May 2003

 

 

Dear Saints,

 

The “2003 Spring Victory Tour” took me to North and South Carolina where I ended the school year.  I could not wait to preach at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  This is the University where the Lord wrought a mighty victory last October when, through the help of Attorney Nate Kellum, UNCG backed down and settled our lawsuit out of Court.  If you remember, on November 15, 2001, around 2:30 pm., on the second day, an UNCG security officer stopped me from preaching by tapping me from behind on the right shoulder and shoving a badge in my face.  He ordered me to follow him outside of the crowd where he successfully kicked me off campus and banned me for six months.  Last October, eleven months later, the Lord legally established my right to preach at UNCG.

 

I must admit that I was apprehensive in going to UNCG to preach this spring.  I knew, that after our hard-hitting victory last fall, that there would be at least two reactions from University officials and security.  They would either be angry thus seeking revenge or they would be humbled by the highly publicized legal defeat.  Before I went to UNCG I called Brothers Donnie Morris, John Duncan and Matt Bourgault asking them if they could accompany me at UNCG.  I was hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.  I wanted someone with me to run a video camera while I preached at UNCG.  I wanted as much documented evidence as possible just in case UNCG wanted to play hardball again.  Brother Donnie and Sister Candra Morris met me on the second day.  That meant that I had to go it alone on the first day.  I told myself that I knew better than to preach alone the first day.  I imagined the worst-case scenario.  The security would arrest me by trumping up bogus charges and even find “certain lewd fellows of the baser sort” to corroborate the charges.  They would confiscate my video and audio tape recorders.  State that I never had a video or audio tape recorder at all and railroad me into Court without me possessing one shred of evidence in my defense. 

 

I prayed clear through regarding my fears and went to UNCG to preach by myself that first day.  I played it cautious and went to the campus security station in order to make sure that the free speech area was still in the same spot for I did not want to give the University any valid reason to confront me that day for not being in the right location.  I was also serving notice to the security that I was there to preach that day. 

 

By the time that I arrived at the free speech area there were two officers waiting in the area.  They politely approached me and engaged me in a genial fifteen-minute conversation.  One of the officers identified himself as the Assistant Chief of Security.  He told me that he was the Assistant Chief back in 2001 when I was kicked off campus.  During our conversation he stated that, “things could have been handled differently last time.”  I took that to be as much of an apology as I was going to get from him.  The other officer was a conservative Pentecostal church member and was glad to see me return to campus.  The Assistant Chief listened to me for about an hour, often times laughing at the exchange.  The Pentecostal officer was assigned to the free speech area for most of the day.  He even helped me out a few times by giving me answers to some of the questions that the students would ask. 

 

We thank you for your love and prayers.

 

Brother Jim, Sister Bonnie, Aaron, Gabrielle, And Arielle