Most of Crowd Agrees With Marty

Junior Marty Baldwin is the source of the bright orange "Do you agree with Marty?" T-shirts, which 500 students have pledged to wear throughout the week.

Baldwin's mission, he said, is to facilitate discussion among all UNC students. "Let's search for the answers, let's search for what the truth is," Baldwin told the throng of people.

On the steps of South Building, he preached to the crowd the truth of Christianity and the importance of a relationship with God.

For the most part, his message was warmly received. "I feel exuberant," said journalism Professor Chuck Stone. "David Horowitz divided us, and Marty united us."

Senior Ashanti Sebastien, one of the participants in the campaign, agreed that it had a bonding effect. "It's great just to unite Christians in general," she said.

But not everyone in the crowd was there because they agreed with Marty.

"I think all these people are sheep," said Patrick Herring, a sophomore wearing a shirt that read "Fuck Marty" on the front and "God Is Dead" on the back. Herring said his shirt was supposed to prompt discussion, just like the orange ones.

Whether they were for or against Marty's views, many students came to enjoy the free Chick-fil-A nuggets.

Tony Holmes, owner of the University Mall Chick-fil-A, said he donated about 2000 nuggets because the campaign fits in with Chick-fil-A's corporate purpose -- to glorify God. "I firmly believe that I have my business because God has put me there," he said. "It's just about letting them hear the gospel."

Members of several campus Christian groups began organizing this campaign last spring, said Mark Cummings, a senior who was on the coordinating committee.

He said the committee got the idea because the same thing has been done on several other campuses, including Indiana University. Cummings said the committee, which consisted of members of several Christian campus groups, has been meeting once a week since September.

"Logistically, it took a lot of fund raising and publicity," he said. Cummings said they wrote to local churches to pay for the advertisements about it in The Daily Tar Heel, while the 500 participants each paid $5 for the T-shirts.

Cummings said the project had three goals -- to unify the Christian community, to promote the message "God loves you" and to start a dialogue about religion.

He said, "We didn't want just to tell people what we believe -- we want a dialogue, we want to get people thinking spiritually, and we want to listen to them."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.