Need tips on dealing with crazy campus street preacher

[Seen the light]

So I go to UNCC and today we had this crazy fundamentalist preacher by the name of "Brother Mike" who was preaching in the middle of campus. He was pretty insane calling random people "masturbators", "whore-mongers", and "sodomites". I stood out there and watched him spout his crap for a couple of hours until I finally got bored and left. The most entertaining part of it was watching the reaction of the other 75-100 people that fluctuated throughout the afternoon to watch this spectacle.

Anybody ever heard of this stuff or experienced it firsthand? Also, do you have any tips as to what I should ask him? I know College Democrats were caught off guard and didn't even know this guy was coming to spew his hate speech this week until he showed up. He apparently has done this before with the blessing of the school.

[MonkeyFunk]

1. Just laugh at him and keep walking

[flying_wahini]

2. I would complain to the administration....

tell them you are being bullied.....

[porphyrian]

3. He probably isn't taking his medication.

If you want to help him, work to get state mental health funding increased.

[uppityperson]

4. tase him

If he was the ok of the school, and it is a private school, seems nothing you can do. If a publicly funded university, not sure but free speech takes all forms.

[GRLMGC]

5. That happened in my school

There was this crazy guy holding up a sign that said the vilest things about, well, pretty much everyone who wasn't a born-again Christian. I think its best to just ignore him. Some guy threw a smoothie at him which was funny, but probably only made him look and feel like some sort of martyr. These people bask in attention and its best not to give it to them.

[11 Bravo]

6. Chuckle, be glad you're sane, and drive on.

[Richard Steele]

7. Don't even make eye contact. There's absolutely no point. nm

[Kelly Rupert]

8. Yes. Many times. Here's how you deal with him:

do not stop. Walk away.

These guys thrive on the attention. That's why they do it--Jesus is just an excuse for attention. Leave them alone and they'll leave. No kidding. They practice being inflammatory. They make outrageous claims. They use terrible logic on purpose. They like to work sex into it. Because they want you to pay attention to them.

Walk away. Fighting them or arguing with them is only giving them exactly what they want.

[Seen the light]

11. I completely understand your logic

However, I do know that my walking away won't necessarily make other people do the same thing. They're going to be out there to be entertained and to listen to the crazy guy no matter what I do. I feel like this stuff shouldn't go unchallenged maybe? I don't know, perhaps you're right.

[Kelly Rupert]

19. Yeah, people will watch,

because they think it's funny. And you can do that; don't feel guilty. But they say things that are designed to inflame. And there's no challenging them. Sure, you can demonstrate that they're wrong. Anyone could. Hell, just pull out a pocket Bible and point to phrases showing they're wrong. It won't matter. They'll rope-a-dope, change the argument, and make another equally-spurious claim to get you to respond again. You won't be able to win, because for them, their argument doesn't matter. By giving them attention, they've already won. It's just a matter of time before you realize you've lost.

Never argue with an idiot, the saying goes. They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

[MazeRat7]

9. Put a curse on him... make it a big rituital.. dont forget the chicken bones.. then walk away -nt

[Kingshakabobo]

31. Best idea!

:applause:

[WorseBeforeBetter]

10. UNC Chapel Hill? He was on campus or standing on, say...

Franklin Street? I can't imagine the school blessing this. Or that anyone could stand there for a couple of hours and listen, but, it was a gorgeous day today! Was campus police present? I'm curious...

[Kelly Rupert]

12. School doesn't have to "bless it."

First amendment.

[Seen the light]

15. UNC Charlotte

And he said that he had spoken to someone in the administration and they said he could do it if he wished.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

17. Ah, I forgot about Charlotte.

I say go with the suggestion in #9.

[boobooday]

13. There's one on every campus

I wonder if they have a union, or some kind of vocational program for that?

We had one at IU. Haven't seen one at my new campus yet, but I'm sure he's around somewhere . . .

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. Just be glad that he is representing the GOP base

[Greyskye]

16. I remember reading on USENET over 10 years ago...

...about someone who went by "Brother Mike" who preached fire-and-brimstone hate on college campuses. Wonder if it's the same guy? Just googled - I wonder if this is the dude? http://www.brothermike.com/

[Seen the light]

18. That's him!

Just checked out a photo of him on the site and it's definitely the same guy.

[Greyskye]

20. But he looks so normal...

Did you notice if he was tapping his foot as he preached?

:rofl:

[HEyHEY]

21. Say, "That means your mother must love blowing whoremongers"

[JVS]

38. shaddup, whoremonger

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

22. I used to argue Brother Mike

at Chapel Hill in the mid 80s. I was a Philosophy major and a great deal of my studies at UNC revolved around religion. The campus was notorious for hosting Brother Mike, among others. Brother Mike was with Sister Cindy, and they even dragged their own kids along as they railed on passersby as "whores and whore-mongers". Basically, it was a technique to build crowds.

I would often bait these idiots with specific knowledge of biblical quotes, or question their interpretations. As a matter of fact, I had really neglected western christianity in my research, and, if anything, regularly arguing with the "pit preachers" as we called them caused me to go back and bone up on Bible stuff.

It didn't matter. It didn't matter whether I tried to use logic, history, or biblical paradoxes and gaffes. Ultimately, Brother Mike and the others would either choose to ignore me or create their own fallacious arguments.

Ultimately, I realized that all I was doing was legitimizing this idiot's rants, and I stopped visiting the pit at central campus.

My recommendation: ignore and move along. You could get into a big ol' debate with him, which *might* have the positive impact of waking up some other bystanders, but you will eventually realize that he is not hearing a word you say.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[Hekate]

23. Keep walking. Do not make eye contact. Engagement is pointless.

The guy sounds unhinged.

Hekate

[etherealtruth]

24. DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT

Sorry for shouting ...but, that's the best advice you could follow. The poor guy's (more likely than not) insane.

* last time I accidently made eye contact with one of those loons he beat my car with a his placard (which read: read the bible)

[InvisibleTouch]

25. That used to be routine at my undergraduate school.

There was always one who came regularly, sometimes others who showed up now and again. Until the weather turned cold, and that drove them back under their rocks. I never did figure out whether these people were truly religiously insane, or just amusing themselves as much as their audience was amused. If you want to verbally engage such a being for the sport of it, be my guest, but personally I think it's a waste of time and energy.

[InvisibleTouch]

26. Oh, and a story I just remembered:

In undergrad I was a member of a sort-of "New Age study group," and the subject of our crazy campus preacher came up once. One of the group members, a Wiccan, told us how the preacher man had singled her out among the crowd and complimented her on her attire: her skirt went all the way down to her ankles, and the guy said yes, that's how a woman should dress. The girl walked up to him and shook his hand and said thank-you - by that very motion revealing the slit in the side of her skirt that went all the way up to her hips, and "indecently exposing" her entire leg. We got a good laugh out of that!

[ljm2002]

27. You can't reason with these sorts...

...but you can have fun heckling them. You just need to find their hot buttons and push on them.

This has been going on forever. Back in the '60's and early '70's, we had Holy Hubert on the UC Berkeley campus, he was always good for a laugh. Spittle was flying, we were all sinners condemned to eternal hellfire, but what did we care? We were pissed about enough stuff already, Holy Hubert just added to the local color.

Wonder what ever happened to him. He just kind of faded away, along with so many other elements of that scene...

[hootinholler]

28. Perhaps if you performed a laying of the noodles ceremony for him?

Get about 30 to 50 people dressed as pirates and maybe a couple of boxes of cooked spaghetti, meatballs optional.

Parade out to him explaining he's possessed in pirate speak. Arrrgh ye be possessed lad! We'll drive the deamon from ye!

While yelling "begone ye scurvy deamon, Arrrrrgh, feel the noodly appendage" each throws one noodle at him.

Rinse lather repeat.

If you're lucky he'll just stroke out on the spot.

Just some idearrrrrrs.

-Hoot

[malta blue]

29. We had one of those when I was a student at Ripon College

in Wisconsin. Being from NYC, I was used to people in the streets doing "odd" things, but I was completely shocked when the preacher called me a whore from across the street. I marched right over there and used a few choice words (ah the beauty of being 18 and not giving a shit) and then walked back to where my friends all stood, mouths hanging open that I had just told a "preacher" to F**k off. I had no idea who this person was, it was my first week at school.

I complained to the administration about it, but since the "preacher" was technically not on the campus (there were two of them and they stood across the street from the campus center to do thei business) there was nothing they could do about it. I didn't want to deal with the police, so I just yelled right back at them everytime they directed comments at me. After a while, they left me alone and heckled people who didn't fight back. I encouraged people to fight back, but they had issues with yelling back at "preachers".

[hunter]

30. There are some people who can scare him away...

... but they tend to be bigger crazy than he is.

This is bad street theater, but not nearly so bad it's good.

Brother Mike is sorta like the dude who pumps his scrotum full of air. He wants you to look.

(Yes, I have been to Berkeley...)

:P

[wuushew]

32. Preachers are far more disruptive than taser boy

yet both have 1st amendment rights. The correct answer as has been stated elsewhere is to walk away. These types are on every college campus including mine.

[Quantess]

33. Market Street in San Francisco, outside the mall. Close to Civic Center.

Anyone remember the man wearing a sandwich board that said something like "fornicators are going to hell"? His sandwich board was elaborately painted with all kinds of sexual-sin-words. Some of them were pretty funny, unintentionally. He was always out there.

[davsand]

34. These guys make a circuit, I think.

Back in the late 70's and early 80's there was a guy that used to do that on the U of Illinois quad by the name of Reverend Max. He was absolutely bugshit crazy. There was a group of guys that would come out and heckle--kinda like they were doing Rocky Horror--and it went on for months. Day and night he was out there with that group giving him crap. He'd get all worked up and the spit would fly and the rest of us would steer clear.

Rev Max had this thing he liked to do that involved running up to some unwary soul and getting nose to nose with them while screaming "Have YOU been SAVED?" or something equally intense. If you said No he'd start in with a huge sermon, and if you said yes, you'd get a different lecture about following the will of God.

On night I'd been down on campus after dark and was walking across the quad (I was headed over to a bar, if I'm telling the truth.) Anyhow, Max ran up to this ROTC type guy who was about ten feet away from me and got nose to nose with him while screaming "Have YOU been SAVED?"

The guy must have said something that Max didn't like, because Max screamed "Be HE-ALLED of your demons!" and then smacked this guy on the forehead hard enough to rock his head back. The guy came around with the absolute PERFECT roundhouse punch and absolutely NAILED Rev Max on the button. Max went down.

I don't remember seeing Max again after that one, but we did get a new guy named Reverend Jed. Jed, however, was careful NOT to lay hands on anyone that I ever heard about.


Gawd, what fond memories of my college days!


Laura

[kevinmc]

35. Hand him a Mirror .... n/t

[L. Coyote]

36. Join him, go undercover, find something illegal, collect evidence & snitch on him

:rofl:

[davsand]

37. Just send him to the men's room in Minneapolis.

Tell him the floor is bit shaky there and to be sure and take a wide stance...


:evilgrin:


Laura