I don’t know if you’ve heard the news, but America is currently at its least religious.
According to the American Religious Identification Survey released earlier this year, a record 15 percent of Americans claim to have no religion at all. Now, people with no religion make up a greater percentage of the U.S. population than any other religious group, save for Catholics and Baptists. Across the board, nearly all religious denominations have been facing decreasing membership to the point that New England, once a Catholic stronghold, has now even eclipsed the Pacific Northwest in terms of the percentage of its residents who don’t subscribe to any particular religion, according to the survey.
Despite the Pacific Northwest’s reputation as one of the less religious parts of the country, the University is not lacking in terms of religious fervor. Between our stalwart Jesus Guy, Doug, and various evangelists who make the rounds through campus every year, it’s evident that amid a nationwide decrease in religious adherence, there are still plenty of people trying to keep numbers up. The reactions are usually mixed; I don’t often see too many people gobbling up free Bibles or listening to most of the preachers who proselytize by the EMU Amphitheater.
Some visitors are more tenacious than others – last year, an evangelist followed me up 13th Avenue asking if, because I didn’t believe in God, I also didn’t believe in gravity. There were also the people who brought a bunch of kids to run around offering free scriptures to passersby – serious competition for the Free Hugs folks. However, it is Brother Jed Smock, the Michael Jackson of campus evangelism, who always appears to have the greatest effect.
In case you didn’t notice Brother Jed last week, or for the past few years, he was the one with a large sign declaring that homosexuals, rebellious women and Mormons are all on the fast track to hell. He was also the one surrounded by a thick ring of students, many of them jeering or earnestly rebuffing his claim that the only thing Mexican people contribute to society is burritos. The situation was made even more volatile by the fact that Brother Jed and his crew had set up shop right next to the Planned Parenthood table by the amphitheater; as it turns out, Jed and his crew aren’t too keen on abortion, either.
Say what you will about Brother Jed’s message – the man knows a thing or two about showmanship. He raises his voice, makes hand gestures, and has colorful visual aids that make colorful implications about popular elements of our culture, such as porn and masturbation. Some say you attract more flies with honey than with vinegar, but Brother Jed seems to have discovered you attract more flies by throwing shit at them. Sure, the flies will be angry, and they’ll interrupt you and try to outwit you using facts or their own personal interpretation of the Bible. But regardless, the flies are still there.
This is no coincidence. Brother Jed refers to his in-your-face style of preaching as “confrontational evangelism,” which has been adopted by other campus evangelists as a means to hold a prolonged discussion of theology and culture while maintaining a large audience. As one of Brother Jed’s contemporaries explained in an interview with the University of Missouri’s awesomely named newspaper, The Maneater, a confrontational evangelist can figure out what issues are important to his or her audience based on which inflammatory comments the audience is rebuking, and is thus able to tailor his or her sermon accordingly.
When a female critic during Brother Jed’s recent appearance was unable to answer one of his questions, he reportedly replied, “I don’t know why you can’t answer a simple question. I don’t know if it’s because you’re a woman or because you’re just ignorant.” This is a remarkably close-minded and stupid thing to say, and if I heard an elected official or a widely respected public figure say it, I’d be pretty pissed off. Coming from Brother Jed, though, it doesn’t bother me because I know that at heart, he’s really all about the attention.
Brother Jed is trying to get the word out there any way he can in an America where some feel that religion is dying out. He’ll say whatever it takes to draw a crowd because at the end of the day, Brother Jed is a salesman trying to peddle Jesus as aggressively as possible. If you disagree with his methods, arguing with him is only going to affirm the effectiveness of those same methods by drawing a bigger crowd. If Brother Jed really offends you, just walk away – it’s the most effective way to get through to him.
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