Editor,
The preachers who graced UNM with hollers of hellfire deserve a second glance. I had the pleasure of meeting these same people at the University of New Orleans in 2005 and Virginia Commonwealth University in 2003.
The sound was the same - crass accusations and dour damnations. It made me and others curious and wonder how they intended to convert or coerce anyone into adopting their beliefs. Surely, trying to digest such vehement malice would lead to horrible indigestion.
So who's going to eat it? Not who you'd think.
Any observant person who was on scene, like myself, may have noticed that two preached while one held a video camera. Why film the exchanges?
These same preachers whom I met at the University of New Orleans confessed to others on the scene that the camera was for filming arguments, and they made most of their money by selling these recordings to nondenominational churches.
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Shocked? Apparently, there's a market for argumentative instructions. Many protestant churches instruct their laity in the art of conversation with the unbeliever.
They learn typical arguments from other faiths and practice curt rebuttals. My involvement with the Baton Rouge-based Baptist churches gave me an inside look at this practice.
There you have it. They have no intention of converting people on the spot. Their primary goal is to start arguments, film them and sell these videos to churches.
They are not preachers, but profiteers and charlatans. If you see them on campus, don't bother arguing. Just expose them for the con artists they are, and they'll shamefully leave the Garden of UNM.
Robert Bruce Crow III
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