The University of Wyoming got another visit from Brother Jed Smock from Campus Ministry on Monday. His presence drew a large crowd of students who heckled and shouted in response to the unorthodox method he used to deliver his message.
A group of protestors circles the trench coat-clad man, who sits pensively in front of Coe Library at the University of Wyoming campus. It is late Monday afternoon, and his tired look indicates he is nearly finished spreading the word for the day.
“I am here to spread the good news of salvation.”
Students gathered throughout the day to offer their objections to the pastor’s controversial remarks and engage in heated debate with him.
Brother Jed Smock of Columbia, Mo., is used to the protests and heckles. For more than 40 years, he has traveled to all 50 U.S. states in addition to college campuses abroad only to be met by protest a majority of it.
He takes in stride, however.
“It works to my advantage,” he said of deliberately angering those who listen.
“We know how to get people’s attention; we are not politically correct,” Smock says with a faint grin. He and his wife Cindy, along with another evangelical couple, travel to dozens of college campuses annually as a team called the Campus Ministry, fiercely addressing the fundamental Christian notions of hell and sin to college students.
Getting people’s attention is how he believes he can spread his main message: “Jesus is the only way to God. Through his death and resurrection is the only hope for salvation.”
Campus Ministry’s presence in front of Coe Library on Monday presented a clash of ideologies as the protesters increased in numbers, angered primarily by his anti-gay sentiments.
He says that college students are “pluralistic and multicultural”, the only way to get them to listen to his strong Biblical beliefs is to shock them. Smock and his team warn students of the wrath of God by challenging homosexuality, premarital sex and alcohol, among other behaviors. The more attention grabbing, he says, the better, and provocative signs are an asset.
Conversely, signs were hoisted from the crowd promoting gay rights, love and tolerance. One group banded together on the east side of the Wyoming Union and began heckling Smock. His Bible-bearing team fired back accusations of hellishness and wickedness. A female student approached him and asked if it were true that he indicated earlier that lesbians deserve to be raped. He shook his head passively and said no.
Just as Smock is accustomed to the protests, he is accustomed to the same questions asked by students who debate religion one-on-one with him—“those atheists,” as he collectively calls them. He says they always believe they can outwit him, whether it is an inconsistency in the Bible or the subject of morality, but he has grown so used to hearing the same arguments he finds no originality in them and refuses to respond.
As the sunlight dimmed and the temperature cooled, he was not fazed by the dozens of resilient UW students who continued to challenge him. Campus Ministry’s cause may not have gone over so well in Laramie, but later this week they will travel to Colorado State University in Fort Collins to spread the word, followed by a trip to the University of Colorado—Boulder.
Will their approach be any different? No, Smock says. “We deliver with a flair.”
