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The line between free speech and hate speech became a little blurry for some students this week at Fort Lewis College when a \u201ccampus preacher\u201d proselytized about specific groups, including homosexuals.<\/p>\n
Keith Darrell with the Whitefield Fellowship in Bellbrook, Ohio, said he visits campuses across the country to preach the Bible. He set up shop about noon to 5 p.m. Monday in front of the library and the College Union at F<\/a>LC, where he shared his belief that gay people are sinners, among other self-held convictions.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you ask me if homosexuality is a sin, yes, it\u2019s a sin,\u201d Darrell said Tuesday during a phone interview. \u201cLying is a sin, adultery is a sin, sex outside marriage is a sin.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the doom and gloom talk, Darrell said he was there to preach the grace of God, and that God gives mercy to sinners. \u201cI\u2019m not out there to preach hell. I\u2019m out there to preach redemption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Several dozen students surrounded Darrell and inched ever closer as he gave his spiel.<\/p>\n Darrell stood behind a chair engaging with students when sophomore Randy Banks allegedly poured coffee on the proselytizer\u2019s Bible, which lay on the chair, according to witnesses.<\/p>\n Banks, whose legal name is Randall Hughes, 20, ran away with police in pursuit.<\/p>\n He was arrested on suspicion of malicious injury to property, obstructing a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, according to jail records.<\/p>\n About 50 students held a rally Tuesday in support of Banks, Native American students, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.<\/p>\n The rally was held to advocate for the campus to be a \u201csafe space,\u201d<\/a> they said.<\/p>\n Banks, who is free on $500 bail, led a few protest chants and a march around campus. He said he wants to create a \u201csafe space\u201d on campus and draw a distinct line between hate speech and freedom of speech.<\/p>\n Someone in attendance asked about the symbolism of pouring coffee on the Bible, to which he replied: \u201cWhat do you think it is? For now, I\u2019m going to say I\u2019m against hate because I love my people so much, and I love the community and I want to create a good space for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Sidney Kabotie, a student who spoke at the rally, said students must recognize they fuel people\u2019s hate by giving them attention and engaging with them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all have to recognize how much power we really give these people to be hateful in our presence, and the moment that you choose to acknowledge them is the moment that they win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Darrell was not invited to speak on campus, but as a public institution, it is a place where public discourse can occur \u2013 \u201ceven discourse with which we disagree,\u201d said FLC spokesman Mitch Davis.<\/p>\n \u201cBecoming an engaged citizen means learning to deal with those who disagree with us, even those whose rhetoric we find disturbing or extreme,\u201d he wrote in an email to the Herald.<\/p>\n Darrell was preaching hate, not God, said Logahn Ezman, a student who helped promote the rally. He targeted the LGBT community, saying gay people are going to hell, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThose groups should not be targeted like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cMost of what we\u2019re trying to do with that safe space is create an area where people feel loved and welcomed. We just weren\u2019t OK with the event that happened with that preacher.\u201d<\/p>\n