Coward v. Cunning
This was written before the discovery of the con artist truth was brought to light. I'll post an update later.
What does it mean to be a coward? What does it mean to be brave? Often times it is hard to distinguish between the two, cowardice and bravery.
For the third day in a row, we have been exposed to a prime example of cowardice. Some may view these men as brave souls; men who are not afraid to face the ridicule from a crowd of liberal and progressive students. Some may opt to believe that these men are brave because they are standing up for what they believe in. Others may even go so far as to argue that these men are brave because the things that they are preaching are as controversial as they come. Bravery? Not in my book.
Brother Micah and his partner in “preaching,” Jim Gilles, better known as Brother Jim, have turned what could be an intellectual debate and discussion into a free-for-all screaming match. The two men alternate time slots in which each conveys the same fundamentalist evangelical ideals ridiculing and damning everyone, every sinner, to Hell. Students who range from believers to atheists, Christians to Jews, Mormons to Jehovah’s witnesses, Baptists to Catholics, Muslims to Buddhists, Hindus to Sikhs, and most assuredly others have gathered outside of Tangeman University Center and McMicken to watch these men push their ideas and beliefs upon students. While the men started by simply presenting their ideas to the general public, things quickly escalated to slander, name calling, finger pointing, and rudeness. The men are lewd, judgmental, and ignorant. They offer no concession to their beliefs, not that anyone would expect them to, but, with these two men, there is no other option. The way that these men are choosing to preach, and the word choices that they have made, leaves one to believe that Brother Micah and Brother Jim are the only non-sinners that exist on the planet. Giving them the proper credit that they may or may not deserve, they have admitted to sinning in the past; however, they are quick to refute any discussion by informing their audience that they have been saved; they are no longer sinners and they no longer sin. These two men are as pure as they come.
These men are proud owners of a single-track mind. Nothing that you can say or do will alter their opinion or beliefs. You can quote the bible directly, as is evidence from today, and they interrupt by yelling and screaming ludicrous, nonsensical statements. Perhaps this is their greatest fear: combat. These men cannot be defined as brave because of their unwillingness to make attempts at acknowledging another way of life. It is one thing to be naïve, but it is another to be blatantly ignorant. These men far exceed any form of ignorance that could possibly be derived from the meaning of the word. These men are cowards because of the way that they distort what is transcribed on the pages of the bible so that it appears to say what they want it to say, what they need it to say, in order to have their opinions recognized and perhaps even believed.
These men do not thrive on the desire to spread the word of God, these men thrive on attention. These men live for the adrenaline rush that they get every time they present a public university with the option of allowing them to speak or facing a lawsuit for First Amendment infringement. However, although we do have the right to free speech, the right to free expression, there are ways in which the concept is often times abused. Slander. Defamation. These are terms that are applicable to what students at the University of Cincinnati are currently experiencing. Students have been individually picked out of the crowd, often times numbers nearing one hundred spectators, and ridiculed. Women have been pointed at, directly spoken to, and have been dubbed as “whores” and “sluts.”
Defamation occurs within slander and libel; however, since these men have not yet provided these things in a medium other than an oral context, the defamation has occurred through slander. Defamation is the communication of a statement that makes a false claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may harm the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government or nation (Expertlaw.com). Whether the women that have been singled out from the group of spectators are victims of denigration or not is, unless brought in front of a court of law, unimportant. The comments made about the women are slanderous and rude. They are ruining a good name all because of guilt by association (whether the association is that of a sorority or the general female population).
These men should be given thumbs up for being passionate. Everyone should be passionate about something. Nevertheless, saying that Martin Luther King Jr. is burning in Hell, that women are asking to be raped by exposing their elbows and knees, that all women should be beaten with a bible and should spend their lives in submission, that we are all Hell-bound sinners, that:
“It's not okay to be gay
It's not okay to be a homo
It's not supposed to be that way
God says it's a big no-no
It's not okay to be gay
It's not okay to be perverted
It's not in your DNA
What you need is to be converted.”
-Brother Micah’s song lyrics. Recorded by Melinda Hershey.
It is statements such as these that attest to their ignorance. It is statements such as these that speak in volumes to the confused and easily swayed persons. It is statements such as these that say no matter how much forward progress that we make as a society, there will always be someone trying to pull us back to archaic patterns of thought.
People are talking. People are debating. People are discussing. People are more accepting of others now more than they have ever been. Nobody is safe guarded from the words of these men. We are all united by the common belief that what these men have to say is wrong and unjustified. We are coming together as a university, as a community, to stand up and say that we will not tolerate these men on our campus. Students are standing up to these men, challenging their ideas, trying to spark debate instead of words full of nothing but hatred and calumny.
What does it mean to be a coward? What does it mean to be brave? Often times it is hard to distinguish between the two, cowardice and bravery.
For the third day in a row, we have been exposed to a prime example of cowardice. Some may view these men as brave souls; men who are not afraid to face the ridicule from a crowd of liberal and progressive students. Some may opt to believe that these men are brave because they are standing up for what they believe in. Others may even go so far as to argue that these men are brave because the things that they are preaching are as controversial as they come. Bravery? Not in my book.
Brother Micah and his partner in “preaching,” Jim Gilles, better known as Brother Jim, have turned what could be an intellectual debate and discussion into a free-for-all screaming match. The two men alternate time slots in which each conveys the same fundamentalist evangelical ideals ridiculing and damning everyone, every sinner, to Hell. Students who range from believers to atheists, Christians to Jews, Mormons to Jehovah’s witnesses, Baptists to Catholics, Muslims to Buddhists, Hindus to Sikhs, and most assuredly others have gathered outside of Tangeman University Center and McMicken to watch these men push their ideas and beliefs upon students. While the men started by simply presenting their ideas to the general public, things quickly escalated to slander, name calling, finger pointing, and rudeness. The men are lewd, judgmental, and ignorant. They offer no concession to their beliefs, not that anyone would expect them to, but, with these two men, there is no other option. The way that these men are choosing to preach, and the word choices that they have made, leaves one to believe that Brother Micah and Brother Jim are the only non-sinners that exist on the planet. Giving them the proper credit that they may or may not deserve, they have admitted to sinning in the past; however, they are quick to refute any discussion by informing their audience that they have been saved; they are no longer sinners and they no longer sin. These two men are as pure as they come.
These men are proud owners of a single-track mind. Nothing that you can say or do will alter their opinion or beliefs. You can quote the bible directly, as is evidence from today, and they interrupt by yelling and screaming ludicrous, nonsensical statements. Perhaps this is their greatest fear: combat. These men cannot be defined as brave because of their unwillingness to make attempts at acknowledging another way of life. It is one thing to be naïve, but it is another to be blatantly ignorant. These men far exceed any form of ignorance that could possibly be derived from the meaning of the word. These men are cowards because of the way that they distort what is transcribed on the pages of the bible so that it appears to say what they want it to say, what they need it to say, in order to have their opinions recognized and perhaps even believed.
These men do not thrive on the desire to spread the word of God, these men thrive on attention. These men live for the adrenaline rush that they get every time they present a public university with the option of allowing them to speak or facing a lawsuit for First Amendment infringement. However, although we do have the right to free speech, the right to free expression, there are ways in which the concept is often times abused. Slander. Defamation. These are terms that are applicable to what students at the University of Cincinnati are currently experiencing. Students have been individually picked out of the crowd, often times numbers nearing one hundred spectators, and ridiculed. Women have been pointed at, directly spoken to, and have been dubbed as “whores” and “sluts.”
Defamation occurs within slander and libel; however, since these men have not yet provided these things in a medium other than an oral context, the defamation has occurred through slander. Defamation is the communication of a statement that makes a false claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may harm the reputation of an individual, business, product, group, government or nation (Expertlaw.com). Whether the women that have been singled out from the group of spectators are victims of denigration or not is, unless brought in front of a court of law, unimportant. The comments made about the women are slanderous and rude. They are ruining a good name all because of guilt by association (whether the association is that of a sorority or the general female population).
These men should be given thumbs up for being passionate. Everyone should be passionate about something. Nevertheless, saying that Martin Luther King Jr. is burning in Hell, that women are asking to be raped by exposing their elbows and knees, that all women should be beaten with a bible and should spend their lives in submission, that we are all Hell-bound sinners, that:
“It's not okay to be gay
It's not okay to be a homo
It's not supposed to be that way
God says it's a big no-no
It's not okay to be gay
It's not okay to be perverted
It's not in your DNA
What you need is to be converted.”
-Brother Micah’s song lyrics. Recorded by Melinda Hershey.
It is statements such as these that attest to their ignorance. It is statements such as these that speak in volumes to the confused and easily swayed persons. It is statements such as these that say no matter how much forward progress that we make as a society, there will always be someone trying to pull us back to archaic patterns of thought.
People are talking. People are debating. People are discussing. People are more accepting of others now more than they have ever been. Nobody is safe guarded from the words of these men. We are all united by the common belief that what these men have to say is wrong and unjustified. We are coming together as a university, as a community, to stand up and say that we will not tolerate these men on our campus. Students are standing up to these men, challenging their ideas, trying to spark debate instead of words full of nothing but hatred and calumny.