Multiple wives.
Communal living.
Ritualistic animal sacrifices at every Sunday service.
Over the years, members of the Church at Kent have been accused of every cult-like religious practice under the sun.
“People love to believe a lie,” says Sandra Weimer, who has been following the church’s teachings for two years. “They want to think the worst about us.”
Every Wednesday night, about two dozen people gather at church elder Jason Robinson’s home for worship and Bible study.
No orgies.
No communes.
No fatted calf.
So what is it about this group that makes it such an easy target for gossip and speculation?
Unconventional evangelism
Church member Matt Cart street preaches outside Jacobs Field in Cleveland last July.
What if you knew Sept. 11 was going to happen, and you had one year to warn people? Robinson, one of the founding members of the church, uses this analogy to explain the church’s method of evangelism, called “street preaching,” which many students witness at some point during their tenure at Kent State.
“We know the truth of the day of judgment because of what the Bible teaches, and we know it and it’s going to happen,” he says. “People are so busy in the rat race just living their life that they need to be radically woken up.”
Members of the church regularly street preach on campus by handing out “tracts,” small brochures with religious messages on topics ranging from drunkenness to abortion. One such tract, titled “Who killed Jesus?” opens up to large red type proclaiming, “Your sins did.” Beneath the words is an image of a nail going into a hand, taken from Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, with the words “This is your hand killing Jesus.”
Church elders and other street preachers hand these tracts out on campus, outside downtown bars, on major party occasions like Halloween, at Indians games, at area festivals, outside movie theaters… “We go everywhere all the time,” Robinson says.
The church also has large banners emblazoned with scriptures and large, graphic images from The Passion that they use. “We get a lot of people that appreciate it, but we do get a lot of backlash,” Robinson says. “If you go to an event and there’s a bunch of people there that are not living their lives obeying Jesus, they’re not going to be happy that you’re there.”
Last Halloween, while some of the street preachers were evangelizing outside bars downtown, Robinson says they were attacked by offended partygoers. One person cut his megaphone wire, and someone else pulled a knife on him. “That was a pretty rough night,” he remembers.
Although some people become violent when they come in contact with church members, Robinson says, Church at Kent street evangelists never resort to violence themselves. “We believe in what’s called nonresistance, so we don’t believe in owning guns and defending ourselves or fighting back,” he says. “Jesus said turn the other cheek, and that’s what we do.”
But why risk physical harm just to preach to drunken college students on their way home from The Loft? Robinson says these wayward souls need the church’s help to keep from going to hell. “We want to go out and go to the streets. That’s what Jesus did,” he says.
The Burr is produced by students at Kent State University twice per academic year.No part of The Burr may be reprinted without permission.