Mariana Ramos
Anti-gay activists decided to wake up early on Sunday morning, their target location for protesting? The First Congressional Church of Geneva. Around seven men were standing on the sidewalk protesting, according to Colin Campbell, a Geneva resident and fellow church member.
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Speaking to the Kane County Chronicle, “I was hopeful this group wouldn’t show up again,” Campbell said. He said he walked up to the group, who asked him if he follows Jesus Christ and gave him a flier that said “Love Kills Pride.”
Campbell said he and a church member had set up emails to go to a list of people who said they wanted to be notified if the church needed help. The call to his wife was to put the rapid response team into action.
Five minutes later, supporters of the church and its accepting nature began to arrive in counter-protest to the anti-gay activists. Within 30 minutes, the Chronicle reported Campbell as saying, there were about 50 people there supporting the church. They made their way from Geneva, Batavia, St. Charles, Elgin, Aurora, Fox Lake, McHenry, Sycamore and DeKalb.
The anti-gay group targeted the church last month, approaching its parishioners and telling them the church’s welcoming status to the LGBT community is against what the Bible teaches. On Nov. 26, about 300 people stood in front of the First Congregational Church of Geneva to provide support if the anti-gay group were to return.
Brenda Engelhardt was at the Nov. 26 event. “I don’t necessarily know these people, but I know what they are doing is right,” the Chronicle reported her as saying.
Church member Carolyn Fabian told the Chronicle she was at another church that morning for a concert when she got a text about the anti-gay activists. “I never anticipated this level of support,” she said.
Fabian created the “Got love?” rainbow signs that apparently made the church a target for anti-gay activists.
In contrast, Aaron Viland, 19, of St. Charles said he created the “Love kills pride” posters that he put up on city utility poles in response to the “Got Love?” signs. Viland also said his group does not have a name or belong to a particular church.
“We are just Christians who are friends with each other and have similar views on things, and we just kind of work together,” Viland said. “We were trying to share the gospel with them, that Jesus died so sinners can be forgiven of their sins.”
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In the end, love actually won. “[The protestors] were right at the first step and I was trying to figure out how to push them back, and these guys just made a wall and were chanting, ‘Love wins,’ and they backed off all the way to the grass, and we were able to get people into the church OK,” Fabian said. “It was fantastic.”
