Post by messengermicah on Apr 28, 2009 15:32:56 GMT -5
Tuesday April 14, 2009-Clemson University-Clemson, South Carolina: This school requires 72 hours of advance notice to obtain permission to use the free speech area. Sister Elizabeth and I drove up from Northeast Georgia last Thursday (April 9) to fill out an application for April 14-17.
RAINED OUT
When I woke up this morning it was raining. After several hours it stopped raining but was still very overcast. I had planned on leaving for the university around 11:00 AM. A young man from the area was interested in accompanying us to the university and he showed up at our trailer around 11:00 AM.
As we left for the campus it began raining again. We drove to the campus and I went into the office to get a copy of our permit. It was still raining. We drove to the area where we would be preaching and it was now raining very hard. It was around 11:45 AM.
We decided to go eat lunch. While eating lunch near the campus it stopped raining but then started again. At this point, I decided to wait to begin preaching until the following day.
INTERVIEW
The young man who has been filming some of our preaching from time to time was driving down and wanted to do an interview with me later in the afternoon. He interviewed me from 4:45 PM to 5:45 PM and then accompanied me to a local church.
The pastor called on me to preach and I preached for over an hour on “Advancing the Kingdom of God” from Matthew 6:10. The pastor invited me back to preach again the following week.
Wednesday April 15, 2009-Clemson University-Clemson, South Carolina: Sister Elizabeth and the young man filming showed up on campus around 11:30 AM. It seemed to be ideal weather for preaching.
DOUBLE SCHEDULED
As I approached the area I had reserved (Cox Plaza) I could hear loud music being played. The office scheduled both of us for the same area on the same day at the same time.
I could not understand how they could knowingly schedule a preaching event along with a group playing loud music in the same area at the same time. The group there had a lot of equipment and had obviously reserved the area in advance and planned this event. They sounded genuinely sorry and embarrassed about the situation even though it was not their fault.
I called the office and told them they needed to offer me an alternative spot. They said they could so we took the shuttle over to the office where we had made the reservation.
They said they could give me a concrete patio area (Hendrix Plaza) right next to the building where we made the reservation. It did not look like this spot was nearly as good as the other one but I decided to give it a try. It was getting close to 1:00 PM and the other area would be available around 2:00 PM. If this spot was no good, I would head over to the original spot around 2:00 PM.
SCALDING THE SUNBATHERS
I began preaching in the patio spot (Hendrix Plaza) around 12:50 PM. There were only a few people in the area. It is right next to the freshman dorms and area known for sunbathers. At times I would have students stop and ask a few questions, listen and then leave. It took some time but soon a crowd began to form. I was being very cautious in my preaching as I suspected the administration and police would try to censure me. The crowd continued to grow to over 100 and the police showed up.
When the crowd reached around 125 the police asked me to stop for a minute and wanted to see my permit. The administration then stepped in and began to explain to them how they had messed up the scheduling and allowed me to be in that spot on this day.
I continued preaching and the crowd continued to grow to around 150-175. Around 2:00 PM I was stopped by the administration and police and told to follow them into the office.
DOUBLE STANDARD: FILMING
When Sister Elizabeth and I came into the office the administrators and the police officer told me the young man was not allowed to do any filming. This sounded unfair to me but I do not really know what the law says about this. I told them I knew the young man filming but he was not actually affiliated with me and they would have to talk to him not me.
They then began to nitpick and exaggerate things about my preaching and tell me about some complaints they had received. I showed them my audio recorder and told them I had recorded everything I had said and clarified to them what had actually happened instead of what some student who did not like my preaching and tried to get me in trouble said.
We seemed to come to a mutual understanding and they seemed to understand I was fairly cooperative and respectful of them and were not there to make trouble. I left the office around 2:25 PM.
The young man who drove down to film was told he was not allowed to film anymore but of course this rule did not apply to the many others who were in the crowd filming with video cameras and mobile phones while I was preaching.
STIRRING THE POT
By now most of the crowd had left. I began preaching again around 2:30 PM and soon the crowd built right back up again and grew even larger than before to around 200-220. The school newspaper had showed up earlier and was taking pictures and asking questions.
Throughout the afternoon I did everything I could to comply with the officers and administrators so they would have no excuse to shut me down and kick me off campus. However, they did not seem to mind at all as the students ran up in my face, touched me, followed me around, called me all kinds of names, etc.
DOUBLE STANDARD: SAFETY FIRST!
I was continually told while in the office that “safety was first” but when students ran into my face, followed me around, touched me and threatened me nothing was ever said to them nor was “safety” enforced.
Needless, to say I did not appreciate this hypocritical double standard but I said nothing because it would do no good anyway.
WHAT IS THIS?
One female student who claimed to be a Christian came running up in my face screaming and yelling and demanding me to show her where in the Bible it said Christians were expected to stop sinning. I showed her 1 John 5:18 and if it was not so sad it would have been funny. She read the verse and absolutely could not believe what she was reading. She turned around and looked at her classmates standing around and said as she looked at my Bible “What is this?!”
I was getting ready to stop preaching around 3:30 PM but then the majority of the crowd began leaving anyway because some of the students told them to leave and not listen to me. Some students had also gone to ask my wife questions.
FRUITFUL DISCUSSION
Around 3:40 PM several students came up and began asking me questions. I sat down and began answering their questions in a calm manner. The crowd gradually grew from a few to about 35-40 students sitting and standing around listening and asking questions. I continued this until around 4:20 PM. We then began to leave the area.
It was a hot day and the spot where I was preaching was all concrete and had no shade. I felt a little overheated as we left the campus area.
That evening I preached in the local church where we were staying for over one hour on “Advancing the Kingdom of God” from Matthew 6:10.
Thursday April 16, 2009-Clemson University-Clemson, South Carolina: Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus around 11:30 AM. It was another day of great preaching weather.
I arrived in the free speech area (Cox Plaza) which I had reserved around 11:40am. A student came up and introduced himself and we talked a few minutes. I began preaching around 11:50 AM and immediately a crowd began to gather and listen.
NO SMALL STIR
In a very short time the crowd grew to over 100 and continued to increase. Soon the crowd grew to over 200 and began to close in on me. An administrator woman did her best to try to make the crowd back up but they did not listen well.
Soon several police officers showed up and began to make the crowd back up and keep a distance about 5-7 yards away from me. It was a real slug out day of combat preaching with large crowds of 200-250 all afternoon long and students constantly firing questions, comments, accusations, and trying to preach over me.
At times they would quiet down and listen to some preaching. I did my best to take questions in an orderly manner and this worked well at times but soon the crowd would become so convicted as their excuses for sinning were ripped away by the Sword of the Word of God they would get rowdy again.
The 3-4 police offices stood directly behind me all afternoon long along with several administrators as the crowd of 200-250 continued to try to close in.
Several times the officers would step in and make the students back up again and several times they had to move individual students back.
PREACHING IS HARRASSMENT?
It was amazing how so many students needed to talk to the administrators and have them explain to them why Americans have a right to freedom of speech. The students kept whining and complaining and demanding to have me removed but the administration did a good job of standing their ground.
One student accused me of harassment. I wondered how students can become so brainwashed into believing one person surrounded by 250 people who disagree with him and can walk away any time they want to be harassment. It is a testimony as to how effective open air preaching of the Word of God is.
SAVED BUT STILL SINNING!
Most of the questions, comments, preaching throughout the afternoon were the typical Bible Belt type of “sinning” Christians “who can’t live right and can’t die wrong”.
I discovered almost every student on this campus was “saved” but they were all “sinners” also. I repeatedly explained you cannot be a Christian and a sinner at the same time (John 9:31, 1 Peter 4:18, 1 Peter 3:12, 1 Timothy 1:8-9).
THE CAGE PREACHER
After the police backed the students up away from me several times I asked the police if they had any barricades they could surround me with to keep the crowd back. They said they did not but then about 45 minutes later they showed up and formed a square around me made of four barricades.
OFFICER HAS CHANGE OF HEART
The officers did an excellent job today of keeping the crowd back without interfering and did not attempt to censure me the way they did the day before. We praise the Lord for this as the same officer was on duty that day.
One large male African American student showed up dressed like Jesus with a white robe and fake beard. Another student showed up dressed like me with Harry Potter as his Bible.
Around 2:30 PM the crowd was still around 200-250 and just as rowdy if not rowdier. I had been preaching in the direct sunlight with brick all around me since before noon. I wanted to try to sit down and have some discussion with some of the more serious students and try to weed out the hecklers, hypocrites, and perverts. The problem was inside my barricade pen was no place to sit down. Most of the time if I sit down the students calm down because it is a less combative posture.
I asked the officers if it was ok for me to move to an area where I could sit down and they said it was as long as I stayed inside the Cox Plaza. They moved the barricades to another spot in the shade with a brick planter to sit on.
NO EXCUSE FOR SINNING
I sat down and for about 15-20 minutes the students remained somewhat calm and civil and we had some good discussion. I was able to totally refute 1 John 1:8 as an excuse to sin by putting it in context and this seemed to really convict the students and they began to become uncivil again. The crowd size went down a little when we moved and I sat down but soon it seemed to grow right back to the 200-250 range.
As the students became rowdy again, I had no choice but to get up and continue preaching. I continued preaching until 3:30 PM. It remained a slug out until the end as the crowd was large, rowdy and would try to preach and yell over me and all ask questions at the same time. One black male student acknowledged to the crowd that I was preaching the truth of the Bible.
We left the campus around 3:30 PM escorted by the police.
Friday April 17, 2009-Clemson University-Clemson, South Carolina: Sister Elizabeth and I arrived on campus again around 11:40 AM. There was a front page picture and article of the preaching in the school newspaper.
GOD’S CONDITIONAL FORGIVENESS
I began preaching inside the barricade area under the shade around 11:50 AM. I began preaching on the conditional forgiveness of God (Luke 13:3, 5, Proverbs 28:13, Matthew 6:14-15, 1 John 1:7, 9, Acts 3:19).
This subject was heavy on my heart as the day before Sister Elizabeth and I kept being invited to the FCA meeting (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) by the students. I thought this was some kind of Bible study where I could interact with the students and have some discussion so we drove out to the university on Thursday night.
When we showed up we discovered hundreds of students dressed as if they were going to a club but carrying their “Fashionable NIV” Bibles. It was going to be some kind of “Christian rock concert” and then have a speaker talking about how someone cannot lose their salvation.
Needless to say we left as we could not stomach either of these.
As I began preaching and explaining the conditional forgiveness of God a large crowd began to form immediately and soon the questions were flying. Soon a crowd of 150-250 surrounded the barricades and stayed this way for the remainder of the afternoon.
The police showed up and stayed behind me all day long but never interfered or tried to censure me in any way. They did an excellent job.
My wife had the opportunity throughout the three days to talk to students, discuss Bible verses, and give a Bible and a few tracts to the honest students.
It was another day of slug out preaching with students asking many questions at the same time, trying to yell and preach over me and the crowd loud and rowdy at times. At times the crowd would settle down and listen to some preaching and listen to me answer questions but soon would become rowdy again.
At 2:40 PM with the permission of the police officers I went to take a restroom break. I thought the crowd would disperse some after I left but when I came back the crowd was just as large as or larger than before.
ATTEMPT TO CALM ROWDY CROWD FAILS
At this point, I tried to sit down and have some discussion with the more sincere seekers of truth and weed out the hecklers, hypocrites and perverts but to no avail. The crowd size remained the same and every bit as rowdy. I was unable to have much calm, civil, question and answer type discussion so I went back to standing up and continued preaching. Of course, at times they would settle down and listen well.
I continued preaching until 4:00 PM and then we were escorted to our vehicle by several police officers.