(Courtesy of Conor Moyer) “Counter-demonstrator Alex Hernandez dances in front of preaching demonstrators on Oct. 30”

Conor Moyer

Connector Staff

Outside UMass Lowell’s McGauvran Center, elementary school children on a field trip walked past an unusual spectacle: preachers wielding signs that proclaimed “Evolution is a lie” while thundering warnings of hellfire. The demonstrators had chosen this day—which they call “National Sin Awareness Day”—to convert the campus’s bustling walkways into an impromptu revival, their forceful calls for repentance echoing across the grounds and even through O’Leary Library’s floors. Gripping a Bible, one preacher sporting a Red Sox hoodie proclaimed: “The wages of sin is death, and the soul that sins will die. Sex out of marriage, homosexual or otherwise, is sin.”

As the preachers shouted warnings, other demonstrators handed out literature and read verses from tattered mini Bibles to passing students. Larry, who declined to provide his last name, was one of those members.”I can’t watch the mainstream media lies anymore. All they do for me is make me afraid to speak the truth,” he said. “They aggravate me because they’re supporting abortion, spilling innocent blood, sexual immorality, pornography—they spread everything sinful. Particularly in this deep blue state, that propaganda is just unbelievable.”

Another demonstrator who could be seen yelling was Sean Bishop, head preacher of Grace Reformed Church in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Bishop, who is the leader of the demonstrations,  didn’t hesitate to share his views on the LGBT community: “Just as God can change a drunkard to be sober, God can change a homosexual to be straight,” he declared. “We don’t hate them; we just believe they’re lost and need Christ.”

The demonstration drew an immediate response from students. Student Alex Hernandez, dressed in full costume as LGBT indie artist Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest, played music and danced around the demonstrators. “I love messing with them,” Hernandez said, “though I feel bad for the children on field trips here.” They said the preachers created a “hostile” environment, dismissing their anti-evolution message as “idiotic” and “pseudoscience.”

Another student arrived as freshman AJ Maclu arrived with a black speaker, blasting AC/DC’s “Back in Black” and songs by Chappell Roan. “They legally can’t be kicked off. It’s their right to do this. But it’s also my right to mess with them,” Maclu said. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Maclu was direct about their intentions: “I’m actively making fun of them. The more Chappell Roan I play, the better.”

From her post at O’Leary Library, student worker Emily Lindtveit watched the tableau unfold, “I don’t think it’s making the impact they think it is,” she said. “Some of them are nicer than others, and then there are others that condemn you to hell while you walk to class.”

The preachers remained unmoved by the opposition. “The Bible even says it. The preaching of the word is foolishness to those who don’t believe,” Larry stated. “Our job is not to convert people; our job is to proclaim the word.”

As music continued to compete with preaching, students adapted to the unusual scene. Some engaged in debate, others chose to ignore the demonstrations entirely. Through it all, protest music and biblical proclamations created an unexpected backdrop to an otherwise ordinary fall day at UMass Lowell.