related to gay and transgender issues. Students running the stand also handed out T-shirts to other students who wished to support their cause. A male student walked away from the stand wearing a navy T-shirt reading, "I'm gay!" Another female student wore a bright yellow shirt that said, "Gay? Fine by me." She held a sign that read, "Stop the war on choice." Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kan., is widely known for its demonstrations at U.S. soldiers' funerals, accompanied by signs that read, "God Hates Fags," "Fags Doom Nations," and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers." The group's main Web site is GodHatesFags.com. Members of the Westboro group believe that the deaths of soldiers, along with the deaths of any other American citizens, are a direct result of America's tolerance of homosexuality. While there are some similarities between Westboro Baptist Church and Repent America, such as the groups' frequent appearances at gay pride events and their focus on homosexuality as a sin, the rhetoric of the Westboro Baptist Church is much more extreme, as is their approach. Repent America members believe it is their "duty to respond with love and truth." The word "hate" appears often in Westboro Baptist Church communications. A March 7, 2008 flyer from the Westboro Baptist Church begins, "Thank God for another dead college student-this one killed at Auburn University in Alabama. God Hates American Colleges. They are filthy, anti-God, arrogant, debauched, decadent & depraved." The flyer invited people to picket the March 10 campus memorial service of Lauren Burk, an 18-year-old Auburn freshman who was murdered Feb. 26. It is not clear why Westboro Baptist Church is interested in Burk other than the fact that she was a college student. The flyer also referred to her as "a Christ-rejecting Jew." For the most part, though, Westboro Baptist Church does not focus on college campuses. Repent America, on the other hand, embarks on four to five campus tours each year, often referred to as campus outreach tours, targeting the 18- to 22-year-olds whom it encounters. In April 2007, Repent America visited a number of Pennsylvania schools as part of its "Pennsylvania Campus Outreach Tour," including Abington Senior High School, Upper Darby High School in Drexel Hill, East Stroudsburg University, Kutztown University, and Millersville University. In the fall, the group embarked on a "Pro-Life Evangelism Tour," visiting the Community College of Philadelphia, Delaware County Community College, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, and West Chester. This spring, in addition to visiting several colleges in Massachusetts, where Marcavage is involved in legal proceedings related to an October 2007 arrest in Salem, Repent America will also head to Panama City Beach in Florida to preach to students who are there for spring break. Marcavage writes on Repent America's Web site: "We must go out to where the sinners are. We must go to those who would never come into our churches-to the atheists, to the religious, to the self-righteous, to the God-hating and win their souls to Christ." Caleb Green said he shared the group's explanation. "Professors brainwash students into believing that abortion is OK and that it's all right to be gay," Caleb Green explained. But do professors, in fact, send such messages to students? "If they're not presenting both sides of these issues, then yes, they are brainwashing. We're here to present the other side," Caleb Green said matter-of-factly. The stops on Repent America's campus tours are primarily to universities within the state system, places like Kutztown University and West Chester University. Visits are almost never made to private schools like Saint Joseph's University that are affiliated with a religion. "We have been to those schools," Caleb Green said. "There, we don't focus so much on these things." He gestured towards one of the signs displaying a dead fetus. "We focus on sins within the church," Caleb Green said. "Hypocrisy, mainly. People saying one thing and then not doing it." Repent America plans to conduct a "Catholic Outreach Tour" during Pope Benedict XVI's April 2008 visit to the United States, according to a schedule posted on the organization's Web site.

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