Everyone has seen the festooned bike and bold signs on campus advocating that you “Trust Jesus Now.” But there’s more to the gray-haired man than the signs proclaim.
He isn’t looking for an argument. He’s not trying to convert you, either. He hasn’t always been a street preacher, but now he’s just trying to “sow seeds” and provide moral support for other Christians.
Most people who talk to Doug thank him for his presence on campus. Some even tell him they’re glad to see him.
But occasionally, passersby don’t like Doug’s message. While street evangelizing, people have yelled at him, punched him, spit on him and lambasted him on several occasions. As a street preacher, Doug soon learned, “not everyone is a nice guy out there.”
But mostly, people ignore him, he said.
Unlike some street preachers who have visited campus in the past, Doug is not looking for a theological fight. Instead, Doug stands quietly near the EMU Amphitheater with his sign nine hours a day, five days a week.
“I don’t want to argue,” he said, laughing. “I argued when I was married. I’m through arguing.”
And students take notice of Doug’s peaceful nature.
“He’s just trying to get his opinion across,” University student Willy Sercombe said.
Although campus ministries don’t see his work as particularly effective, they see it as inspirational.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily effective, otherwise I’d be out there doing it,” said Joel Martin, director of the University chapter of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. “I don’t think it speaks to the needs of campus. Rather than being told what to believe, students need to see how their stories fit in with the story of Jesus.”
Marisa Thompson, chaplain of Episcopal Campus Ministry, believes that Doug’s approach is “much less ‘in your face’ than most of the traveling preachers that come through here.”
But Doug hasn’t always been a fixture on college campuses.
In 1983, a friend in Honolulu inspired Doug to start street preaching. He passed out leaflets and put signs on vehicles when he first began. For a while, he gave street sermons at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. He grew tired of confrontational people as he spoke in Seattle, and soon realized that holding signs on college campuses was less intimidating.
Doug and his signs migrated from one college campus to the next, bouncing on and off the University of Oregon campus for the past two decades.
“It just felt good (to be at the University of Oregon),” he said, adding that he likes the atmosphere of the campus and city. “Eugene is a nice town in many ways … (it) isn’t the ghetto.”
It’s true that Doug is somewhat of a bohemian. “I went to a junior college in Northern California,” he said. “I didn’t graduate; I dropped out and became a hippie. In those days, lots of people were hippies.”
Whatever the future holds, Doug plans to continue street evangelizing at the University. “As long as my health holds out, I want to keep on doing this,” he said.
But Doug is not the “Sign-man” all the time. He’s not retired, “I’m just tired,” he said, laughing.
When he’s not on campus, Doug said he remodels houses. He likes to work on houses because “it’s fun to see something get accomplished.” Every so often, Doug goes down to California to remodel houses.
“I’ve worked on all kinds of homes,” he said. As for his own home, Doug lives within biking distance from campus.
Doug has numerous hobbies. Although he hasn’t been fishing for some time, he said he loves it. He mainly fishes Oregon creeks and rivers. “I’m a catch-and-eat guy. Once I become middle-class, I’d toss ’em back,” he said with a wry smile.
Along with fishing, Doug enjoys biking, photography and drawing. “I’m a regular guy,” he says, “I like babies and money. That proves I’m a normal guy.”
And although many might not see him that way, given the fact he spends most of his time on campus, Thompson prefers his approach.
“(He’s) familiar and non-threatening,” she said. “He may seem a little nutty, but he isn’t scary.”
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