Article and Interview in Newspaper on Campus Preachers

Josh Lanier, executive editor of the NinerOnline, an independent paper covering UNCC and the surrounding areas, called me this weekend to do a phone interview on my coverage of campus preachers.

He just published the article, with a few quotes from me, entitled, "'You're going to hell' says campus preachers: An in-depth look into the practice of campus preachers":

"These guys are always looking for ways to get attention," said Daniel Morgan, a third-year graduate student at the University of Florida.

Morgan, who is working on his Ph. D. in chemistry, has spent a lot of time researching the phenomena of street preachers in his blog called "Get Busy Livin', or Get Busy Bloggin'."

"I'm one of those people who loves to argue about religion," he said during a phone interview. "I had run into these guys on campus and like a lot of people spent a good bit of time arguing with them."

Morgan began his blog in November of 2005 and has spoken with many of the aforementioned preachers in private away from the angry throngs of students.

"In private these guys are much different," he said. "If you get these guys away from other people they will generally speak to you, answer your questions and even concede some ground on some issues."

Even though Morgan and these campus preachers don't see eye-to-eye on most issues, he doesn't dislike them. "I have a lot of respect for these guys … They aren't stupid like a lot of people think. They're actually pretty smart and generally nice guys if you pull them aside and speak with them. Their acts are a façade for the most part."

Morgan witnesses many of the preachers visiting UF and has picked up on some common practices amongst all of them. "One common tactic, for the people aren't going to repent they use the law, but for the ones who have they will use grace."

Morgan continued: "The only people really get mad about this are other Christians. The atheists just laugh these guys off, but the Christians feel like [the preachers] are doing a disservice."

What I meant in that next-to-last quote was that they hammer the "hard of heart" over the head with the law, but preach grace and mercy towards those who are repentant.

He graciously linked to my personal site's RSS feed for campus preachers. Go check out his article.
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