In a sea of electrified students, many sporting the increasingly popular bright orange “I Agree With Adam” apparel, Adam Roethele shared the story of his religious life and answered the seemingly mysterious questions surrounding the campaign on campus.
After weeks of campaigning, the ambiguous “Adam” was revealed to be kinesiology senior Roethele, the student chosen to take on the persona of a campaign to fertilize conversation about Jesus Christ among students on campus.
Roethele shared his story of faith to University students Thursday night including anecdotes about his personal life and his relationship with God.
Political science and economics junior Josh Phillips said the “I Agree With Adam” campaign is not necessarily about raising awareness but rather creating relationships with people and sharing beliefs with anyone who wants to have a religious conversation.
“[The campaign] is an opportunity to understand what Christ has done for us,” Phillips said.
According to Phillips, the campaign drew University students from various campus ministries including The Refuge and Campus Outreach, and he said he has seen a lot of unity within the ministries.
Elementary special education sophomore Courtney Pope said, though it has been perceived in multiple ways on campus, she feels the “I Agree With Adam” campaign is not hurting anyone because it is not a forceful campaign but instead a resource for information about what the campaign represents.
Pope said the goal of the campaign is simply to share the personal beliefs of Adam and the campaign supporters but not to force anyone to share in those beliefs.
“I agree with Adam that Jesus Christ is our savior, and that is my personal belief, but I’m not telling you to believe that, and I’m not asking you to agree with me, but it’s just me stating my belief,” Pope said. “That’s all it is.”
Director of CRU at LSU Darin Travis said the concept behind the “I Agree With Adam” campaign can be traced back to as early as 1999 when he helped execute a similar campaign called “I Agree With Matt” at Purdue University.
Travis said the point behind not providing a lot of information about the campaign is to cultivate and inspire conversation among students to share and learn about their religious lives.
Pope said Roethele chose to be the one to offer his testimony of what God has done in his life and why he chooses to believe what he does.
“He is one student of the many of us who is deciding to share his personal testimony and journey in his relationship with God in front of many other people,” Pope said.
Though it has raised many questions and even controversy among University students, Pope said the shirt is just a resource for people to use to find out more information, but she does not understand why anyone would find the shirt oppressive or offensive.
Pope made the comparison of wearing the “I Agree With Adam” shirt to wearing a shirt supporting a musician or band.
“What if I dislike that band? Am I going to be upset because you’re wearing that shirt? It’s honestly just a shirt,” Pope said.
Electrical engineering senior Chantal Trosclair said, as a Christian, she has no problem with the actual message of the “I Agree With Adam” campaign but she does not agree with the way it was executed, specifically in its advertising.
Trosclair said at first, not knowing anything about the campaign or what is was about was confusing. After looking on the campaign’s website and Facebook page, she said she still had no better understanding of the campaign or the event it advertised.
When she finally talked to some of her classmates who were wearing the shirt, Trosclair said she completely supported the idea behind Christians spreading their beliefs but not the vague way it was executed.
“The way it was perceived by many people was that it was secretive and weird and so vague that they felt like they were being tricked into something,” Trosclair said.
As an active Christian, Trosclair said it is important to be upfront and forthcoming about what the goal of an event like this is.
“He is one student of the many of us who is deciding to share his personal testimony and journey in his relationship with God in front of many other people.”