A few weeks ago, Brother Jim and “posse” invaded USI’s free speech zone with bigoted rants about “blonde whores” and USI’s “gay-infested campus.”
When I first witnessed the large number of students stepping forth to deny his preachings, I was proud.
Students shouting gems like “I’m twerking for Jesus!” or “He doesn’t even go here!” lightly deposed Jim’s words.
To my dismay, students began displaying behavior equally as distasteful.
Students shouting, cursing and dancing provocatively merely empowered Jim’s position (in his opinion).
The formula brother Jim uses to encourage his ‘congregation’ unfolded before my eyes: offend a group of opinionated college students, watch them humiliate themselves, record it, present footage to followers and reap the benefits.
Initially, I felt inclined to join the ruckus – visualizing my hand guiding a clichéd whip-cream pie into his feral visage riled me.
He got under my skin, which was exactly his intent.
In dealing with ignorant Evangelist preachers, one must follow a few simple rules:
- Refrain from debating topics not personally studied. Information gained by hearsay rarely checks out.
- Do not ask questions then ignore the answers. It conveys inadequacy and lack of knowledge.
- Never engage irrational people. To do so is to become so.
This list represents a few of many immature acts I witnessed that day.
People like Brother Jim get off on provoking audiences.
The simple act of going about one’s day, as challenging as it might be, professes louder than a man with a big stick and belligerent proclamations.
Pushing personal beliefs upon others incites anger within me, but provides no excuse for Neanderthal behavior.
If I wanted Brother Jim to take his racist, misogynistic, homophobic and down-right evil preachings and shove them where God’s holy light surely does not shine, I shouldn’t have stood outside for 40 minutes listening to his ridiculous rants.
I probably should not have taken one of his brochures either, which was full of typos and incomplete sentences, by the way.
If we learn to ignore people like “Brother” Jim, they will eventually go away. At the very least we may have made their job exponentially duller.
