Sidewalk evangelist makes controversial statements

A controversial traveling evangelist, Jesse Morrell, made a stop outside the Sam Rayburn Student Center Oct. 26, to spread his personal views on religion.

Morrell has visited over 80 campuses in 27 countries spreading his views through "open air" demonstrations condemning college students' lifestyles. He wore a sign for this occasion warning groups ranging from gangster rappers and immoral women to socialists and pornographers.

"I'm here trying to talk to college students and get their attention, I think I have been pretty effective," Morrell said.

Students and faculty alike gathered around him with mixed feelings about his message.

"I think he is setting himself up for failure," freshman Marissa Martel said. "Everyone is pretty much making fun of him and I think he is just judging everyone. I mean, we are college kids and we party and everything; so, he is basically saying everything we do here is wrong."

Morrell bounced between traditional views of Christianity and extreme interpretations on the Bible.

 "I have no problem with women working, I bought my wife a cookbook," Morrell said.

The University Police Department sent an officer to control the crowds and make sure the students remained safe. Although the university did support his right to the first amendment, they chose not move him to the East Circle by the McDowell Administration Building, the zone that used to be designated for free speech situations.

"The university is in the process of changing those around, so we do not have any clear-cut free speech zones at the moment," Lt. Jason Bone said. "I think Dr. Jones is looking into that. This kind of came up yesterday, so in this particular case we played it by ear. He was not really hurting anything where he was at, but maybe next time we might move them a little bit down because one of the issues was that some of the crowd was standing in the street and that is obviously a safety issue."

As well as "preaching", Morrell also answered questions from students in the crowd to try and clarify his train of thought.

"He is preaching to people about not sinning but kind of contradicting himself in a way saying that you can't be perfect but at the same time ask for penance if you do sin so he is kind of talking himself in circles," Sophomore Nathan Bullock said. "I do not think there is any problem expressing opinions, because we have freedom of speech; but, he needs to be real clear about what he is talking about without contradicting himself."

Many students were visibly upset at Morrell's views, some to the point of arguing their own religious views. The Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) said they had several students come in and ask for advise on dealing with the evangelical.

"It is unfortunate, but I think there are people who call themselves Christian who don't really understand what the bible teaches about the character and nature of God," Director of the BSM Joe Schmidt said. "I'm sure he thought he was being faithful to God's commands to be a witness and to warn people about the consequences of their choices, but his attitude was very condemning and judgmental and whether he realized it or not he was being very self-righteous; those are all things that Jesus himself condemned repeatedly. It is so sad that people see that and think that is what Christianity is, and it is really the opposite of what Christianity is supposed to be."