Louisville, USA - A Pentecostal evangelist familiar to both college campuses and courtrooms has lost his initial bid to speak at Murray State University in western Kentucky.
James G. "Brother Jim" Gilles of Symsonia, Ky., sued the university in 2006, claiming that MSU deprived him of his rights to free speech and to exercise his religion by rejecting his requests to preach at the Curris Center, a campus spot frequented by students and visitors.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell, however, ruled that the school's campus speech policy, which requires speakers to obtain on-campus sponsors, is legal and not a burden on Gilles.
Gilles contends that he was not required to have a sponsor before 2004 and that MSU officials are arbitrarily enforcing the student handbook's solicitation policy.
Since 1981, the year Gilles says he found God while attending a Van Halen concert, the preacher has traveled across the nation to speak at dozens of universities and state capitals. He's fought speaking restrictions at other colleges, with some success.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a national legal organization founded in part by the Christian group Focus on the Family, represented Gilles in the lawsuit.
Gilles began speaking at Murray State in the 1980s and at various times has made disparaging remarks about students and professors, including referring to sorority members as prostitutes.
In October 2004, the university told Gilles he needed sponsorship from a university organization or department because his talks were considered solicitation.
Russell wrote that Murray State isn't required to treat open areas of its campus as a public forum. And because the school's policy requires everyone to get a sponsor, Gilles can't make the case that his rights were violated, Russell wrote.