Bibles-for-porn stunt draws crowd at UTSA

This story is from the San Antonio Express-News dated 03/03/2010.

By Melissa Ludwig - Express-News
Tired of that old Bible or Quran?
Members of the Atheist Agenda, a student organization at the University of Texas at San Antonio, are encouraging students to trade in religious texts for pornography this week with their “Smut for Smut” campaign.
In the view of club members, religious texts are as smutty as pornography because they contain violence and torture and spark religious wars. But mostly, it's a public relations stunt meant to ignite debate and attract new members to the club.
As in the past, this year's campaign did not disappoint, drawing hundreds to UTSA's Sombrilla Plaza on Monday to either cheer, protest or inquire about the event and to debate the role of religion in society.
“It's a First Amendment right,” said Bradley Lewis, 18, a freshman from Pear-land who said he plans to join the Atheist Agenda. “If religious groups can put out missionaries and go knock on my door and wake me up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning, I can put a table outside of the college.”
Robin Lorkovic, 18, a freshman from Houston, disagreed. Lorkovic stood near the “Smut for Smut” table holding a cardboard sign that said “God Loves You! Keep your Bible and learn from it!”
“I don't really feel like that is appropriate at all,” Lorkovic said. “I am a Christian. I believe in God's love, and I am here to stand my ground and stand up for what I believe in.”
The Atheist Agenda started at UTSA in 2005, and the group's first “Smut for Smut” campaign blew up into a national media sensation. Past President Thomas Jackson was deluged with interview requests, and he debated Tucker Carlson, the bow-tie-wearing conservative pundit, on MSNBC.
This year, organizers said a group of Christians amassed to protest the event, and one protester ripped a sign from someone's hands. But police kept a watchful gaze over students involved in heated debates and did not report any violence.
“This is ultimately why this is going on,” Lewis said. “It's an icebreaker to get people talking about these things.”

Some of the comments on this article were pretty good. Of course, there is also a lot of people condemning this as a foolish stunt and trying to defend their religion while consigning those that don't believe to hell for eternity.