The Ethics of Pit Preaching: conversation and censorship at UNC

Pit Preaching on UNC's campus has been historically attributable to Gary Birdsong, a fundamentalist Christian preacher whose message is riddled with racism, homophobia, and sexism. This semester, student preachers have been growing in popularity, and we're forced to face the consequences of free speech and potential censorship on our campus. Today's episode includes student views on Pit Preachers, the First Amendment, Censorship, and methods used by religious student organizations to recruit new members. This episode also includes recordings with Pit Preachers, taken in The Pit. Preachers were overwhelmingly excited to take the floor and spread God's word, but some students question whose word they're really spreading, and what their intentions are. What makes a conversation productive, and can productive discourse happen between preachers and students? Pit Perspectives takes soundbites recorded candidly in The Pit at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and mixes them with commentary and statistics to create a comprehensive review of the student body's thoughts on an important social issue. Our method allows regular students to share anonymous opinions and gives a voice to those who have thoughts on the topic but do not have access to more formal outlets of expression.Check out our Instagram @PitPerspectivesUNC to stay up to date on the podcast.Click this link to view our sources for this episode. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kS87qlg7CfVNQIpjsqn5-n9MuympobR5/view?usp=sharingSupport the show