Campus clash
“The Christian groups as a whole on campus can’t stand us,” Robinson says. “They’ve really spread some false rumors about us.”
When The Dive, a Christian campus organization, held a presentation last semester titled “The Power of Porn,” things between the church and the campus group became heated.
Some members of the church saw fliers advertising the presentation and became angry about the sexual nature of the posters, so Robinson and a few members decided to attend the presentation to hand out tracts.
According to Rick McKee, the director of The Dive, Robinson and a few other members of the church attended the presentation and were asked to leave after they began handing out materials to students. McKee says he asked them to stop, and when they didn’t, he called the police.
At this point, Robinson, who says the walls were covered in pictures of completely nude people, says one of his associates pulled a flier off the wall and began shouting sarcastically, “Come to Jesus! Come to Jesus!” All of the members of the Church at Kent in attendance were soon escorted out, except for Robinson, who stayed to watch the presentation.
“They sat all around me waiting for me to do something, and I watched the presentation,” he says. “The name of Jesus was not mentioned one time. The cross was not mentioned, the word ‘sin,’ the word ‘hell,’ the word ‘salvation.’ It was total humanism from A to Z.”
McKee later e-mailed Robinson and told him that unless it is a student coming to learn and not pass out materials, no Church at Kent member is permitted at The Dive’s functions. McKee says there are groups on campus he disagrees with, “but it is certainly not open for me to walk into their meeting and just start yelling and handing out literature.”
In the same e-mail, McKee told Robinson that he has no interest in interacting with the church, and he asked the church not to contact him or Dive staff members in the future. “They don’t impress me as very stable people,” McKee says.
McKee says one good thing came of the church’s confrontation with The Dive at the Power of Porn event — it helped students differentiate between the Church at Kent’s teachings and those of The Dive.
“My hope would be that students would see that they don’t really represent Christ,” he says. “And sadly, I think that by using the name of Jesus Christ, these guys make my job a lot harder.”
“It’s American, Western-culture Christianity where they try to be cool. It’s a joke, and I think kids see through it. They might hate us, but they know that we’re radical and we’re whole-hearted.”
Robinson says even though campus ministries dislike the church, its message will remain the same. “We are 110 percent opposed to Campus Crusades, The Dive, the Vineyard, all that,” he says. “It’s American, Western-culture Christianity where they try to be cool. It’s a joke, and I think kids see through it. They might hate us, but they know that we’re radical and we’re whole-hearted.”
Sophomore nursing major Christopher Taylor is involved in two groups some would say are contradictory in nature. Taylor sings in the gospel choir and is an active member of New Hope Church in Pickerington, Ohio. And as secretary of PRIDE!Kent, Taylor is an outspoken member of the Kent State sexual minority community.
Taylor says he had been handed tracts by Church at Kent street preachers many times in the past, but was never bothered by the group until he was confronted by a member in the Student Center last semester.
As Taylor and some friends were hanging out in the Rathskeller, a Church at Kent evangelist threw a tract about the dangers of homosexuality at Taylor and his roommate. Taylor asked the man if they could discuss the pamphlet, and they went to a booth where they discussed theology for more than an hour.
Taylor says the man told him repeatedly that he was going to hell because he is gay. “He said he didn’t see Jesus in me, although I am an active Christian Protestant, very active in my church in Columbus,” Taylor says. “I am a personal believer in Jesus Christ. I’ve accepted him into my heart.” The man, however, refused to accept Taylor’s faith.
“I love my religion. It gives me so much hope,” Taylor says, “but he would not accept those things because I’m gay. It’s not sending me to hell. It’s just a part of who I am.”
The man told Taylor he was welcome to attend church meetings — as long as he didn’t tell anyone about his sexual preference.
“It’s a big joke,” Taylor says. “I mean, who do they think they are? They’re ridiculous.”
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