December 2004


Dear Saints,

Please continue to pray for Brother John and Sister Ellen Duncan as Brother John is still undergoing chemotherapy treatments for diagnosed lymphoma cancer. 

Another major highlight in my ministry took place this fall. Jennifer Delaney, a twenty nine year old mother of two who is a graduate student at Ohio State University majoring in religious studies has decided to write her masters thesis on confrontational evangelism. Given her topic of confrontational evangelism she somehow found we campus/street preachers. Can you imagine that? She told us that she had searched the intellectual journals of academe and found no written intellectual articles on us campus/street preachers. I do not know how they could have over looked us. Jennifer wants to be the first to publish a scholarly and well documented thesis on us preachers. She told us that her Bachelor’s degree was in U.S. History and that she had taught such at the middle school level and is a very strong proponent of free speech.

The perfect venue for Jennifer’s research took place in October during a campus/street preacher conference that Brother John Duncan and his brother-in-law Brother Dick Christianson coordinated to be held at Brother Dick’s home church in Marietta, Ga. Jennifer flew down from Columbus, Ohio to Atlanta, Ga. on Friday, October 8, 2004 and informed us that she was an atheist. At first, I could tell that Jennifer had her defensive shield up but by the end of the first night most of her defenses were down as she documented Brothers Dick Christianson, Ruben Israel, Matt Bourgault, Zach and me preaching in front of Atlanta’s All Saints Episcopal Church where the homosexual Episcopal Bishop from New Hampshire Jean Robinson was speaking that night. We had a blast preaching with our signs, banners, bull horns, and tracts to all of the sodomites that were ingressing and egressing from the Episcopal Church.

The next day, Saturday, we traveled to Athens, Ga. where we preached before, during and after the Georgia-Tennessee football game. Georgia lost the game by five points and could have won it on the last possession of the game. When the crowd of 90,000 people, consisting mostly of drunk and angry students, stampeded out of the football stadium into the dimly lit campus environs they were greeted by our signs, banners and bull horns rebuking them for their drunken, idolatrous party. The crowd became quite violent as they tried unsuccessfully to grab and rip our signs and banners, break our bull horn and doused us with various liquids. Jennifer stood in the midst of the battle and kept her video camera rolling.

On Sunday, between church services, we preached at a “Queer Teens” rally at the Georgia State capital steps in downtown Atlanta, Ga. We initially stood on the public sidewalk adjacent to the State capital, in less than ten minutes we were moved across the street by the capital police. The capital police were joined by other law enforcement officers including several State Troopers. After another ten minutes or so the officers threatened to arrest us if we would not move down the street to the corner. Once at the corner the officers stopped us from using our bull horn. Jennifer, a free speech loving U.S. history buff was most indignant in how the police trampled our right to preach to all of those teenage sodomites.

Sunday night at church I requested that Jennifer testify as to what she had witnessed during the last three days. Reluctantly, she complied and expressed her mixed emotions regarding her ideological agreement with our crowd on one hand counterbalanced by her ideological agreement with our right to free speech.

On Monday we had a great day preaching at Georgia Tech. On Tuesday we preached at Kennesaw State University. While at Kennesaw State there was a television helicopter hovering over head for about five minutes. We returned to Georgia Tech on Wednesday only to have two University officials refuse our right to be on campus. They claimed that they had received too many complaints on Monday. This really outraged Jennifer as she now witnessed a University, a supposed market place of ideas, liberty, freedom, diversity and tolerance, operate in such a totalitarian and arbitrary manner. 

By Wednesday night, Jennifer had encountered many individuals on the streets and campus and had defended not only our right to speak in public but our approach as being a Biblical one. Jennifer requested to stay back at Brother John Duncan’s sister’s home, where she had been staying since she arrived, her stated reason was due to exhaustion but I knew that she was under deep conviction from having been personally involved in six days of intense bombardment from God’s word. Not only did she hear our preaching for six days but she recorded our conversations to and from each location and due to her religious studies background she would ask highly intelligent questions making for a lively discussion.

I include excerpts from her initial report that she penned contemporaneously during her six days with us.

We thank you for your love and prayers and may you and yours have a blessed Christmas season,

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


Friday Oct. 8: They came and picked me up from the airport around 1pm. Dick Christensen was driving. I met the others in the car: Ruben Israel, Jim Gilles, Zach, and Matt Bourgault. We immediately went to Kennesaw State University so they could lodge a complaint about the student activities director only allowing them to speak for 1 hour on Thurs. I went into the vice-presidents office to tape Ruben and Jim complaining. Apparently, the activities director didn’t like their message and wanted to therefore curtail their speaking on this public campus. 

We went to Dick’s house, and dropped off some stuff. We went to a buffet restaurant. Ruben told me how much courage it must have taken me to have been willing to accompany this particular group of men by myself. Then we went to the All-Saints Episcopal Church in downtown Atlanta, where gay Bishop Jean Robinson was speaking. They took positions on the public sidewalk just a few feet away, shouting a message of “homo sex is sin” towards the church, the general public, and anyone entering or leaving the church. They used banners. A group of pro-gay rights youth made their own signs and counter-protested. They even followed us out to the car. 

At one point, Dick’s wife Kay, who made it out there for a short while with their three kids, asked me if I would take Joshua, 6, and Amy, 4, into the Episcopal church so they could use the restroom! I did, and there was a moment when Joshua wanted to go into the men’s room by himself (saying that his mother allowed him to). Looking at it from Kay’s perspective, I realized that she may not be pleased with her son alone in a “homo” bathroom, so I requested that he use the women’s restroom with me and Amy. I felt very conflicted, almost guilty, using the facilities of someone who I felt was being wronged by those who I was with, and the parents of the children. I finally concluded that, as they were children (and innocent), and I was not personally anti-gay, that it was okay. It is weird what empathy and participant-observation will do to a person! 

They said things like “Aids alert, there are HOMOS approaching,” and “Janet Reno look alikes”. We had long talks about theology and method, which I taped. 

These men are incredibly intelligent, deep thinkers, deeply committed, very generous, and wickedly funny. They really have good intentions, and big hearts. They feel that they are using tough love, preaching harshly as another way for a person to be saved before eternal damnation. Of course, we openly talked about my own religious beliefs (or lack thereof), and they said they want to change that, of course. I, by now being fairly comfortable with their open, honest, pull-no-punches dialogue, told them not to hold their breath. 

At one point, Zach was having trouble with his cane and asked me to carry his sign to Ruben. Both thought it funny to see me with that thing in my hand. I just had to weigh which course of action was better: allowing a partially disabled man to struggle, or holding a sign with a message I would never personally want to be positively identified with. I chuckled, too. 

Sat. Oct. 9: Started out with a breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Dick and I had a great conversation about how if one does not accept the authority of the Bible in the first place, then it is very hard to convince them of anything. He said that this ministry is, indeed, aimed at primarily “wayward” Christians who already accept the Bible as more than an ordinary book. He said that there is an academic book out there about their method, which calls it “juvenal satire” as opposed to horatian… Interesting 

We left for Athens, GA to the GA State Bulldogs game against their rival, the TN Vols. It drew almost 90,000 people, and they were there at the entrance to the stadium, banners and rhetoric flying. They had much of the normal reaction. At one point, I spoke with Dick, Zach, and a man named Keith, over a meal, and told them about Garrett and Bennett. Dick had heard the story when it happened here in GA. It was part of a discussion over the problem of evil, and Dick accepted Isaiah 45:7. Zach was actually shocked to read the word “evil” there in the KJV. Somehow, it is part of god’s plan… 

After the GA game, the fans were sloshed and upset about GA’s loss. They were much more hostile than they were before the game. As I took pictures and videotaped with Jim’s camera (my batteries all dead), students began to try to take their signs. Someone threw a beer on Jim, and Matt was drenched in liquor. Then they were attacked by 4 or so different people, and Zach was knocked down. A nervous police officer actually rushed in and said to them, “I am begging you all to leave. You are making my life miserable right now.” Ruben said they would leave when the crowd left, and so the officer told everyone else to leave, which worked. 

It is interesting to hear them relive their “war stories” to one another afterwards. They even satire their own and one another’s teaching. 

On the way home, Dick told me that I was going to have to answer to god for 99.9% more than anyone else, because I had heard so many arguments for redemption, which I will be hearing again when I play the tapes. Ruben said that these men in the car are the finest at what they do, and that in order to have gotten into this position, I must really have some folks praying for my redemption. He thinks it could have something to do with my brother who leads bible study in his home… Anyway, it seemed that since the arguments to logic and emotion did not work (on epistemological grounds, mostly), he would appeal to my sense of ego or pride, or make me feel like I was “chosen” and could not politely turn this chance down. 

During the course of my research, I began from the standpoint of totally rejecting their message, method, and motivation. Now I can say that my relationship to all of this is quite complex. I am beginning to wonder if Harding’s “narrative belief” is plausible. If so, Harding didn’t describe it well enough. I can truly put myself inside their belief system, and completely respect their dedication and believe that they are biblically justified in what they do. I realize that they are truly doing this out of love for people, because they weigh a little temporary anger or hurt against an eternity of “hellfire”, and realize that the most loving thing they can do is go to where the sinners are and shock them into salvation before it is too late. They see no hatred in what they are doing, even while understanding that the sinners usually do. 

So now, I believe that their motivation is pure (if misguided, from my perspective). I believe that their method is incredibly courageous (given the very real dangers), and 100% biblically justified, as they are carrying on the tradition of the prophets and apostles, who had to preach this way. These are not men with a death wish. They plan carefully and strategically, and always have a “point man”. They do not want physical confrontation, but they are willing to endure any amount of it for their cause. I disagree with their message from my perspective, but I can perhaps “narratively agree” with it from their perspective. 

Today I found myself defending their methods to a couple of girls who approached me to ask me about it. I made them see that perhaps they were not as full of hate as they may have at first seemed. They actually thanked me for giving them a more open mind, and one asked for my e-mail address. 

Perhaps the most disquieting mixed feeling I have had due to trying to inhabit both worldviews is when they express real sorrow for my lack of salvation. I feel so bad that they truly hurt for me. At the same time, I “know” that there is really nothing for them to worry about, and I have come no closer to believing that their worldview is Truth. But I have been as brutally and clearly honest with them as I feel they have been with me, and I am trying to let them know not to expect my conversion. I knew going into this that they would want to convert me. I knew that it is part of the reason they have allowed me along. This is why I am being as honest as possible with them. 

Sun. Oct. 10: We headed for the gay youth rally against the anti-gay marriage amendment in GA. Ruben suggested that I leave ahead of them so as not to be associated with them, so I could get access to the whole event without being clobbered angrily myself. 

Again, as I told everyone, it is difficult position for me to be in. I supported the rally ideologically, while working with the preachers. I felt the pain that they were causing, while at the same time knowing that they were sincere about their “good work”. To add to this, I was horrified at the reaction the police had to them. They at first told them they were not allowed to preach on the public sidewalk adjacent to the courthouse. So, they agreed to move across the street. Then, they decided that they weren’t allowed to preach there, either, and moved them down the block. It is appalling that the police are so willing to violate their civil rights due to differing ideologies or simply to cause themselves less work. 

Toward the end, Matt was hit in the back with chocolate milk. At the same time, I was on the receiving end of much anger from the gay rights folks due to my videotaping of the event and the resulting debates. They tell me I have no right to tape them yelling on a public sidewalk without their written consent, which is not true. My answer to their inquiries is that I am doing my masters thesis on confrontational evangelism. This usually makes the person relax and feel okay about it. When pressed, however, I will tell them that I do not agree with what they are saying. This is, I think, justifiable because I openly and readily let the preachers know it when it comes up. However, when everyone piled in the Suburban, they were waiting for me as I was taping a girl crying because of their message. When I quickly exited the crowd to get into the vehicle, I could hear shrieks of betrayal from the crowd. They were angry, and I hated the seeming tacit approval my actions gave to the preachers’ message. As we pulled away from the curb, the crowd angrily spit all over the vehicle. A loogie oozed down my window and crystallized there with the rush of wind down the highway. 

At the church, Dick introduced me (without my knowledge that he would do so) and asked me to speak a few minutes about my “strange dilemma” about my position and the free speech violations. After first joking that he is bound and determined to get a testimony from me, I honestly laid it out. 

I think that the academic community within the humanities somehow makes an exception with their ideological opposites. The last three days, for me, have already been life-changing. How can I ever have 100% contempt for someone else’s position or beliefs ever again, even if they are in direct opposition to my own, and are, in my eyes, perpetuating hurt against their fellow man? I don’t think I can. We are far more alike, as humans, than we are different, and it is our ethical duty to explore the humanity, agency, logic, and plausibility of another’s way of life and worldview. You cannot, I think, truly hate someone that you understand, and isn’t part of my life’s mission to leave the world a better place than I found it? I can still fight against their message, even while I am fighting for their humanity as an EQUAL to myself and others. 

Monday October 11: We went to GA Tech today. We set up on the main concourse while Jim got a permit. The campus police arrived shortly, because everyone else had put up the banners. They were not yet preaching loudly until the permit was in hand. As I taped, a black female campus police officer came up to me and told me that students had told her I was taping them, and that I needed a signed release form. For a public area, I asked? Yes, she said. I kept taping. For the first time in my life, I thought that if I was arrested, it would be worth it. 

When Jim got back with the permit, they began to preach louder. After about ten minutes, a fourth police officer arrived and told them they would have to move to the “free speech area”. This turned out to be a spot about 100 yards away, concealed behind a row of trees from the main stream of traffic. I was very upset. It was an obvious ploy to quell speech. They preached with banners, but it was a quiet day due to the low flow of traffic. At 5:30 sharp, the police officer who had moved us and been angry that we had had a permit arrived to make sure we left. 

Theirs is the perfect story to document to impact freedom of speech and religion. They are people who are loving and compassionate, who have strong religious convictions about how to show that love. Their message is one that is just about the most unpopular in the U.S. today, and freedom of speech protections are only needed when the message is unpopular! They are eager to be documented, and very helpful. The fact that the only place they can preach is public sidewalks means that I can videotape the ensuing confrontation, because no one can reasonably expect privacy there. 

Tuesday, October 12, 2004: Nate Kellum with Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian organization that represents the preachers for free, came to speak. He helps them when they are arrested, or to bring plaintiff’s cases against places that violate their first amendment rights. 

We arrived at Kennesaw State University around 2:30- 3:00, after the rain stopped. This place had not been preached except once the year before. As soon as the banners went up, the students gathered, and the police showed up. A black male police officer told them to put their banners down. They told him that it was in their permit. The officer said that it didn’t matter what the permit says, it mattered what he says. Jim went with another officer to the permit office to clear the matter up. In the meantime, Ruben told the other officer that they would wait until Jim came back to take the banners down. The officer was quite angry, and I was filming the whole time. When the other officer came back and joined the other three, I filmed the ensuing discussion. A portly WC Fields – looking officer told me I can’t film him. As I continued to film him, I asked if it was because he was a police officer. He said no, it was because he was a person, and that I couldn’t film anyone without a signed waiver. I asked him if he meant that I could not film people in a public place, and he said no, and told me to stop filming him. I turned the camera away from him and continued to film the preaching and the students. After the powwow, the officers took positions in front of the crowd, and to the back. Nothing else was said about the filming until the end, when the now-friendly black officer said I just had to be real careful about it. 

At the largest, we had about 100 students. All of the tracts Jim put out were ripped up—one student even set one on fire until a police officer ran over and threatened to take him to jail. 

Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2004: We went back to GA Tech today. Greg, Matt, Dick, and Zach held signs and preached in the “free speech” area while Jim Gilles went to sign the registration form to let them know we were there. They refused to give him a form, telling him that they had been rude and belligerent to students. They told him to leave campus. We walked to different offices all over campus for over an hour, but it just so happened that no one was available to petition to. So, we left, but hopefully it will be remedied legally soon.