Holding signs that said “Jesus or hellfire,” “Homos are rapists” and “Feminists are whores,” nine protesters who are not AACC students held an hours-long rally on campus Tuesday.
Nearly 100 people at a time stopped to observe and shout at the two men and seven women who stood outside of Careers. The leader, Pastor Aden Rusfeldt, said they belong to a Virginia church called Key of David.
“We’re trying to actually warn you sinners and help [you] go to heaven and not hell, through Jesus Christ,” Rusfeldt told a Campus Current reporter. “We’re willing to be persecuted for the Lord and yelled at for the Lord. We believe it’s the right way, what the Bible teaches to do.”
Rusfeldt said he and his followers frequently protest on different college campuses.
Students who stopped by the rally said they disagreed with the demonstrators’ message, describing it as “extremist,” “immoral” and “rage-bait.”
“I have to say this is vile and it should be stopped immediately,” first-year homeland security student A. J. Soriana said. “I feel that people have the right to be however they want, say however they want, follow any sort of religion that they want. They say they’re the real Christians, but I believe that they’re not.”
Student Emma Feeny agreed.
“It’s horrible because I do see signs that have, like, literal slurs on it,” Feeny said.
AACC Police Chief Sean Kapfhammer said the campus does not require protesters to obtain permits, noting that a debate-style presentation would have been better than an impromptu rally.
Psychology student Joshua Thomason also said he would favor a debate.
“Not like a Charlie Kirk setting, but like, ‘Hey, let this be known as kind of organized.’”
Thomason and several others said they support the demonstrators’ right to speak on campus even if they do not agree with their position.
“I think it’s a practice of First Amendment on both sides,” said Thomason, who played the guitar and sang to the crowd, making up lyrics demanding that the demonstrators leave. “They’re practicing freedom of religion and speech. I’m just practicing the freedom of speech and also my own beliefs.”
In fact, the rally’s two male leaders said little, instead responding to selected questions and accusations from the crowd. Late in the day, one of the women used a megaphone to call the students “stupid.” Some in the crowd reported that the demonstrators got close to some students and yelled insults directly at them.
“This spreads hate, and it’s just not the religious way,” criminal justice student Isaiah Ogburn said. “It’s not the Christian way.”
Still, a few students said they support the group’s message.
“I’m very in favor of a majority of things they say,” Avery, a student who declined to give a last name, said. “I do believe feminism, modern feminism, has had some good and, frankly, quite a lot of bad,” adding, “I don’t believe people will actually burn in hell.”
Reporters Jorja Clark, Asher Jones and Will Walden contributed to this story.
