Campus Confrontation


Despite complaints about an anti-abortion preacher, university says it's his right to share views


kicker

Grand Rapids Junior Brianne Elzinga kicks an anti-abortion sign while a known preacher on Central Michigan University’s campus lectures students about abortion and how it relates to the bible on Sept. 9, 2015.

Standing at five-foot-four inches and dressed in a way which could be described as indie-chic, “violent” would not be the first word to come to mind when you meet Brianne Elzinga.

Friends of the Grand Rapids junior say she has a “good sense of self” and is “unique.” But lately, social media comments have portrayed her as “immature” and “disrespectful,” after a photo of her kicking an anti-abortion sign was seen by 187,000 people on Central Michigan Life’s Facebook page.

“I hate that picture. It looks like I’m kicking down what looks like Bible quotes, and that’s not true,” said Elzinga, a fashion merchandising major.

Coming back from the CMU Bookstore, Elzinga heard shouting near the path by Fabiano Gardens. On the way back to her apartment, she was met by notorious “preacher” Rick Warzywak.

“I saw (Warzywak) telling people about abortion. I started saying over him that one in three women will have an abortion and that’s OK,” Elzinga said. “Right after I started saying that, he held up a picture of an aborted fetus and I told him that wasn’t OK and I kicked it (away).”

It wasn’t so much Warzywak’s message which made her angry, Elzinga said, but the confrontational tone he took with her.

“I’m just so sick of hate speech coming from him,” Elzinga said. “(His views) are unaccepting of others and they don’t really look at the whole picture because when you say those kinds of things, it makes me think that you only look from inside yourself.”

Warzywak remembers the incident differently.

“I tried to share with (Elzinga) the love of Christ that God forgives (individuals who have abortions) because (those fetuses) are literally a baby. It’s real, and they are murdered,” Warzywak said. “She was highly offended by that so she kicked the (picture) board, screaming and yelling, which was okay because I told her I was going to pray for her. And I did – a number of times.”

Warzywak has been visiting campus for the past 22 years to “preach” on the topic of abortion. Viewing himself as a person who does not “judge people,” although many students suggest otherwise, Warzywak said he is an individual who “offers hope” by stirring up conversation.

“We’ve all broken God’s laws by lying, cheating, stealing – whatever it may be – and Christ came as a mercy,” Warzywak said. “I try to offer (students) the mercy. A lot of people don’t like it because they’re living a life which is opposed to God.”

A teacher-turned-businessman-turned-director for “national prayer movement” Transformation Michigan, Warzywak has been traveling Michigan to speak at public universities since the early 1990s.

For five years Warzywak shied away from preaching at colleges in order to pursue his role at Transformation Michigan but said he was “impressed upon” to revisit campuses across the state.

“There’s trouble in America right now: economically and physically we have things going on. A lot of students see it,” Warzywak said. “I’m here to say that Jesus Christ is a lifeboat. If we oppose God’s laws, the nation gets cursed. That’s the time we’re in right now – the Titanic.”

Keeping with Warzywak’s analogy, like the ship that hit the iceberg, two opposing forces collided on a sunny September sidewalk on CMU’s campus. A single image of the meeting would spark a social media debate on how first amendment rights apply to CMU’s students.

“(Online), I received a lot of backlash (from the photo),” Elzinga said. “But really the only person who called me and told me I did anything wrong was my dad.”

As the dust settled and rapid-fire fingers rested after contributing 250 comments and replies, one question still remained: who, if anyone, was in the wrong?

Religious Presence on Campus

CMU has an open campus policy. Any person has the right to set foot on university property. When demonstrators become uncivil, it isn’t always clear what constitutes as disturbing the peace, prompting their removal.

“It is a very gray area when you're talking about balancing people's constitutional right to free speech and when it's creating a nuisance to the university,” said Central Michigan University Police Lt. Cameron Wassman. “If we were confronted with an issue where somebody had a problem with what they were saying, we would consult university attorneys on what the best course of action would be. It could violate university policy and we could ask them to leave.”

Being allowed to speak on campus does not come without limitations. According to CMU’s policy on protests, people who come on campus to preach or protest must adhere to time, place and manner restrictions.

“Demonstrating is permitted after 6:30 a.m. and before 8 p.m.,” the policy states. “To register (for demonstrating), the person or representative must provide his/her name… the name of the group (if any) demonstrating and the approximate time(s) and location(s) of the demonstration.”

Demonstrators must remain 50 feet away from any athletic venues, 40 feet from any residence hall windows, 25 feet from any classroom window or door and 25 feet from any classroom building. Demonstrators cannot protest or gather in an athletic venue or university building. The same applies for fliers handed out by.

CMU has never had an issue in which a religious presence has had to be forcibly removed from campus.

“There are times we've gotten (students) who think (certain demonstrators) are annoying. We will talk to (the demonstrators) and they will leave and we never see them again. But then they're replaced by other ones,” Wassman said. “It's really hard to regulate.”

With more than 20 religiously-affiliated RSOs on campus, students have many options to practice their faith or learn about religion. Their ability to hold meetings and events is protected under the First Amendment. U.S. citizens have the right to speech, press, religious freedom, peaceable assembly and petition the government.

When personal appearance, gender expression and sexuality come under fire by religious demonstrators, some students become resentful of their presence on campus, said Students Advocating for Gender Equality Co-President President Kai Niezgoda.

“Rick and some other on-campus preachers have been known to say some pretty harmful things to students,” said Niezgoda, a Royal Oak senior. “(As a result) we have decided to organize a protest to counter act (their) hateful messages.”

In order to show solidarity with students who have felt intimidated or targeted by Warzywak’s taunts or comments on their sexuality, Niezgoda took part in a protest created by SAGE.

Created in response to the backlash Elzinga received after kicking over Warzywak’s sign, Niezgoda said the point of the demonstration was to emphasize CMU students would not tolerate “hate as a CMU value."

Niezgoda identifies as transgender and non-binary, meaning they utilize they/them pronouns and does not identify as the binary genders of male or female. Many times, Niezgoda said, they are targeted for not adhering to gender norms and called homophobic slurs by the more radical religious demonstrators.

And they aren’t the only ones to have a negative experience with Warzywak. Holland senior Jak Grubbs, who also identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, admits Warzywak’s presence has intimidated them to the point where they feel unsafe with dressing in a certain fashion.

“I’ve been screamed at so many times,” Grubbs said. “I’ve been told once (by Warzywak) that I’m going to Hell. I usually wear a ton of rainbow bracelets; I don’t feel comfortable wearing them anymore.”

Comparing experiences between religious campus visitors like Warzywak and groups such as Mormon missionaries, Niezgoda said the difference comes from the way in which their personhood is viewed.

“The key comes down to respect and not being dehumanized,” Niezgoda said. “When Mormon missionaries come up to me and talk to me, they are seeing me as another person even if they do have the same goal (as Warzywak) to convert me to their religion.

While they’re doing that, they’re treating me like a human being. Whereas when you’re being screamed at by one of these fundamentalist Christians it tends to feel like they’re not even seeing you as a human being. It’s like they’re seeing you as this number to convert.”

Mormon Elder Reese said he comes to campus with two-year mission companion, Elder Cameron Chalmers, to “be there for students.”

“Most (students) are very kind to us. And even if they’re not interested, they’ll usually hear us out,” Elmer said. “Some students even come to seek us out. I’d say about 40 percent of students we talk to give us their contact information, with about 30 percent of that being faked.”

Others, like Jehovah’s Witness volunteer Michael Pryter, say their group is present at CMU to serve as an avenue for students seeking meaning in their lives.

“The purpose (of Jehovah’s Witnesses) coming to campus is to meet people and to help them get into the scriptures and find a satisfying answer to their questions,” Pryter said. “The people that we talk to, they’re coming to us and looking for something, we’re not really stopping them. We’re just here to say 'hi' and ask how things are going.”

When asked about Warzywak’s method of communicating with students, Chalmers, Elmer and Pryter denied any sort of kinship with him and his methods.

Still, despite personal confrontations Niezgoda and Grubbs have had with on-campus religiously motivated visitors, both agree it is the right of individuals like Warzywak to preach where he is permitted.

“Obviously campus preachers have the right to be here. However, they don’t have the right to harass and intimidate students,” Niezgoda said. “Qualitatively, we know that (verbal abuse) is something that happens (to students) so were anyone to come forward and say that one or more of the campus preachers had crossed the line between protected speech and unprotected speech, we think that that would make a difference.”

Warzywak, however, maintains he is well within the confines of what CMU allows while demonstrating on campus.

“My son is in law enforcement – I know my rights,” Warzywak said. “And I have lawyers, good lawyers. I (am protected by) free speech.”

What constitutes free speech?

Journalism professor Tim Boudreau, who teaches media law, puts to bed the myth of hate speech being unprotected under the First Amendment.

“Hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, so you can be hateful and express yourself in a hateful manner until or unless you act on those beliefs,” Boudreau says. “Once that speech becomes action, then you have a problem. In short, hate speech is largely protected by the First Amendment.”

Under university policy, if the CMU President feels stricter guidelines are necessary for people who wish to demonstrate on campus, then he has the ability to establish such.

“Circumstances may arise in which the president concludes it is necessary to establish more specific conditions for demonstrations,” reads article F of the university’s online demonstration policy. “In such a case the president will make a public announcement of the special conditions and the duration of their effect.”

What the president, or any group on campus, cannot do is ban a group from speaking completely.

“Courts have said that what you can do is to simply walk away,” Boudreau says. “You’re not a captive audience. You don’t have to listen to that (demonstrator). The First Amendment does not protect your right to feel comfortable.”

Even if a student, or group of students, does not agree with the message of an on campus visitor, the most that can be done is to report a demonstrator for disturbing the peace.

“There could potentially be a case for disturbing the peace, but it really depends on what is being said if it’s 'shocking the conscience.' It's not a very definitive, catch-all statute,” Wassman said. “It's the total of the whole thing. If they are confronting students and not letting them pass through, if they are cursing and swearing. At the same time, nobody has reported it as criminal matter to us."

Disturbing the peace is defined, by Michigan state legislature Section 705.170 as: “any person who shall make or excite any disturbance or contention in any… street, lane, alley, highway, public building, grounds or park, or at any election or other public meeting where citizens are peaceably and lawfully assembled, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”

As of now, CMUPD has yet to remove a demonstrator from university grounds for disturbing the peace.

“When students want to shut these (demonstrators) up, engage in your own speech,” Boudreau said. “The answer to bad speech is a better speech. When you don’t like what someone is saying, don’t muzzle them, speak out.”

A Lasting Impact

Now when walking to class, Elzinga takes care to avoid on-campus preachers.

“I’m not scared of them,” she clarified. “I just don’t want to bring any more attention to myself right now.”

While not against the presence of religion or religious demonstrators on campus, Elzinga said if preaching is going to be done it shouldn’t be in a “hateful manner.”

“I’m not against Christians or what they stand for with their values, but you can’t just go around making someone feel bad about themselves and expect them to follow you after that,” Elzinga said. “It’s not going to work that way. It’s never going to work that way.”

She urges individuals who are interested in spreading their personal religion on campus to remember the humanity of others.

“Have empathy for others around you because you never know what’s going on in their lives," Elzinga said. "(Warzywak) doesn’t really understand that.”

Warzywak views his confrontational method of preaching to accurately convey his brand of Christianity. Being respected or liked by the student body is not a concern, he said.

“If I’m a dialogue piece, then OK,” Warzywak said. “People don’t have to like me.”

Since the incident, Elzinga and Warzywak have met fleetingly one time.

“I saw (Elzinga) today and she wasn’t as violent,” Warzywak said. “I bet the next time I come (to campus), she and I will have a conversation.”

Before that can even be considered, Elzinga said, Warzywak needs to take a deeper look into who he is as a person.

“(Warzywak) is so absorbed in his own values, I don’t think he would take the time to listen to me,” Elzinga said. “I don’t think I’ll speak out against (Warzywick) again because I’ve already made my point very clear. At this point, it would just be beating a dead horse.”

Share: 

About Jordyn Hermani

Troy senior Jordyn Hermani, Editor-in-Chief of Central Michigan Life, is a double major ...

View Posts by Jordyn Hermani →