Exigence; A Means of Expression

Yesterday I experienced something interesting. There was a man standing in the center of campus with a large cross yelling about God and how we need to be saved by him. I know that freedom of expression is perfectly fine in this state, but I was surprised to see how easily and bravely they were standing in front of everyone trying to recruit people to join their church and give their lives to Christ.

Most people, I saw, were walking past and once out of earshot they would say something extremely rude about him. I have to admit, even though I am a Christian, and even though I feel strongly about expressing my religion, I couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable in this situation. The man expressing himself obviously had a strong belief in what he was doing and I respect him for standing up in front of everyone, telling of his love for God, but even so, it didn't seem appropriate to me at all. I have read stories and seen things on the news of people protesting on college campuses and I shouldn't have been surprised to see this, but I was.

My reaction to the situation was similar to everyone else's. I paid him some attention, but I was on my way to class and didn't want to get roped into what he was saying, making me late. So I avoided eye contact and walked around the area he was in just in case he decided to spot me and try to flag me down. I believe he was standing for a good cause and was doing his best to recruit people into his faith group, but I'm not so sure he was going about it the right way. Pressuring people to do something doesn't really work and I don't know if he didn't know that, or if simply his love of God was so powerful that he didn't care much about what people though of him. I would like to think it is the later.

The outcome of the situation was that I didn't get stopped by the shouting man and I wasn't bothered by it after class was out. He had moved on to another spot on campus, or decided to pack it up and go home. I'm sure a few others responded, allowing the man to speak to them about his youth group and taking the flyer's he was passing out, but I can't imagine too many were, judging by the amount of people passing him by.


Lesson To Be Learned
When someone is practicing their freedom of expression I would suggest avoiding the situation completely in order to get to class on time. But if you do have time, take a moment to pause and hear what the person has to way. Who knows, you might learn something.