By Ben Carlson
Staff Writer
On the afternoon of March 12, members of Campus Ministry USA stood around yelling and preaching about “man’s fallen nature” and our “inherent sinfulness.” Unfortunately, these bitter pilgrims attracted a large crowd of students whom they hoped to convert through their convincing arguments. Among these brilliant tirades included the insight that all women are “whores” if they sleep with a man before marriage.
“She was ridiculous. Calling all males disease-infested individuals,” student Christopher Dods said, recounting listening to one of the female ministers preach. Apparently, fellow CSUSM students, we are all going to hell.
While I may not agree with the members of Campus Ministry USA, I do support their right to… well, you know. That being said, there seems to be a need for critical response. While many of the students who stood around the ministry decided to fire back with obscenities and additional colorful language, I must insist on writing a clean rebuttal. One sign the ministry brought to campus read “It’s easy to be an atheist when you don’t think about where everything (including God) came from.”
Students at CSUSM think about philosophical and existential issues everyday, but most of us understand that yelling our personal convictions at one another with condemnation and calling women “whores” is wrong and intolerant. We also understand what Socrates meant when he stated “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” The men and women of CSUSM are too smart to entertain deranged arguments by men and women who obviously need to go back to school.
I think it is best to avoid these preachers on campus as it will show a sign of maturity, for, as the late, great Christopher Hitchens put it, “the person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.” The men and women of Campus Ministry USA don’t deserve our attention. They deserve our pity and indifference. Didn’t they hear that CSUSM was rated the safest university in California? We’re already peacemakers, for God’s sake.