"I am morally without sin"
“I am morally without sin,” he said, looking down on a group of 50 or so students.
He also said he was a “Christian,” and he “has to listen to loud-mouthed women every day.” That was Wednesday.
Today, he was shouting back at Auburn University students who were traveling between classes or ones that simply had nothing better to do than listen. He stood on his two-foot high wall just past the concourse (a place for hanging out and club recruitment and other stuff for you non-Auburn students). I would argue that he had more than a hundred students at several points during the day.
They were shouting back at him.
The highlight of the day? The The Gay Song (It’s Not Okay To Be Gay).
He is Micah Armstrong. He is the “Open Air Bible Thumper,” according to his website. He is radical. He is in your face.
He’s been on campus all week long, every day from around 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. He’s been preaching the “Word.” He’s been preaching against homosexuality, masturbation, and sex. Those are apparently our only sins.
Today, just after 2 p.m., he was escorted off the campus by police.
The crowd was riled up. Some were merely taunting the preacher bearing dark news (I like to think of him as the Dark Preacher). Others were preaching back at him. He was telling them about hell. Others were telling him about Jesus’ compassion, freely masturbating, and being openly gay.
“Every girl that has premarital sex with a guy is a W-H-O-R-E,” he shouted at the laughing young adults. “Every masturbator is a potential homosexual” because it is sex with the same sex.
He was there today to make sure we knew we were going to hell for the things we’re doing. He was there to tell us that Martin Luther King Jr. is in hell. That Ghandi and Mother Teresa were burning too. And, about the only person on campus today that wouldn’t burn would be himself.
The students took that message well.
Of course, there were a few opposers to stand on the wall with him.
This student reads an issue of Cosmopolitan. The story was something about how to gratify your partner sexually. “You can’t get your own audience,” Armstrong responds. The student then goes on to lead a group of students to another spot to read the issue, but they were few.
This is not an uncommon event. We usually get one radical preacher every semester who tries to scare the student body into religion, which is entirely the wrong approach. He was preaching against the Christians there that were trying to go with the Jesus’ love angle. No. That’s not allowed, that kind of preaching. It’s all fire and brimstone. That’s the only way to preach it.
My favorite person to take a stand against Armstrong is this guy, sporting a shirt that reads “Plays Well With Self” and an arrow pointed toward the man. This fit so well with Armstrong’s rampage against masturbation that you could not help but laugh. Well, and the t-shirt guy just looked funny.
“Your problem is not your testosterone or gender. You got a wicked, perverted heart. You’ve masturbated one too many times, you’ve watched one too many porno movies, you’ve had premarital sex,” continued Armstrong.
He never let up until the police arrived. I guess he was lucky he didn’t make a scene about “freedom of speech” at that moment. He was clearly harrassing those students who were gay, Muslim, Christian, women, and well…every one else. One seemingly devout Christian was near tears arguing back at him. This was what he was doing to his brothers in Christ.
Aside from the t-shirt guy and The Gay Song, the funniest scene of the day was when a student poked Armstrong in the butt with a stick. “Don’t turn your back on this guy,” Armstrong fired.
I’m not condoning this kind of childishness from grown people, but what Armstrong said incited an uproar of laughter.
It’s been a war all week. Christians vs. Armstrong. Muslims vs. Armstrong. Atheists vs. Armstrong. Students and Faculty vs. Armstrong.
I should make a Facebook group. I wonder what I’ll call it…
This in no way is an anti-Christian or anti-religion post. It is simply a post about a man who made a scene.
Here are some files I’ve uploaded for your viewing and listening pleasure. I would’ve uploaded the hour worth of recorded audio I got today, but it’s hard to hear since there was so much noise. Enjoy.