View video of the speaker here.
A “confrontational” preacher who travels the nation to speak on college campuses drew a crowd Wednesday afternoon as he stood in front of the Erb Memorial Union and spoke to students about a range of issues, from masturbation to how to be “saved.”
George “Brother Jed” Smock, of Columbia, Mo., is the founder and president of an organization called Campus Ministry USA. He travels around the nation speaking full-time at different campuses. This is his third consecutive annual visit to campus.
A crowd of about 60 students gathered around 2 p.m. and asked Smock questions about the Bible. Some members of the crowd were antagonistic, making obscene gestures and cursing, but others asked serious questions about Christianity.
Although several Department of Public Safety officers kept watch on the scene, Officer Kent Abbott said Smock was not in violation of any laws and DPS was only there to keep an eye on the situation.
Although crowds sometimes gather around speakers on campus, Abbott said these situations have not turned violent in “probably decades.”
Sophomore Chris Brown watched the scene for nearly two hours. He said when he arrived around noon, only about 20 people had gathered and the crowd grew as more people began to ask questions.
Brown, who described himself as having a “religious background,” said a lot of the things Smock said meshed with the beliefs Brown was raised with.
Brown said of the 60 or so people in the crowd, he estimated about 20 students were asking silly questions, 20 were “in-between,” and another 20 were religious.
Smock, who has been preaching on campuses for more than 30 years, told the Emerald the reaction of the more antagonistic members of the crowd is “typical” in his line of work.
“I’m not discouraged by that reaction,” he said. “I’m encouraged that they’re bothered by (preaching).”
Brown said he thought because many members of the crowd were asking questions about the Bible, that made it clear they had not read it.
Several of the students made fun of Smock, turning the situation into a “comedic act,” Brown said.
“It was kind of a bummer,” he said. “It felt serious to start but it turned into a laugh-fest.”
Smock travels around the country and is now on the West Coast because East Coast schools have finished for the year. He has been coming to the University since the 1980s but this is his third consecutive year here.
The crowd dispersed when a student from a religion class asked Smock to speak to the class, he returned to the amphitheater after and continued to preach.
Smock told the Emerald he began his career as a U.S. history professor at the University of Wisconsin. He said he was involved in the “drug culture” of the 1960s and began reading the Bible while spending time at a “hippie commune” in Morocco, Africa.
Smock had originally planned to go to India to meet with a guru and convert to Hinduism, but after he began reading the Bible, he decided to return to America.
After converting to Christianity, Smock felt the need to “reach out to my community – academia.”
He said he preaches publicly because Jesus and his apostles did so.
“Jesus’ most famous speech wasn’t in a temple, it was the Sermon on the Mount,” he said, adding Paul preached in the streets of Athens.
“I call this confrontational evangelism,” he said. “God sent me back to campuses to tell my story.”