I always thought that the “fire and brimstone” style of preaching was a metaphor for a general “doom and gloom” style of preaching, rather than mention of actual fire and brimstone.
Similarly, I always thought the term “bible-thumper” was a metaphor for particularly devout, evangelical Christians, rather than an behavior.
I was wrong on both counts. My worldview is irevocably changed.
A preacher, Brother Jed ((Search for the guy on YouTube for some examples of his behavior.)) , occasionally comes to campus with his wife and aggressively preach ((Calling sorority girls “whores”, frat boys “fornicators”, making blatantly racist comments towards blacks and hispanics,? etc.)) to students. He was giving a no-shit fire-and-brimstone speech to a bunch of students outside the university’s administration building. On occasion, he’d thump his bible. I must admit I was somewhat stunned by his behavior; I had never thought that anyone would ever actually preach like that.
Unfortunately for him, his methods didn’t seem to be garnering any followers. Indeed, people seemed to be more amused by his behavior than they were interested in his message. I wonder if this guy has actually run a cost/benefit analysis to see how effective his methods are.
2 thoughts on “Changed Worldview”
Comments are closed.
I graduated from bible college, spent a year+ working in Latin America as a missionary, and I’ll stack my knowledge of Christian theology and personal conviction of faith up against anyone this side of Philip Yancey.
I’ve not seen Brother Jed in action, but his kind sadden me to no end. I know his type, and what he does is more about proclaiming his self-righteousness than it does about spreading God’s righteousness. He’ll move on to another campus, secure in his belief that he (and he alone) took the message of God to the heathen, and the hatred he got in return was the evil of the world persecutin’ him.
And the simple truths of 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and 1 John chapter 4:7-21 will escape him once again.
Sigh.
Kevin,
I am admittedly not a religious person, but do have respect for people who do good deeds, help others, and who strive to be better people, religious or not.
While I have no objection to people having religious beliefs, I only mind a little if people solicit others. The Mormons, for example, come by my apartment about once a year. I politely tell them I’m not interested, remind them that the apartment complex is posted “no soliciting”, and that’s that. No harm, no foul. But the “you don’t believe in [deity], so you’re going to BURN IN HELL” type preaching just turns me off.
Look up “Brother Jed” on YouTube. There’s a lot of videos. He’s borderline kooky in my view. His wife Cindy has the most terrible voice, too.