Brother Jed's campus ministry came calling to Indiana University's campus Thursday fresh off a rousing rejection of his message at DePauw University.
The Christian evangelist spoke to students in a grassy area, urging them to repent and embrace God. He says he is simply trying to get students to embrace Christianity, but his message has a definite anti-gay accent.
"You are wicked, wicked, wicked," Mikhail Savenko, one of Brother's Jed's young evangelist companions, told and IU student. "Somebody take this homosexual away."
Though Brother Jed – actually George Edward "Jed" Smock, Jr. – aroused loud protest at DePauw, the reaction to his preaching at IU was more subdued. Some students did speak against him, though.
"When people allow this to continue, when they don't stand up and try to drown him out, they are aiding and abetting him," said IU junior Colton Shaffer. "He is coming to this campus and harming people, doing very real harm."
Smock said he's proud of his confrontations with students – even the ones who say they are Christians.
"I considered yesterday successful," he said. "We made Christianity an issue. Some of those students are gonna think about why five preachers got the whole campus upset."
Smock travels to 35 campuses a year. The 72-year-old preacher usually has a team of four young evangelists them him on those trips.
