To the Editor:
I don’t appreciate being taken for a fool—I didn’t get into this university by being stupid. Nor do I appreciate being preached to on my way to class at 10 am when I am not equipped with the faculties to deal with such profound fundamentalist ignorance. But what really puzzles me is the fact you don’t even look through your blind faith to actually read your own clever yellow posters. Just like last year when, during one of the most holy times in the Judeo-Christian calendar, the first day of Passover and Holy Thursday, I was handed a New Testament as I crossed the footbridge.
What am I supposed to do with this? My respect for the historical Jesus is far too great to throw away this excellent fiction—plus my love of literature is too great to throw away any book—someone went through the effort to author this text. So I’m forced to pile it on top of my other 14 green plastic-bound New Testaments.
What makes any of you think that college-age individuals have never heard of Jesus? Furthermore, what delusion has taken over these obviously bright minds, making them think that the student body needs to be “saved”—that we even want to? It is a wholly selfish venture to try to “save” people who do not wish it—it is but a desperate bid to secure your own place in an uncertain heaven!
And are you so deluded—so much of a naive idealist—to be able to convince yourself that if I stood upon the cement fountain, calling out to the great goddess, that you would not look upon me with disgust as a heathen? Permit me, then, to do the same and to request that you leave posthaste. This is my campus, too, and it is my right as a human being to not believe that Jesus saved me—just as it is your right to look upon me as a heathen, a pagan, or even a devil-worshipper if that’s what makes you happy. But don’t deny me the right to my faith by filling the air with words detailing my supposed damnation as I walk to class, same as you.
Kathleen Brown
EMAC ‘03
Rensselaer Pagan Association
