OPINION: A student organisation fair is not the right place for a church to recruit new members
AU student Habibe Holzkamp was shocked to see the international megachurch Hillsong represented at the International Student Organisation Fair at the Aarhus University campus earlier this week. The church and the university should be kept seperate, she argues in this opinion piece.
This is an opinion piece, the views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the writer.
On Tuesday 2nd September, the International Student Organisation Fair took place at the Studenterhus. As expected, various sports clubs, career services and language schools were in attendance. But alongside carrot cupcakes, free sweets and tote bags, there was a stall with a simple black banner bearing the words 'Welcome Home' and the white logo of Hillsong Church.
Hillsong Church is a megachurch founded in Australia and now present in over 30 countries worldwide. Thousands of people fill large venues every week. Music plays a central role, and the services resemble big concerts rather than traditional church services. The atmosphere appears welcoming and positive, and the church's slogans, 'Welcome Home' and 'Come As You Are', seem to invite people from all backgrounds and offer a family-like community.
However, these appearances seem to merely be a façade. Former members of global Hillsong church management have allegedly been involved in various scandals involving racism and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community and cases of child abuse and sexual abuse according to documentaries such as FX's The Secrets of Hillsong based on reporting done by Vanity Fair, HBO's Hillsong a megachurch exposed and the German podcast Toxic Church - Die Hillsong-Story.
Church and university should be kept separate
I ask myself: Is a university campus the right place for a church to recruit new members? Especially when it is riddled with scandals that go against the open and diverse environment that Aarhus University claims to stand for?
In an email to the organisers of the fair, I voiced my concerns about the presence of Hillsong Church at the fair and asked why they had been given a platform. The response I received was brief, simply thanking me for my feedback and stating that they would „review their procedures for organising the International Student Organisations Fair and decide whether any updates were needed“.
Students interested in Hillsong Church are free to do their own research and reach out to the church if they wish. However, this must happen outside of the university environment. I strongly believe that the church and the university should be kept separate, and that a student organisation fair is not the right place for any church to recruit new members and spread its beliefs.