At the University of North Georgia, each campus has designated space for what it calls “expressive activity.”
On Sept. 22 in Gainesville, a speaker was exercising his constitutional right to free speech, to spread his views on abortion. Hear some of the conversation here. He was speaking in front of the Student Center and Dunlap/Mathis just five days after UNG’s Constitution Day.
Holding graphic posters that read “murdered by abortion,” from AbolitionistRising.com, he quickly gained a crowd.
“I’m telling people. I’m showing people with these signs that God prioritizes justice. I’m showing people that real Christianity looks like caring for orphans and widows…so these are orphans being abandoned to death by their parents.”
UNG nursing major, Gabrielle Baltus, said that she was on her way to the library to study when she heard someone yelling. Usually, she explained, that she would ignore it understanding that sometimes people just yell. However, Baltus said the speaker wasn’t being bold in his faith, “This is not showing Jesus to people, this is showing hatred. This is showing hatred.”
Baltus tried to have a conversation with the speaker. She brought up Cliffe Knechtle, asking if he had heard of the Christian pastor, who’s well known for having conversations on college campuses. Knechtle serves as senior pastor at Grace Community Church in New Canaan, Connecticut. Baltus said he reaches people due to his calm demeanor, which is more representative of the Jesus she follows.
The speaker responded with, “There is a time in which we should be expressing the emergency of the situation. Babies are being mass murdered. It is time to start yelling. We are living in a Holocaust.”
Baltus, kept her voice low, “Grace and truth. This is not grace.”
Gianna Wallop, another UNG student who was a part of the crowd said, “It’s not love thy neighbor like people who are similar to you, its love everyone despite their differences.”
Wallop said Baltus “was making really great points with him about religion…Why not love everyone? What about the babies and kids in schools dying from guns?”
The speaker said, “Gaza is not my neighbor…My preaching will cause hardness of hearts and softness of hearts,” and “the Holy Spirit forces” people to follow Jesus.
“Your signs do not say Jesus,” Baltus told the speaker and asked him about what Jesus preached and in what circumstances, “If you are trying to preach this to a group of people who do not know Jesus, then if you are yelling at them ‘do this, do this, do this,’ they are not going to experience the love of Jesus.”
When the speaker left, Baltus spoke to the crowd, “God is gracious and he is kind and he is loving.” She apologized to the crowd for the hatred and anger that “does not represent Jesus well.” She ended with a short testimony of her faith, proclaiming that the God that she knows does not “spew hatred and guilt.”
