In an ironic twist of events the Pope came to the United States on the same day a radical religious group of protesters came to the DePauw campus. The Pope was preaching love for all while the protesters were condemning our entire campus especially the women and people of the LGBTQ and the African American communities. There were statements telling women to go back to the kitchen where they belong, racial slurs being called out, and “no homo” being screamed by a young man in a Boy Scout uniform. It was an emotional day for the entire campus; it brought people together and tore them apart because every person experienced something different. The result of the protest left many people on campus questioning many administrators, policies, and the way the event was handled not only by the university, but also by the city and police. These are not things I am addressing in this article; instead I would like our community to reflect on the words of Pope Francis: “Some of the best people in history did not believe in God, while some of the worst deeds were done in His name.”
The protesters who came to DePauw were preaching their beliefs regarding Christianity, but these beliefs were not out of love for all people. These beliefs were centered on hatred; although they say they are Christians, they are not. Throughout history people have done horrible acts in God’s name, yet forgiveness was ultimately what brought people back together. In these coming weeks it is important for our community to realize that love and forgiveness for all people will help us in our process of emotional recovery. These protesters need to be forgiven for their acts because they are so ignorant that they do not see what they are doing as wrong. They were raised with these beliefs and can’t understand the world around them; they are merely children who follow their authority figure and don’t question the things they are being taught. As a university we need to forgive them and move on, so that we do not carry the emotions with us continually. These events cannot be carried with us forever because they will only drag us down and create more stress in our environment on campus.
The time is now to use this event as a teaching moment about Christianity as a whole and how we can deal with people like this in the future. We need to reach out to all groups on campus so that we can come together and deal with this in the appropriate manner. The past can’t be changed, but the future can be better; as a university we need to make sure we can handle an event like this should it ever occur again.
