Or like this guy?
I believe her husband is named Jed Smock, and he’s been open air preaching for about thirty years. However they deny original sin, therefore they are heretical.
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I always got the impression these street preachers were mostly mentally ill in one way or the other. I think their ranting is more of a spectacle than a valuable way of evangelizing people.
Brother Jed and Sister Cindy!
I’m surprised that they are still on the road doing their thing.
When I was in college they would come to campus once a semester and tell their gospel to all the sinners and fornicators. Campus old timers said that they had been doing the same thing since the 1970’s.
Good to see they are still out there delivering their message and teaching the youth about their religion.
I think the sad fact is that just about everywhere you go, if you were to have a hateful, ignorant “street preacher” and a more thoughtful evangelistic group set up close to each other, people will more naturally flock to see the ignorant group screeching their slogans. It’s just the freak show mentality, it tempts us to commit the sin of self-righteousness where we can compare ourselves to people like that and conclude that we’re better than them. People like that discredit Christians who are trying to reach out to others in love.
A little while later, I walked back to try again. I decided to engage the one with the “YOU DESERVE HELL” sign because she wasn’t preaching, and nobody was talking to her. I sat on the grass, introduced myself with a smile, and asked for permission to ask her a few questions. She was happy to oblige. My goal was to convince her that some methods of communication are more effective than others. I think some people feel like as long as you’re doing God’s work, you don’t need to worry about being effective. “Just let God do the work!” “God cares about obedience, not success!” Yes, God is doing the major heart work, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to be effective. We’re the hands and feet of Christ. He wants to use us to do His work. We should take that really seriously. Our conversation didn’t go very well.
This must be Brother jed and Sister Cindy, a pair of travelling "evangelists" that are, ironically, members of the ultra-liberal United Methodist Church. Jed does not believe in substitutionary atonement, but appears to hold a "moral government" pelagian view similar to that Hugo Grotius and Charles Finney. In that view, Christ's death was a public display of God's justice, but it did not accomplish an actual, vicarious atonement of sin on our behalf. The cross only served to show the severity of punishment for sin, if God actually recompensed sin. Having been shown the example, we're supposed to be "scared straight" and to stop sinning on our own power.
FWIW, the encounter described above reminds me of your earlier thread Is the Bible embarassing?.
Sounds like some FReepers I've encountered.
I remember them from a long time ago. They visited Northeast Missouri State when I was in college. They were angry then. I think I still have one of their books.
Or like this guy?
Oh wow when I went to Ohio State in the spring time you would these traveling prweachers one went by the name “max” and there was “brother jed” who was saved at a Van Halen concert and then of course there was “sister Cindy”.
To his further surprise, he said they were quite pleasant at the dinner and carried on normal conversation during their visit. He said they continued to probe for opportunities for their evangelism but much more politely.
Another friend of mine who was the Campus Crusade for Christ director at the time said he and most of the campus ministers liked having Brother Jed come to campus. He said Jed's presence created a lot of opportunities for him and his staff as many students would approach the campus ministers asking what they thought about Brother Jed and was he right.