Last Wednesday, recurring street preachers at Rowan were not greeted with the usual friendly conversation, but instead with a group of demonstrators yelling chants, holding signs, and protesting against them.

The demonstration, held on April 1, was organized by the Rowan chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America’s (YDSA) Queer Rights Working Group. The group of roughly 30 protesters met at the Owl Statue right across from where preachers and brothers, Kyle and Luke, regularly stand preaching the Christian gospel. 

According to Ray Mills, a junior cultural anthropology major and co-chair of the Queer Rights Working Group, the preachers target members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“They even had a whole sign last time saying homosexuals are sinners and this and that, and then they would call students sluts,” said Mills. “They specifically target queer individuals.” 

The preachers often stand near the Owl Statue holding Bibles, and next to their signs, which contain verses such as 1 Corinthians 6:9, which list types of people according to the Bible that will not “inherit the Kingdom of God,” such as “the sexually immoral,” and “homosexual offenders.” 

Laila Blanchard, a senior history education major and co-chair of the Queer Rights Working Group, says the reason the group held the protest was to simply distract students from talking to the preachers. 

“Part of it is, like, we’re hoping that if we can stop what they’re trying to do, we can prevent them from talking to people, which is the entire reason they’re there,” said Blanchard. “Eventually, they’ll find a school that’s an easier mark or something.” 

Despite this, a small group of students still engaged with the preachers, including two girls who ended up kneeling before the protesters, praying for them, and singing Christian worship songs. 

Many students and professors walking by acknowledged and spoke positively to the protesters and their efforts. Others, like Nicholas Schaeffer, a senior political science major and president of Rowan College Republicans, approached the protesters, asking questions. 

Jay McCloskey, a freshman radio, television, and film major, was one of the protesters who talked to Schaeffer. 

“I saw that he was talking to some other protesters, and things were getting heated, so I kind of wanted to diffuse that a little bit,” said McCloskey. “If someone comes over with genuine questions, for me it’s important that I can talk to them and give them a view that kind of humanizes me and my side.” 

Schaeffer is an Orthodox Christian and has talked to the preachers before, debating them on their theological beliefs. He says he does not fully agree with the preachers or the protesters, but his worldview aligns more with the preachers. 

“Being that they’re [the protesters] more of a left-wing persuasion, they want to make themselves in opposition to traditional American right-wing ideas like Christianity,” Schaeffer said. 

The preachers declined to comment. Instead, Kyle cited a Bible verse as the reason why, referring to John 7:18, which states, “Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.” 

Students have asked the university to do something about the preachers before, even asking the administration personally to do something about the situation at last semester’s Student Assembled panel.

“If we have these people who are not Rowan students coming onto campus yelling at, following, and harassing students for their identities, I really don’t think that’s conducive to a safe campus environment,” said McCloskey. 

Despite student complaints, Rowan cannot pursue much legal action against the preachers due to the university being a public institution where First Amendment rights are protected. 

This has not stopped Blanchard and Mills, who are working to make the University protect members of the LGBTQ+ community. They note that, according to The Princeton Review, Rowan University ranks no. 18 in the nation’s most “LGBTQ-unfriendly” colleges. 

“We’re not leaving until it’s done,” said Blanchard. “So either they’re going to get sick of it first, or we’re going to do this indefinitely.” 

According to Blanchard, the preachers returned to campus on Thursday, April 2, continuing their usual preaching. The working group is holding another protest on April 8 to further their goal of getting the preachers off campus. 

“It’s part of the American dialogue. We have different groups of people talking to each other,” said Schaeffer.

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