Turlington Plaza is an area of the
University of Florida famed for two things:
- Free pizza, when the Papa John's kami is feeling generous
- Christian wingnuts telling you that you are damned
If there's a central point on the UF campus, Turlington is it: wedged between the Marston Science Library, the Computer Science and Engineering Building, the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences in Turlington Hall,
Century Tower, the University Auditorium, and the College of Music... and pretty close to everything else.
Frats and
sororities love to
table there.
Its true notoriety, however, comes from its preachers. They don't show up at Turlington every day, but most of the time, you can expect to find a fat Southerner carrying a huge sign. Sometimes, it's a picture of an aborted fetus. Other times, it's a written tirade against Mormons, Catholics, and Muslims.
The preachers at Turlington capitalize on the fact that, while UF is located in Gainesville, Florida, otherwise staunchly fixed in the Deep South, many of its students come from South Florida, which automatically makes them sinners. This stands in contrast to other SEC schools located in purely Southern states, which don't have that sort of demographic dichotomy to deal with.
When the student body is feeling particularly sane, they ignore the preachers. Most of the time, though, a preacher can get a nice circle of spectators going, and launch a heated debate with an atheist or Jew in the crowd about who's going to Hell. These can be very fun to watch. One exchange involving a friend of mine went like this:
Preacher: I used to be hooked on LSD and black magic, until I found Jesus!
Student: I used to be hooked on Jesus, until I found LSD and black magic!