Aaliyah Afolabi
Connector Editor
Over the past couple of weeks, Turning Point USA, founded by the late Charlie Kirk, has not failed to make their presence known on UMass Lowell’s progressive south campus. Turning Point USA, or TPUSA, advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses. According to Turning Point USA’s website, part of their goal is to meaningfully engage with communities to restore traditional American values like patriotism, respect for life, liberty, family and fiscal responsibility.
With the types of speech that the participants of this organization have delivered on campus, however, it proves contradictory to what some of their goals are, with “non-believers” and members of the LGBT community being the main targets.
As Christianity is one of the foundations that TPUSA was founded on, one of the goals preached to its followers is to, “[g]o into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15).” Being able to practice a religion and preach about what one believes in with no restrictions is a great embodiment of liberty, in which this organization has done. When it comes to the embodiment of respect for life, however, that extension of grace was not given for people who did not believe in the same thing or practice life in the same way as them.
On Oct. 29, Sin Awareness Day organizers and TPUSA happened to be on campus at the same time, in the same vicinity, and supported each other as they were “restoring traditional value” to America. People of the LGBT community were berated on how their nature is sinful and how they are sinners, given the fact that sexual orientation is not a conscious choice and is involuntary. Essentially, they were being told that they are sinful for something they cannot control. As for those who did not believe in Christianity, the “non-believers” as they say, would burn in an eternal damnation if they did not repent and accept Jesus Christ (the central figure of Christianity) as their lord and savior.
People have the right to educate others on their ideologies in this country, but when they are unaccommodating of others’ beliefs and tell them with hate that they are wrong and should believe in what they preach, that is a big disrespect to a fellow human life, which is contrary to TPUSA’s goals. When it comes to the spewing of bigotry, that isn’t listed on their website as one of their goals, but some individuals affiliated with this organization seem to be caught upholding hateful beliefs, which are later tied to be a representation of the organization.
For example, Crystal Clanton, one of the former favorite figures in TPUSA and whom Charlie Kirk praised as “the best hire we ever could have made”, had texted to another Turning Point USA employee, “I hate black people. Like fuck them all … I hate blacks. End of story.” TPUSA isn’t an inherently hateful organization, and organizers aren’t responsible for the hate that their allies spew, but in the long run, they get affiliated with hate due to their allies.
As TPUSA’s goals are mainly geared towards youth, each of TPUSA’s paid workers is supposed to meet a quota to make at least 1,500 student contacts per semester. Given the south campus’ reputation as being progressive, getting many students to sign may be a challenge for them. However, if simply just spreading their ideologies is the main goal and not money, they may still have some chance at that.
