"If you are a whoremonger, you hate Christ, and Christ hates youuuu!"
One of Friday's two traveling preachers was so strange his message came off as just plain hilarious. Repeat the sentence above, replacing "whoremonger" with various other sinners and you honestly have his entire sermon. He stood shouting the same chorus in a tremulous voice like a metronome for a few hours before moving on to another campus. The man was downright ghoulish.
I vaguely remember my initial shock on the Turlington Plaza preacher phenomenon, but after a couple semesters, they have become as ordinary as those fearless squirrels that inhabit campus.
Now, I must level with you: As pitiful and wretched as many of these preachers are, I cannot totally dissociate myself from them. Not only do I claim to be inspired by the same person - at least in name - and the same book, but I don't think yelling at strangers is necessarily deranged and misguided.
To be clear, this is by no means a defense of the preachers' tactics. Neither is it an attempt to amputate them from the reputation of my faith either. What I'm offering is some insight into their crazed minds as someone a little bit squirrelly myself.
First of all, with few exceptions, all these preachers consider themselves Christians, specifically followers of Jesus Christ, and correct interpreters of the Bible - literally the word of God.
The problem for Christians who sincerely believe in the Christ of the Bible is that he claims to be the only way to God. Furthermore, a fundamental Christian idea is that mankind is, simply put, messed up in the head. Ironic, I know.
We're not alone, however, as most other religions and even many atheists would agree that there's something wrong with the way humans think.
So if you are of that persuasion - as the Turlington crazies and myself are - you believe that the only means of attaining sustainable joy in this life and the next is through "the Book" and "the Man."
A natural consequence of that belief, if you have any compassion at all, is at the very least a latent desperation to tell anyone you remotely care for about your faith.
But how does that translate into screaming invectives at college students here at UF?
Well, here's where I am going to generalize somewhat recklessly.
The base ingredient is a sordid understanding of a doctrine that some Christians believe in called Wesleyan perfectionism. As stated before, pretty much all Christians believe that humans are seriously messed up. A Wesleyan perfectionist believes that through faith, God is willing to completely fix you in this life. Simply put, a person can reach a dash on the timeline of his or her life after which they do no wrong. This is where the preachers and I divide - I don't see that taught in the book.
Really though, the ingredient that gets the preacher going is pride. True Wesleyan perfectionism - something I respect even as I disagree with it - gives God all the credit. These men seem to have reveled too long in the notion of their perfection and have forgotten God.
Inasmuch as that is the case, I can't resist requesting that if you are interested in the Christian faith, look past the men holding the big signs listing the hell-bound and focus on the Man and the Book.
Gerald Liles is a history and religion senior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
