Royal Purple

Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: News

www.pccmonroe.org

University officials stopped Pilgrims Covenant Church from distributing anti-homosexuality brochures on campus Jan. 31, but not before many students received them.

Terry Tumbarello, student service program manager, said brochures from the Monroe, Wis. based church were being put under doors in residence halls and given to students outside, which is prohibited everywhere on campus.

"We do not allow any door-to-door solicitation from outside parties period," he said. "We were able to intercept them before they reached all of the dorm buildings."

Only one man, Michael Font, was spoken to about distributing the literature, but more people might have been on campus, Police Chief Matt Kiederlen said. Font was given a verbal warning and told he needed permission to pass out brochures, which is the standard procedure.

"The material was more offensive than normal, but the reality is we have to try to give fair and equal treatment to everyone," Kiederlen said.

The brochure titled 'Homosexuality: The Truth,' lists questions and answers about why homosexuality is a sin according to Pilgrims Covenant.

"Homosexuality is a "lifestyle" which revolves around perverted sex; the results are obvious - obvious and dangerous to all of society, especially the young and vulnerable," the brochure says.

IMPACT, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning and Allied student union on campus, is considering ways to respond to the pamphlet, including writing a letter to Pilgrims Covenant, said Stacy Kreuziger, executive director of IMPACT.

"We think it would be better to counteract on campus and take a more positive route," she said.

Kreuziger, who is also a resident assistant in Benson Hall, said she first saw the brochure after finding one pushed under her door.

"It hurts me to think groups like this can cause others to be afraid to be themselves," Kreuziger said. "They don't affect me in that way anymore, but they could be hurting others, which is the worst part about it."

Pat McCaffrey, a resident in Tutt Hall, said he found the brochure outside of his door and only glanced at it before throwing it in the garbage.

"I didn't let it bother me," he said. "But I could see how it would affect other people."

Similar brochures have been passed out on other UW campuses including UW-Stevens Point and UW-Madison, according to the Pilgrims Covenant Church Web site.

Matthew Gillmore, president of Campus Crusades for Christ, said discriminatory acts like those being demonstrated by Pilgrim's Covenant could cause people to assume all religious groups are intolerant.

"This could make our mission to reach out to people through religion more difficult," Gillmore said. "Christians are called to love everyone even if they disagree with some parts of a person's life, because we are all sinners saved by grace."

Several phone calls were made to the church and no one responded.

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