Annoyed with all the religious nuts on campus

[darareaksmey]

I am old enough to remember when the Gideons were allowed into my PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL to pass out their New Testaments. I probably still have one or two, if I look up in the attic.

[pandora665]

My brother had an awesome story from his time at UW Madison years ago.

An itinerant "Christian" preacher showed up on campus & parked his rear in the mall in front of the library for the several days or so of his "visit." About Day 2 or 3 into the preacher's harangues, some students hooked up an excellent sound system, recruited a friend with a wonderfully deep bass-baritone voice, and had him read the following over the speaker system:

"John, this is God. Please stop bothering the students NOW - you're making them late for class. No one, including Me, is interested in what you have to say so please stop it. Thank you."

This makes me proud to be a Badger. That's just the kind of ingenuity you'd expect from us ebill liberals. :)

[Triplet3]

Wow, I'm gobsmacked at what people have been describing in this thread. Religious craziness on campus must be one the big differences between US and UK university life! I've been to three universities here in the UK and have never come across any religious nuts at all, even when I lived on campus. Obviously the CU and other religious student societies had events and handed out flyers now and then, but nothing that counts as craziness or fundamentalism. There are claims that my postgrad uni's Islamic Society has fostered extremism in the past and radicalised the failed Detroit bomber, but even if that's true, I never saw anyone from the Society trying to push extremist views to the main student population.

[O Latin]

I am old enough to remember when the Gideons were allowed into my PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL to pass out their New Testaments. I probably still have one or two, if I look up in the attic.

They used to stand down the street from my junior high right when school got out and pass them out. I had a friend who would take one and then walk home, slowly tearing the pages out and tossing them on the ground (yeah, that's littering and I'm sure she wouldn't do it now, but we were stupid junior high kids and it seemed funny at the time).

[marmalade]

When I stayed at the House of Blues hotel, there was a sheet in the nightstand that said they don't allow books to be left in the room but they had *insert list of about 20 various religious books* at the front desk--just call and they'd bring it up.

I was impressed :clap:

Same deal at Hotel Max in Seattle. I thought it was a great idea.

[defrauding]

What is it about a bunch of college students that brings out the crazies?

College students are young and impressionable; they also tend to have more time and energy than people working full time. Why wouldn't you want to recruit on college campuses?

[FaustianSlip]

We used to get the Gideons on campus; they never really bothered me, since they were relatively low-key, polite and weren't screaming at you or anything. The only thing that bothered me was that a lot of people tossed the Bibles in the trash, which seemed like a ridiculous waste. They tried to stop me once while I was on my way to a comparative religion class, and I happened to have an Oxford study Bible in one hand. When they said, "Here, take a Bible," I was all, "Thanks, but I've got my own!" and brandished it at them. Heh. Don't think they saw that one coming, but it probably made their day, so whatever. Of course, I still have one of their little Gideon Bibles in my apartment here in China, which I shipped over with all of my other books, because I don't know what else to do with it. It doesn't seem right to just throw it out.

Campus Crusade for Christ were rude, aggressive and generally horrible. They were known for deceptive marketing practices, and no one wanted to touch them with a ten-foot pole. Baptist Student Union was similar; they stalked me for three weeks after I went to a barbecue with a Baptist friend. She had to call them and tell them to knock it off.

I went to grad school in the UK, so I had none of these issues, aside from the time the Muslim Society invited a bunch of whackadoodles from Neturei Karta (the Hasidic group whose leader was photographed kissing Ahmedinijad) to speak about Israel. I think if it had been just students there, it would've been fine, but it rapidly devolved, courtesy of attendees from the local community, into a bunch of anti-Semitic garbage (i.e. "Why don't you people give the Palestinians back their holy sites?" "Why don't Jews want anyone else to have their own land?" et cetera. Yeah, lady, I'm personally camped at Al Aqsa). But that was more political than religious, though I did enjoy it when the only Orthodox member of our Jewish Society ended up schooling some of the NK guys when they argued about talmudic justification for the pre-Messiah existence of a Jewish state. It was both ridiculous and sublime.

[Joykins]

We almost always stay at Marriott hotels and resorts and some of those have the Book of Mormon.

That's because Bill Marriott is a Mormon, the whole family is, and they ask their franchisees to include it (my mom used to work for Marriott at their corporate hq).

My FIL was a Gideon. I never minded the Gideons on campus. They were always polite and took no for an answer (I usually snagged the little Bibles actually as I like little Bibles, dunno why).

The homophobic ranters and the ones who called girls "whores" were assholes, though. Couldn't stand 'em.

[Belle0000]

We had the Gideons handing the Bibles out at bus stops along with the occasional Hare Krishna group on campus. I don't ever remember anything to do with CCC though.

More often we would have the same crazy preacher and his wife every year out on our quad, telling us we were going to hell. Most people came to ignore him, but he'd also have his young kids get up and read Bible verses...that always made me sad for the kids. We also had JWs on a pretty regular basis in the off-campus housing areas.

The most prominent were the aborted-fetus-pictures abortion protesters. They'd set up huge displays with "Warning: Genocide Ahead" signs along the street. They also had the panel trucks and even the occasional plane with a banner with a pic.

[GenerationCedarchip]

Oh geez. I remember the nuts who would come to campus. There was one guy who came every year with a big wooden cross who would rant about his sins. His wife wore an ankle length frumper and wore a huge button that said, "I love to submit to my husband," and she wouldn't ever speak to you if you stopped to talk to her.

There were a lot of Christian groups on campus that ranged from somewhat fundie(forget the name of it, but there was a small VF-like group of guys) to fundie-lite (most of them) to pretty mainstream. The one thing they all agreed on was a universal disdain for the turn or burn preachers who came to rant at us.

[Joykins]

When I went off to college, my mom set up an appointment to meet with the guy who ran Campus Crusade for Christ at my campus so as to get me situated with it. I was still evangelical then and felt like I ought to go but the attitudes I met in there really of put me off. A friend invited me to Navigators--I don't know about other campuses, but where I went and when I went, Navigators was kind of where the smart kids went (no offense) and I fit in better, also they were more liberal, there were Catholics! and beer-drinkers! Also they didn't really proselytize although you could tell some of 'em felt guilty that they werent. :lol:

[DamnPrecious]

I am old enough to remember when the Gideons were allowed into my PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL to pass out their New Testaments. I probably still have one or two, if I look up in the attic.

They weren't allowed to come in the school, but we could outside to get them if we wanted. This was 15 or 16 years ago.

[SamuraiKatz]

When I was at the University of Texas at Austin in the early '80s, we had Brother Jed Smock and his wife Sister Cindy (Lasseter) Smock. (The first time I saw them, she wasn't married to him.) They were great performers, but as far as converting people, not so much. Jed was notorious in the mid-80s for writing a book supporting the apartheid regime in South Africa. (Yeah, that went over real well on campuses where divestiture was a hot issue, as you might have suspected.) Jed's still doing his thing, even at age 68 (Cindy's about 15 years younger), hitting all the college campuses in a circuit. I follow him on Facebook.

I was a student at the University of Arkansas at the same time. We were, unfortunately, on the Sister Cindy and Brother Jed circuit as well. Sister Cindy and Brother Jed have been replaced by Gary "moses" Bowman. Bowman sued the University Arkansas a few years back for limiting his appearances... :-/

And a picture of the Sister Cindy I remember on the U of A Campus in 1981.

edited to fix picture imbed.

[GeoBQn]

The most prominent were the aborted-fetus-pictures abortion protesters. They'd set up huge displays with "Warning: Genocide Ahead" signs along the street. They also had the panel trucks and even the occasional plane with a banner with a pic.

PLANES?!? That was the most useful thing they could think of to do with their money? Good thing they weren't wasting it on mothers with children . . .

[pomology]

When I was at the University of Texas at Austin in the early '80s, we had Brother Jed Smock and his wife Sister Cindy (Lasseter) Smock. (The first time I saw them, she wasn't married to him.) They were great performers, but as far as converting people, not so much. Jed was notorious in the mid-80s for writing a book supporting the apartheid regime in South Africa. (Yeah, that went over real well on campuses where divestiture was a hot issue, as you might have suspected.) Jed's still doing his thing, even at age 68 (Cindy's about 15 years younger), hitting all the college campuses in a circuit. I follow him on Facebook.

Brother Jed came to my school two years ago. It was fun times because my school is super-heathenish.

The funny thing is that my school was founded by crazy evangelists. But somehow it turned out to be incredibly liberal and thus (in the eyes of the religious right by any means) incredibly heathen. Although, to be fair, the religious nuts who founded my school were pretty radical for their times. And the school just never stopped being radical, even if it stopped being religious.

[PennySycamore]

I'm old enough to remember the Gideons distributing little New Testaments in my public elementary school. This was back in the 60s though.

At UGA in the mid-70s, we had lots of regular denominational campus ministries (eg, Wesley Foundation, Luther Haus, the Catholic Center, BSU, Hillel) but there was also Campus Crusade and Navigators. The Children of God used to hand out pamphlets out at the plaza in front of Memorial Hall and once the Divine Light Mission showed a film about how wonderful Guru Mahara-ji was.

Maybe this has changed and perhaps it also depends on the campus, but I'd consider Navigators to be more hardcore than Campus Crusade.

Emmiedahl, I LOVE how you guys found that the paper in the Gideon Bibles was good rolling paper.

[Rachel333]

Sister Cindy and Brother Jed have been replaced by Gary "moses" Bowman. Bowman sued the University Arkansas a few years back for limiting his appearances... :-/

I know him well. He's been coming here since I was little, though I don't remember seeing him recently. Supposedly his whole thing is mostly to try to get someone to harass him so he can sue. Students here get really proud of themselves for yelling at him, but it's not like there are people who agree with him. I wish people would just ignore him.

The Gideons were on campus today. They really don't bother me at all. They don't say anything, just hand out Bibles, and they have no problem if someone says no. My one complaint is the people who take them then trash them. It's wasteful and disrespectful. Just don't take one if you don't want one.

[Lillybee]

I went to a nice liberal Catholic university and we never had those problems.

[Lillian]

My uni isn't too bad. We have the CU, and mainly they chalk info about upcoming talks or give out free hot cross buns at Easter time. Sometimes they attempt 'roaming', but I've never experienced in-you-face crazies.

The Marxists, on the other hand....:roll:

[FlorenceHamilton]

It really makes sense that the religious missions attack at Universities. Look at how all of our gracious perfect women of virtue speak of what college is like on their blogs. There is a big emphasis on the evilness of the colege campus. I can even see where the mission visits to college campuses can leave the missionary with the impression that college is a bad place filled with evil people.

First off, they are a nuisance. They place themselves in a position where most people who encounter them are either in a hurry and are disinterested, or become openly hostile or make fun of them. This sets up the missionary to observe exactly what s/he expects to find. Also, in a place with literally hundreds fo people walking by, only the unusual folks with be noticed. You know how the lovely lady bloggers talk about the college students with green hair or in Goth outfits. Well, if hundreds and hundreds of young people are walking by and the vast, vast majority are wearing either jeans and t-shirts or sweats and t-shirts...it is the small handful of folks who are dressed to be noticed who actually do get noticed. It turns out that the most modest thing a person can wear anywhere would be either jeans or sweats with a t-shirt.

This is just another example of how the religious right creates self fullfilling prophecies and then carries on about it. It is sort of like standing in the middle of the highway and blaming cars for the fact that one hit you.

[Rosa]

OMG Brother Jed is still around? He was out walking from state to state with Bibles strapped all over him when I was on college, 20 years ago.

La Traviata asked what the purpose of memorizing chunks of the Bible is; that's the only one I ever found for it. Quote-countering these assholes.

[titus2_4u]

I've never seen the Gideons--the guys who hand out the little Bibles-- be rude or actually proselytize. Granted, I've never seen anyone challenge them.

Does anyone have experience with this? From my view, they're pretty harmless, if not just cute, friendly old men.

[Bella99]

Limited experience with the Gideons, I have always found them to be polite.

[Austin]

That's because Bill Marriott is a Mormon, the whole family is, and they ask their franchisees to include it (my mom used to work for Marriott at their corporate hq).

My FIL was a Gideon. I never minded the Gideons on campus. They were always polite and took no for an answer (I usually snagged the little Bibles actually as I like little Bibles, dunno why).

The homophobic ranters and the ones who called girls "whores" were assholes, though. Couldn't stand 'em.

Yes, I know about Marriott being a mormon dealio. Right after we bought our first timeshare there, a fundie-lite friend of ours was horrified and exclaimed, "Do you know that you are supporting the Mormons??!!!" Eleventy!!!

Uh, yeah, but we just don't care because we like to vacation and they have the best linens.

[Trynn]

I've been to 3 colleges/universities. The most experience I had with anyone was the Gideons, and, like some are saying, they were polite, harmless old men who just wanted to hand out bibles. I thought about showing him the bible on my ipod touch, then thought better of it.