Vandy students have hissy-fits over open-air calls to repentance...
Back when I was an undergrad at UW-Madison, I was strengthened in my faith by the open-air preachers on Library Mall.
Once I was privileged to protect one of the men when the student body vice-president, Leon Varjian (see pic above from the famous Lady Liberty prank) assaulted him. Varjian was pelting the preacher with eggs. Clearly it hurt, so between Varjian's trips back to his wagon to stock up (he had many dozens), I picked the eggs out of his stash and smashed them on the pavement.
Varjian got mad, but back then I was a longhair and I think he realized if he could batter a man with eggs, I could batter the sidewalk. So he stopped what he was doing and I stopped, too.
Another time a man was picking the preacher up from behind and humping him while the law enforcement officers watched and laughed...
I filed a formal complaint with the Madison police department that time. It was inexcusable: here was a man exercising his First Amendment rights being assaulted while law enforcement officers looked on and laughed.Which is to point out the obvious. The Academy's proudest accomplishment the past fifty years or so has been indoctrinating its charges in immorality and rebellion against the Holy God. As Allan Bloom pointed out in his New York Times bestseller, The Closing of the American Mind
One of the saddest aspects of open-air preaching on Madison's Library Mall was the anger and opposition the preachers got from self-professing Christians. The students involved in parachurch organizations were very irritated that anyone had the temerity to speak of Jesus, calling their neighbors to repentance out there in public for everyone to hear.
All this is brought to mind by my friend, Elliot, forwarding this video clip of open-air preaching on frat row at Vanderbilt last weekend.
The preaching above was the talk of the campus (see this and this) and Elliot reports that Christians joined in the hissy-fits. "Why, how dare they speak for God against fornication and drunkenness--and right out there in public just before our Commodore football game! This preacher is an enemy of the people! He's disrespecting our holy things! Great is Artemis of the Commodores!"
When my son Joseph was doing his undergrad work at Vandy, he benefitted from the PCA's campus ministry there, Reformed University Fellowship. Sadly, Elliot reports RUF joined other Christians in condemning these faithful servants and their call to repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
(TB, w/thanks to Elliot)
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I have done open air preaching. I loved it and will do it again very soon. However, I don't quite understand it when people go around and most of what they say is "you need to repent." For instance, there is a kid away from a party sitting on a bench with a beer in his hand. He didn't appear drunk, and it looked like he was minding his own business. What if that kid was a 21 year old Christian who was faithful to his church? Sure, that wasn't likely the case, but I have been confronted by open air preachers in a similar way. Because I was a college student, I automatically was in rebellion and I needed to repent.
I'm not saying they're wrong, but I think it would be better if they had more Gospel content instead of babbling the same four words over and over again.
Luther said the life of the Christian is one of daily repentence so it would still apply...
I think if I were at RUF "Vandy" I would tell them to repent of having women preachers.
Easy to understand the hissy from the unbelievers and just as easy to understand the hissy from the para church folks. The unbelieving crowd needs no explanation. The para church organizations, however, only needs brief one.
Pastor Curell, in a sermon, once stated that we, as evangelicals, have made a truce with Satan and the world. That truce is that "we will not expose you if you will not persecute us." The world usually will honor this treaty as long as we stay docile, or better yet, unseen and unheard. Bring in an open air preacher and all hell breaks loose because SOMEONE HAS BROKEN THE TRUCE! Now we are armed and ready to attack you. "You have forgotten your place.." The para-church wants this truce as much as anyone publicly, as gee, it's just so uncomfortable having the battles lines so visible....IN PUBLIC even...eww... and oh, wow, this guys is not even "educated" did you hear how he talked?...what an embarrassment... I mean, can't we just "share" over a latte?
Next, there is the obvious deep down conviction of seeing someone else so committed, so single minded in his devotion to the King and willing to humiliate himself in a way we never, ever, would. The man, however flawed and sinful he may be, however imperfect his delivery or vocabulary, has picked up his cross... and we resent him for it.
Next, pride. Pride in the academy. Pride in ourselves. Oh, we're so educated. Only "we" really know how to reach these erudite postmoderns. Simple proclamations of the gospel, well, that's just too simple! 1 Corinthians 18-31 be dipped, what the world needs is us and our piercing intellects...
Finally, shame. The breaking of the truce that an open air preacher brings, forces the christian to choose..... choose whom you will be aligned and associated with. Therefore, to avoid the shame of being linked with such a 'lowly servant', we distance ourselves from him.
I came to the Reformed faith in college. A year later, RUF launched on campus. I'm grateful for this timing because that group would have driven me away entirely. As for this incident, I'm less concerned about the open-air preaching that I am about the local cults of NCAA football and the greek system.
I would like to throw out a couple of things that I struggle with as a believer when it comes to sharing the gospel. As a Christian I know that I am to be a witness in my daily walk but where do you cross the line from being a witness to being a fool or a bat witness for Christ.. let me give you a couple of examples I have seen.
a. Years ago I went into the bathroom at a nice resturant and there on top of the urinals where the pipe comes into the porcelain there were gospel tracts... I felt that this was a poor place for scripture to be and was in my opinion disrespectful so I took them.
2. When do you know if your casting your pearls before swine in that I have seen witnessing done with drunk people that if the person came to know the Lord would they remember anything from the night before?
3. I am a nurse that works in surgery so my employer is paying me to work and not be a full time evangelist...I sometimes pray with certain patients but not with everyone and I always ask permission but how far do I go with the gospel? I want to meet the patients spiritual needs (many r nervous or frightened)and also may feel vulnerable. Our hospital does employ a full time chaplain (he is a good one)
These are some of the questions that I have and would be curious as to your answers. (I think a lot of other people have the same questions too)
I didn't realize Leon was at UWM, too. He had his moments here in Bton, too (prior to UWM days), as class president at IU, and then as a candidate for mayor. I was surprised to see his name pop up again.
J. Moore,
Well said brother, very insightful. I wonder if this helps explain why we have such a hard time getting Christians to come and pray and preach at the local abortion mills. Indeed I wonder about the whole pro-life movement, if we have subtly cut a deal- we will allow you to continue to murder your babies as long as you don't come for us. When we rightly scream "bloody murder" we make all Christians targets. Would that we had the wisdom to see persecution and martyrdom as the height of kingdom victory.
ChuckP,
I think this article by Doug Wilson called 'Guilt-free Evangelism' is helpful, much more could be said, but the article is on p10 of the following I believe:
http://www.credenda.org/images/stories/pdf/14-6.pdf
I would encourage you to always ask the question 'what does the Bible actually mandate?'
You may also find the discussion in the comment section between 'Dunsman' and 'Henry' on this post helpful:
http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2011/08/uncg-outreach-report-8-31-2011.html
>> I wonder if this helps explain why we have such a hard time getting Christians to come and pray and preach at the local abortion mills.
The first thing I did with regular anti-abortion activism was so tiny: I ordered a bumper sticker that just says "ABORTION stops a beating heart". I sighed as I confirmed my order, and I trembled as I stuck it on the bumper.
Why?
Because up to that point I had been anonymous. I had not taken a public stand one way or another (except maybe at the Life Chain once a year, with hundreds of others). Now--what if there were a cost??
It seemed like such a gigantic step to stick that silly little sticker on there...but it was. Before that I would barely even look at the people witnessing against the weekly slaughter at Planned Parenthood. Now I'm one of them. Getting rid of the anonymyity was an essential step of faith.
The preachers have aroused the ire of the local demi-church not because they are heretical or otherwise unbibilical, but because they are embarrassing.
Doug Wilson (or maybe it was Nate) has a great word for this - "coolshaming".
Dear Alex,
I've thought similar things, too, and here's the conclusion I've come to: God deals with people both individually and as groups. He dealt with Jericho by leveling the entire city; but He dealt with Rahab by rescuing her. He dealt with all of creation by wiping it out in a flood; but He dealt with Noah by delivering him through the flood (and He dealt with Noah's family collectively by delivering them all, too, for the sake of Noah's righteousness--not to mention 2 of every kind of animal). God dealt with Pharaoh individually by dealing with Egypt collectively and killing each first-born child. Hosea was told to rebuke all the Israelites for their adultery, but surely they weren't all committing adultery, down to the very last man. Surely some were faithful. Nevertheless, God rebuked them all for adultery, and the rebuke went to the faithful husbands and wives, too.
All of this to say: a Vandy student is an individual, but also part of a group. God deals with individuals individually, but also with groups collectively. For this reason, I think that it isn't inappropriate to indiscriminately call Vandy students to repentance, because they're all Vandy students.
We're all so po-mo (or maybe "we're all so American") that we hate this sort of thing, and we say that God is unfair for dealing with groups of people, and not just dealing with individuals. But Scripture doesn't make sense without it: God dealt with all of Adam's progeny collectively by giving us his inherited sin; and God deals with all Christians collectively by giving us Christ's righteousness. Yes, a Vandy student is a unique little snowflake; but snow generally needs to be rebuked for being cold, and Vandy students generally need to be rebuked for being fornicating drunks.
Abram, I appreciate the reply. You make very good points.
It actually reminds me of something I would say indiscriminately to people while I street preached. At the end of my message I gave a call to repent of sin and come to Christ. Obviously, this was sent out to anyone listening. However, some who heard my words could have already been Christians.
In essence I was doing the same thing as the people in this video. I would have still done several things differently, but the point is taken.
Thank you Bayly brothers. My family, 5 children 9 to 1 and my pregnant wife, met to pray in front of an abortion mill this evening. Much credit goes to you gentlemen and your faithfulness in proclaiming Christ on this blog. This was an excellent time of fellowship with Christ and my family. How my family grew today and how clarifying this experience was in so many ways.
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