Correction: An earlier version of this article should have reported that outside groups are directed to locations on public college campuses where they can speak.
The fire and brimstone preachers who’ve come on the green space of Georgia State University’s Atlanta campus usually tout a few things: signs with anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion imagery, video cameras and loud voices.
The visits here, and to other metro Atlanta college campuses, have occasionally drawn large crowds condemning the speakers.
As the fall semester began this week for several area schools, the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition is working with like-minded students to find ways to make the preaching less triggering for students who object to the presence of these preachers. The students, for example, meet once a month to talk about current political issues to build a sense of community on campus to make all students feel accepted.
The FORUM Act, proposed by conservative state lawmakers and passed last year by the Georgia Legislature, removed “free speech zones” for students, faculty and others who are part of the community of a public university in Georgia. Outside groups, like preachers, are directed to various places on campus where they can speak.
Some students, particularly LGBTQ+ students, have objected to the new law, fearing it makes it easier for extremist groups to speak on campus. Several students lobbied state lawmakers a year ago for a return to the old campus speech rules.
“No one is arguing that we should not protect free speech. What we’re arguing is that certain things belong in certain places,” said GSU undergraduate student James Wilson, who shared his concerns about the FORUM Act with state lawmakers in 2022.
But not everybody agrees with the students’ actions against the FORUM Act.
“One of the beauties of the FORUM Act is that it protects everyone evenhandedly,” said Travis Barham, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal advocacy group for conservative Christian values. FORUM molds Georgia law closer to what the U.S. Constitution requires for free speech, said Barham.
The alliance has represented conservative Christian students and groups in several legal disputes in Georgia. In 2018, it sued Kennesaw State University when students from a Christian club were facing trouble getting their preferred space to evangelize. The case was settled after KSU updated a policy making it easier for students to hold spontaneous activities on campus.
State Rep. Josh Bonner, who sponsored FORUM, said that it allows for students to have a more honest debate with differing views. Bonner, R-Fayetteville, recognized students’ safety concerns but said that no Georgia students have been physically harmed by these preachers.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Preachers say harm isn’t what they intend.
“It’s the ultimate (act) of love to go out and tell people and warn them to say, ‘Hey, if you keep doing this, you’re gonna die in your sin and go to hell. We don’t want you to go to hell,’” said Adam Cartner, a member of Maranatha Fellowship, a small church in Middle Georgia that focuses on public proselytizing, with an emphasis on obedience and fearing God.
Cartner has been evangelizing at public Georgia universities for eight years. One of Maranatha’s leaders, Kerrigan Skelly, accompanies Cartner on these campuses.
Cartner said they visit campuses about four times a semester. Other organizations, like Walk About Jesus and the Street and Open Air Preachers of America (SOAPA), and other individuals also appear.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
In their eyes, they’re not pushing some political agenda, but saving souls, even if that message offends some students.
“But if me preaching the Bible triggers you, the problem is not me ... the problem is you. You need to repent. You need to change,” said Skelly.
Regardless of the preachers’ intent, several LGBTQ+ students interviewed say they are unnerved by their presence.
“I was scared more so because I didn’t want any type of violence to happen,” said Maurice Clermont, a student at KSU. He felt that his school was targeted because of its larger population of LGBTQ+ and non-white students.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Adia Gilbert, a GSU student and board member of the school’s LGBTQ+ club, said that a preacher called her a slur under his breath when she recorded and confronted him on his views.
The only solution that students opposed to the presence of these preachers say they have right now is to ignore it.
“Like no matter how much you want to, and no matter how hard it may be to ignore the kind of things that they say, and the things that are on their signs, they are there with the explicit whole purpose of provoking you,” said Gilbert.
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