It’s that time of year again: the brimstone preachers have begun flooding Free Speech Plaza.
On days when these nut jobs are on campus, I can’t even walk to work without hearing them proclaim: “You must repent your sins.” To these people, everything is a sin. Homosexuality, Judaism, socialism, dyed hair and even belief in evolution are all scornful in the eyes of God according to those who preach to the students in Free Speech Plaza. 
The idea of a group that proclaims loves for of God’s children being so intolerant of others’ beliefs is ironic. For conservative Christians like these, “love thy neighbor” seems only to apply if that neighbor looks and acts like you.
These preachers scream at college kids for hours on end, judging them as moral arbiters while paradoxically releasing homophobic, transphobic, racist and sexist rhetoric into the air. Their signs are brazen with Bible verses they claim are evidence of their hateful beliefs, but that in reality show their misunderstanding of the religion as a whole.
Groups like this are not only not Christian; their entire act is antithetical to the teachings they’re so eager to defend. It’s my understanding from attending about two decades’ worth of Catholic mass that God loves all of his creations, not just those who believe in his tenets and practice his dogma.
If conservative Christians like the ones that invade our campus waving around freedom of religion as an excuse for their intolerance were truly moral people, they wouldn’t defame those around them. Rather, they would do their best to lift others up and embrace their uniqueness.
Isn’t everyone made perfect in the image of God, after all? Even those who have sinned?
Conservative Christianity is not limited to college campuses: it’s everywhere in American society — and, for a group that claims to follow the word of Jesus and his Apostles, they seem to be completely misunderstanding the message.
Conservative politicians across the country, particularly here in Louisiana, use Christianity as their prime directive behind policies. These can range from defending America from “the war on Christmas” each year to advocating for a ban on legal abortions in the name of “protecting God’s creations.”
In the case of the latter, conservative politicians are using their Christianity to justify removing women’s autonomy over their own bodies. How very Christian of them to strip rights from half of God’s creations. 
Even Jesus Christ himself is misread by many politically conservative Christians. The same conservative Christians that decry socialism as the work of the devil and the downfall of western civilization seem to ignore Jesus’ own ideas of wealth distribution — as well as his status as the Middle Eastern “King of the Jews,” rather than the white man he is so often portrayed as.
Galatians says: Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 
If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you: Leviticus 25:35-38 states. Take no interest from him or profit… You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. I am the Lord your God.
Contrary to what some conservatives may think, Jesus wasn’t a capitalist in line with modern conservatism. He was more in line with Bernie Sanders’ social programs than with the kind of greed that led to Donald Trump’s ascendance. 
Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry and worked to level out the social hierarchy in his time. He taught that the highest form of love was through service to your neighbor as God’s child. Sound’s a lot like socialized medicine and unionization, no?
Practiced correctly, Christianity can be progressive in its teachings, but so many still use it as a justification for oppression. Whether it’s the brimstone preachers in Free Speech Plaza or Donald Trump and his own disciples using fake Christianity to win followers on baseless rhetoric, conservatism just doesn’t align with the Bible’s teachings of peace among men.
If religion exists as an integral part of American society, why should it function now as a perversion of its original intent? Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and nearly every other religion is about helping others and guiding morality toward peace among men, something conservatism seems to go against as of late.
There’s nothing wrong with practicing religion. It acts as a guiding light for so many. But when that light points in the wrong direction, we get the bigotry masked in morality the preachers on campus espouse in Free Speech Plaza. 
Domenic Purdy is a 19-year-old journalism sophomore from Prairieville.