During a week which is supposed to be marked by the observance of important religious holidays by many campus groups, two hate-filled pamphlets depicting offensive messages directed at Jews and homosexuals were mailed to campus leaders by an unknown person or group in the past few days.
The pamphlets contained long cartoon strips with degrading dialogue and story lines and were mailed to Student Assembly President Josh Green '00, who is Jewish, as well as officers of the Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance, Dean of the Tucker Foundation Scott Brown, Interim College Chaplain Gwendolyn King and Rabbi for Dartmouth Hillel Edward Boraz.
In the Jewish mailing, titled "Where's Rabbi Waxman?" a deceased rabbi was sent to hell for not believing in Jesus. The rabbi questions, "Lord Jesus, is everyone lost who rejects you?" The Jesus figure answers, "Yes, I am the only way to heaven."
The rabbi had previously rejected scriptures which "indicate the Messiah has already come" with the words, "Gasp, I've seen these Scriptures before. If I accept them, my people will disown me."
The second mailing depicts homosexuals encouraging children to be homosexual and threatening to "infect the nation's blood supply" with HIV. "If research money for AIDS is not coming at a certain level by a certain date, all gay males should give blood. Whatever is required to get national attention is valid. If that includes blood terrorism, so be it." The pamphlet responds that their actions are "cold-blooded murder."
The homosexual pamphlet goes on to compare gay men with child molesters -- "Even children were not safe from their gross perversions" -- and said, "God doesn't make homosexuals. If he did, he wouldn't condemn them."
A character in the cartoon says, "I became a modern day Sodomite because my teachers said it was a harmless alternative lifestyle. They lied through their teeth, so now I'm doomed to hell."
The mailings, which were discovered in the recipients' mailboxes throughout this past week, contained the return address -- "Crusade for Christ HB 5072." However, the Campus Crusade for Christ's Student Director Owen Fletcher '00 denied that his "organization or anyone from [his] organization" mailed the pamphlets.
Fletcher told The Dartmouth he thought the mailings were "saddening and offensive and we sympathize with anyone who received them."
The pamphlets were produced by Chick Publications in California. An e-mail address printed on the pamphlets read GodlovesDartmuth@Hotmail.com (sic).
DRA secretary Chris LaBarbera '02 discovered two identical copies of the homosexual pamphlet when he checked the group's mailbox yesterday morning. The envelopes were addressed to the DRA president and secretary by their title but did not use specific names.
After the DRA called a meeting last night to discuss the mailing, Green informed the DRA leadership he too had received a hate mailing.
Fletcher said the three Tucker Foundation administrators received their pamphlets within the last week and had contacted the CCC about them.
In a letter to numerous administrative leaders, DRA Treasurer and former Co-Chair Ezekiel Webber '00 said he believes the "CCC and the Tucker Foundation handled this 'internally' because they did not know that anyone else received similar mailings."
Green said he too was not going to make his experience public until he discovered others had received similar pamphlets, saying the DRA announcement "renewed my frustration."
"I found it insulting," Green said. "To me the notion that that was an effective way to communicate ideas to me was very insulting,"
In the DRA letter, Webber said he believes the mailing expressed "a religious perspective" in a "manner that intends to hurt rather than convince or convert. I believe that this, as well as intentionally misrepresenting a student group, works directly against our Principle of Community."
Webber said he does not believe any individual members of the DRA received similar pamphlets.
While this is the first time Webber and Green said they have received any mailings of this magnitude, other hate actions have occurred at the College in the past. Last year, a Star of David and the words "Death to you" were painted on the door of a Channing Cox apartment housing three Jewish women.
