Students at Louisiana State University are organizing a demonstration in protest of the Baton Rouge campus administration’s decision to host “The Response,” a mass prayer event sponsored by the American Family Association hate group. A number of high-profile conservative political figures like Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal will join Christian evangelists in what the AFA has described as a group meditation.
"What we really need in these United States is a spiritual revival. It is time to turn back to God," Jindal explained in a video invitation to the event. "It's time to light the spark that starts the spiritual revival that will put these United States of America back on the right path."
Earlier this month the AFA published and quickly pulled an official prayer guide for The Response suggesting, amongst other things, that marriage equality and abortion were the causes of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
"As a member of the LSU student community, it saddens and offends me that our administration would welcome to campus a recognized hate group whose vile rhetoric targets gay and transgendered people, Muslims, immigrants, and other marginalized groups," said Maggie Cloos, a student responsible for creating a petition to ban the AFA from the LSU campus. the organizer of the student-led petition.
Organizing Against Hate Groups, the protest, is set to be an all day event featuring workshops teaching attendees how best to speak across political and social differences. So far six organizations housed at LSU’s Baton Rouge campus have signed up to participate in the protest with more expressing their interest in offering support.
Both The Response and Organizing Against Hate Groups will take place on January 24. Watch the American Family Association's video invitation to The Response - Louisiana: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis
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