Campus Ministry USA has been on Iowa State campus outside of the library throughout the second week of school. It is led by George Edward Smock, also known as “Brother Jed,” an evangelist who tours the country preaching to college students.

Brother Jed has done this for almost 50 years five hours a day, five days a week. He is joined by his wife Cindy Smock, also known as “Sister Cindy,” and Jared Winslow.

Winslow is somewhat of an apprentice to Brother Jed. After seeing Brother Jed at a college campus in Kentucky, Winslow agreed with Brother Jed’s message and thought Brother Jed’s preaching was effective at evangelizing others.

“[Winslow hopes students understand] the trust message of the Bible, which is that Jesus doesn’t just save us from the consequences of sin, he saves us from sin itself so that we won’t sin, because we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength,” Winslow said. “That is the purpose of the holy spirit.”

Winslow holds a sign with a list of sins from the Bible that says people who commit those sins will not enter the “kingdom of heaven;” adulterers, sodomites, lesbians, those who support a person’s right to choice for an abortion, non-Christians and feminists were all included on the list of what Brother Jed describes as the “attention-getter.”

“Let’s face it, most college kids are into the party life and they are doing at least some of those things,” Brother Jed said. “That will typically capture their attention when you appeal to their conscience. Now with the small group I have had here over the last hour, I have been appealing more to their minds and the rational factor.”

While Campus Ministry USA is using their right to free speech, so were a group of students who were observing. Brother Jed said he “loves gay people but doesn’t love their actions.”

Blake Stumpf, freshman in aerospace engineering, was joined by others to protest homophobia and transphobia.

“It [sexuality] is not something you choose to be, it is who you are,” Stumpf said. “So it’s integrated into the person.”

Brother Jed uses his sign to start conversations such as these.

“So it does work,” Brother Jed said. “You might say there is a method to our apparent madness, but sometimes you have to be somewhat provocative out here. We don’t have a captive audience there like the professors.”

Brother Jed began Campus Ministry USA in 1972 at his alma mater, Indiana State University. Prior to starting his movement, Brother Jed was a history professor at the University of Wisconsin.

“I got involved in the drug radical revolutionary movement of the ’60s, ended living on a hippie commune in Africa, Morocco, where I started reading the Bible,” Brother Jed said. “Mostly initially for academic and intellectual reasons, but then as I studied it, it answered the great questions of life for me: What happens after death? What is the purpose of the meaning of life? What are the origins of life? These are the great questions of philosophy that they should be dealing with in the classroom, often they are not but they should be.”

Brother Jed preaches to students through group discussions or formal debates with professors and frequently receives negative feedback.

“Eff you, of course, is the typical put-down,” Brother Jed said. “Actually students at Iowa State, relative to campuses we have been, are pretty well-behaved and well-mannered. I think the reason for that is ‘Iowa University of Science and Technology’ and what it was before ‘Agriculture and the Mechanical Arts,’ those are more practical studies, and often time at these liberal arts institutes at the University of Iowa, they are educated away from their common sense and they are encouraged to get involved in feminism, multiculturalism, humanism and anything religious is downplayed.”

Stumpf said she is out in the 90-degree weather to hopefully change people’s mind and make Brother Jed’s message encourage students to challenge Brother Jed’s stance.

Brother Jed met his wife while visiting campuses preaching. She was a journalist at the University of Florida and wanted to do a story on him. At the time, Sister Cindy was a liberal socialist but now votes in line with Brother Jed’s conservative views.

Brother Jed said he follows politics more closely than his wife, but they have a political agreement they worked out before they married because he would not marry a Democrat.

“I wouldn’t want my wife going out and voting differently from me — that would just negate my vote,” Brother Jed said. “Might as well stay home, before the women’s suffrage movement women were represented by their husbands and fathers in the ballot. I am not advocating for overthrowing early women’s suffrage, once the genie is out of the bottle it is hard to put it back in.”

Jeff Wheatley is an assistant professor of philosophy and religion, opposing Brother Jed’s teachings of theology. Wheatley said he hopes students understand the diversity of religion, from multiple religions to diversity within each religious tradition.

While theology is the teachings of a divine truth of divine people, according to Wheatley, his class focuses on the study of people and different ideas people have about divine beings.

“I think I want students to understand that religion is a really diverse human phenomenon that is located in the context of culture and history,” Wheatley said. “So sometimes we assume religion is something separate, culture separate from history. It is a very eternalized thing but religion, just like politics, just like economics and culture, is shaped by context. It is shaped by history.”

The religious studies faculty recently made a Twitter and Instagram to broadcast news from the department and clarify any misconceptions students have about religious studies.

“People come into the class with strong feelings of whether religion should be in politics or shouldn’t and I just kind of ask students to just study the history of the relationship of these two things,” he said.

Brother Jed said at the end of the day, he enjoys what he does every day even if it is challenging at times.

“The love of God is what keeps bringing me back to preach,” Brother Jed said. “If there is a hell, as the Bible teaches, then love compels me to warn about it.”