By: Kye Kocher
Fayetteville, Ark. (UATV)- The chants and yells of students were heard across the University of Arkansas campus Thursday after a conservative Christian group came holding signs with controversial messages written on them.
The Key of David Christian church out of Philadelphia arrived on the University of Arkansas’s campus around noon, holding signs that said things like “WOMEN SHOULD BE: Modest, Shamefaced, & Sober,” “HOMOS DESERVE AIDS,” and “WOMEN BELONG IN THE KITCHEN.”
The leader of this group goes by the name of Pastor Aden. Pastor Aden said his church family is on a two-week tour in southern states because he heard there were a lot of “hypocrites.” Pastor Aden identified these hypocrites as anyone who goes against Christianity.
“People that claim to be Christians, but they still have sex before marriage, smoke weed, and get drunk,” Pastor Aiden said.
Pastor Aden also said he wants people to choose between “Jesus or Hell,” and become Christians. In an interview he also said he wants to save people from being raped and “not to become homosexual because that is a bad choice.”
Many students said they were infuriated by the message this group was sharing on campus and wanted to let this group know that their ideas were not welcome.
University of Arkansas student Jackie Wilder saw this protest on her friends Snapchat stories and said she was in complete shock that this was happening on her campus. Wilder said she ran to the crowd to see what was happening for herself.
“I was shocked because personally I am a Christian and I don’t agree with any of this,” Wilder said.
As a woman in the STEM field, Wilder said she believes that the message of “women in the kitchen” is outdated.
Wilder said that a man in this demonstration group told the crowd of students that women should be obedient, and that his wife is as obedient as a dog.
“If we continue to let this kind of stuff happen, then we are going to go back in time to where we can’t vote, to where we can’t be in the STEM field, to where we are letting men tell us what to do when they shouldn’t be,” Wilder said.
Multiple students in the crowd were not interacting with the Key of David Christian group, but with the students. There were students running around the crowd urging them to report this group to report.uark.edu for discrimination and harassment so that the group will never be allowed on campus grounds again.
UAPD Police Captain Gary Crain said the group took all the steps in reserving the area of campus they were on, and therefore, could not be asked to leave until their reservation ended. The group reserved the space from 12-4:00 p.m. today, but they left around 3:00 p.m.
“There has been a lot of back and forth today between them and the crowd. Many people disagree with what they are saying and doing, and so it is almost like a continual argument going on. That is what they want, and today, that is what they got,” said Crain.
Crain also said there was no violence reported on either the demonstrators, or protesters side today. He said the reason for so much police presence was to make sure this a “words only” demonstration.
