On Monday, October 6, several proselytizers were spotted at different locations on campus, trying to hand out Bibles to passing students. I saw people at the northeast and southeast corners of the 33rd and State intersection (the corners with MTCC and Rowe Village), and along State at the corners of Crown, though I heard reports of them elsewhere. At least three of them approached me, though I wasn’t the only one; in an unofficial schoolwide Discord server, at least one student reported the proselytizers pressing a Bible into them.
For those who aren’t familiar, let’s just talk briefly about what proselytization even is. Proselytization is the practice of trying to preach to people or teach them about your religion, usually with the intent to convert them. The most famous examples are probably Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are known for going door-to-door. However, many Christian denominations (particularly conservative ones) practice some forms of proselytization. Some other religious traditions do as well, though these are considerably fewer and farther between, at least in the United States.
Generally speaking (again, within the United States), proselytization is allowed on public property as a form of religious freedom. While on private property, the property owners can determine whether or not proselytization is allowed, meaning that if someone comes up and knocks on your door, you can tell them to leave without issue. There can be some restrictions placed on certain expressions of religious activities (such as if a group were to coordinate a protest), but these have to fall under “time, place, and manner” concerns – that is, that the conduct being restricted is content neutral – and religious groups often have more protections against such restrictions than non-religious organizations if they are restricted. To any extent that these protections do exist or can apply, it is nearly impossible to get them to be enforceable against proselytization. Additionally, there is a lot of selective enforcement of these laws. Even outside of strict proselytization and into more general religious speech, groups such as the Satanic Temple (a non-theistic modern tradition recognized as a religion by the government, and not to be confused with the Church of Satan) have received serious threats, to the point where Lucien Greaves and other leaders regularly have to wear bulletproof vests to make any type of public speech – let alone something like streetside proselytization – but many places (such as a town in New Hampshire where a statue which was legally installed as part of a local holiday program was defaced and removed) refuse to investigate these claims. Proselytization is a clear double standard in religious protections.
Now, I know that there is much less that can be done regarding individuals who are proselytizing in a manner that clearly targets students here, but are technically on public property. I still think something should be done; on that Monday, when I was trying to get to class, at least one proselytizer was standing in front of the entrance to a crosswalk, blocking me from taking it. I do think that should cross a line where public concerns (i.e., safely being able to cross the street) should outweigh religious expressions – while I could get off the curb somewhere else and cross around him, he would’ve entirely trapped my wheelchair-bound best friend, who needs those crosswalk entry points. That said, I know that this is generally more allowable, and even to the extent that it may be crossing legal limits, it’s outside of Public Safety’s jurisdiction.
I do also want to make it clear: these proselytizers don’t just stick to the sidewalks (where they might technically be allowed under certain religious freedom protections). During the incident on Monday, people were reporting that they left the sidewalks and went onto the grass (which is campus property, and they can be told to leave at that point). I saw both of the people by Crown Hall on what is a university path, not a public path. Several miniature New Testaments that they were handing out were left in campus buildings (I’ve attached images that I took of these on a table in Siegel Hall and a bathroom in Crown.) And, while not related to the incident on Monday, I’ve had people approach me and my friends while in places like MTCC – which is again, very clearly a line crossing into campus property. These groups were not restricting themselves to purely public spaces.
And finally, before I get into the argument about why I don’t think it should be allowed here, I want to make it very clear: the vast majority of these groups are not affiliated with campus organizations. For instance, the group here this past Monday (who are the most common ones) are part of Gideons International, a nondenominational evangelical association without a presence on campus. Most cases are like this. (I have had a couple of proselytizers come up to me who said they were affiliated with Chinese Christians on Campus, which is a school club, but they weren’t students or advisors, and I haven’t independently been able to verify this affiliation, so I can’t be certain. Either way, this is a relatively small minority of all interactions I’ve had with proselytizers on campus.)
And now, into why I think it shouldn’t be allowed on campus.
First of all, proselytization is highly disruptive. Just look to the aforementioned Discord server – whenever someone comes onto campus, people start planning around it. We have to reconfigure out plans to fit their presence. Additionally, as mentioned above, they sometimes block pathways altogether. You are forced to interact with them to get where you want or need to go.
Second, it has a noted tendency to target students of color and students who are gender non-conforming. This is particularly clear when it comes to who they will approach in semi-public areas, such as the pool tables in MTCC. I remember a few times where proselytizers would come in while my friends and I were playing. They’d target me and my trans friends, or the table of students of color next to us, while largely ignoring the white men I was playing with. Given our large on-campus international population, I assume targeting students of color is intended to introduce the Gospel to people who may never have heard of it (i.e., parts of the world where Christianity is considerably less common). And given that most of these organizations are queerphobic, the targeting of gender-nonconforming students is likely to try and “save” these people who have fallen down the “wrong” path.
Third, many don’t take “no” for an answer. I can just be minding my own business, and a proselytizer approaches me. I tell them I’m not interested, and they just continue trying to tell me that “it would just be one visit, and you’d get so much out of it”. I tell them I’m still not interested, but they don’t leave me alone. At least one proselytizer asked for my address and phone number to stay in touch. (Admittedly, the Gideons are somewhat better about hearing a “no”, but that doesn’t make it good.)
Fourth, freedom of religion should include my freedom not to interact with it when I don’t want to. I’m generically nonreligious and have no desire to return to religion. I don’t want to be bothered by your religion. This is an application of the idea “your right to swing your fists extends to my right to not get hit in the face”. I have no issues with people being religious, but don’t force it onto me.
Fifth, it’s incredibly invasive. Again, these pamphlets were found in bathrooms. That’s just an invasion of privacy. I don’t feel comfortable going into the bathroom if someone is there to preach to me.
And last but not least, these are not members of our community. These are people from the outside who are not welcomed onto campus by students. We are not a public campus. We have people coming in from outside who are bothering students, and we could be doing something about it. I’m not asking the school to take action against individuals who are students here. I’m saying we should have protections against strangers coming onto our campus and bothering us.
It’s time we stopped proselytization on campus.
Gideon’s pamphlet was found in the bathroom of Crown Hall