A street preacher talks to students about sin Thursday afternoon in Simpson’s Plaza.
Ah, the return of the men in suits, handing out green New Testament Bibles. School must be in full swing again. For those who are new to campus, the ‘green Bibles’ are a tradition of a religious group sharing the Gospel of the New Testament.
While I still remember them forcing me to fall off my bicycle freshmen year to give me a Bible I already had, I am not bothered by their presence. They don’t preach to me about their understandings of the Bible; they simply hand them out like a pizza store puts coupons on the car windshields at a supermarket.
This is accepted free speech, and if you are polite and forceful enough, the men with green Bibles will leave you alone. I don’t mean anything against them when refusing a Bible; I simply have my own at home, fully highlighted from high school years ago.
Yet there are those who desire to let us know how wrong we are as religious people. They don’t think Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Daoism or even different sects of Christianity are the right way to God. It is only their interpretation of the Gospel that somehow leads to eternal life. They vary in appearance from year to year.
We had Fred Phelps protest in the 1990s after Matthew Shepard died; last year a man with posters and signs protested at UW.
And don’t get me started on those who dress up in the 1800s attire, using their children to preach about all the people who are being sent to hell with lovely note cards. They were here last Spring.
What annoys me is the negative stereotype of Christianity that these people bring to campus. Most Christians on campus don’t force people to hear how we are all “going to hell, hell hell!” like the man in the plaza did on Thursday.
If someone says there is only One Judge and His Judgment is Just, shouldn’t you leave the condemning to Him? What happened to loving your neighbor and helping those in need?
Jesus hung out with 12 men and a prostitute named Mary whom he forgave without concern. Shouldn’t the verse about “ignoring the mite in the eye of a sinner while you have a beam in your own”, be looked at with the same intensity these people have for the fire and brimstone verses?
I might be rusty on my Bible, but when did Jesus go up to people and say go to hell, hell, hell? He warned people, sure. And he preached to large groups. But did he try and provoke anger or pain to those walking past? He preached with love and compassion.
If I recall, hatred and pride are tools of somebody else. This street preacher thrives on attention. He uses Jesus and a holy text to garner attention for an ego and swelling of pride abhorrent to most religious beliefs. These false men of God make outrageous claims, and use terrible logic on purpose. Once in a while they even add in something cultural about sex for a larger confrontation, and leave everyone with a bad taste in their mouth. Police even showed up to quell any possible anger. That doesn’t sound like an environment of Christ-like love to me.
Give me a Mormon missionary any day: when you say you have a religion and are not interested, you get a lovely “thank you have a nice day” instead of the cursing of fire and brimstone. The idea of hearing a gospel was the last thing on my mind after seeing this year’s street preacher.
To be honest, the protestor preaching about the Greek God Dionysus, and the protestor preaching from a Spanish book and World Religion textbook, helped ease the tension in the air more than any police officer could. And it sure was more entertaining.
The man in the plaza shrieked out how he knew there were Christians on this campus. He was right. They aren’t being confrontational or offensive. They are humble and active in the community, alongside members of other faiths and creeds worldwide. Even the Evangelical Union Guy keeps to his table, whose views I do not completely agree with, and simply has people come to him if they have questions or debates to discuss.
This is a campus of great spirituality and religious belief. It’s sad these extreme street preachers contribute more damage to the American Christian image than help.
To those who are from abroad and are of different faiths and creeds, I apologize for the image you have seen. This preacher from Thursday does not represent all Christians, nor those of any type of faith. But at a university with free speech and religion, the extremists desire to be heard too.
