“The skin of a woman’s body is not hers. It belongs to her husband!”

Those were the words of Vijay Pisini, a traveling preacher with the group Obedience of Faith. The group made an appearance at Iowa State on Wednesday. Pisini claimed that all those who don’t submit themselves to Jesus Christ and cease all sinning will burn for eternity in hellfire.

Draped over his person was a placard which read “Stop Believing Lies! Obey Jesus!”

Pisini criticized many women who walked past him, calling their dress immodest. He even went so far as to claim leggings are actually underwear and unfit to be worn in public.

“Think about it, wise college students,” Pisini said, raising his hand toward the heavens. “You’re walking this campus wearing underwear!”

“I’m wearing underwear too!” replied Garrett Knepper, senior in business management. “We all are. Aren’t you?”

On this, Pisini declined to respond.

Pisini arrived in front of Parks Library and was met with loud opposition from hundreds of students.

“The Bible says to go and preach the gospel to all!” proclaimed Pisini, clad in a placard, with a Bible in hand. “You must be born again! You must repent!”

Beside Pisini was his colleague Cory, who refused to reveal his last name due to the perceived dangers of his vocation. Cory held high a sign which listed off all the different kinds of people who, he believes, are destined to go to hell.

“When we proclaim the word of the Bible we risk our lives,” Cory said. “We get death threats all the time, but our number one concern is the safety of everyone’s souls.”

Cory and Pisini stood outside of Parks Library for nearly three hours. According to their interpretation of scripture, “fornicators, feminists, homosexuals, sorcerers/druggies, hypocrites and gangster rappers” were just some of the people living as enemies of God.

However, onlookers voiced strong opposition to Pisini’s sermon. Students such as Knepper and Micayla Applegate, sophomore in English education, stood their ground beside Pisini and argued with him, or even led onlookers in chants against him.

“I don’t like it when people preach hate,” Knepper said. “As long as you teach love I’ll support you.”

Knepper stood along the stone benches outside Parks and rallied students in a booming chant.

“When I say Cyclone you say love,” he called to nearly 200 students. “Cyclone!”

The students responded, “Love!”

So the chant went on. “Cyclone!” “Love!” “Cyclone!” “Love!”

Applegate stood beside Pisini with a hand written sign on notebook paper. It read “God loves hussies and gays.”

“He called me an immodest woman,” Applegate said. “He called me blind. He’s preaching the Bible out of context. He’s slandering people. It’s hypocritical… it puts a bad name on Christians.”

Although many people found Pisini’s message hateful, he claimed that it comes from a place of love.

“I don’t hate you sinners,” he said. “I don’t accept you, but I love you all.”

This didn’t convince most of the crowd, and many began asking where Pisini got the authority to cast judgement upon them. Applegate, a Christian, even recited Matthew 7 which reads “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.”

To this, Pisini claimed that he is a saint, and therefore has the authority to judge.

“All Christians are saints, but none of you are true Christians!” Pisini said. “That’s why I can judge when you cannot.”

Applegate wasn’t the only Christian who disagreed with Pisini’s methods. Many among the crowd were Christians too, including Merlin Jones.

Jones is known on campus as “the Bible Talk Guy.” For the past few years he has been seen standing outside of Parks Library with a little yellow sign labeled “Bible Talk.” Hundreds of students have approached him to engage in casual conversation about Christianity.

“He must not think he sins at all, which is totally wrong,” Jones said. He then gestured to more than 150 students circling Pisini. “He wanted a circus, and he got one.”

It seems most students made a clear distinction between Jones and Pisini, and many approached Jones throughout the day.

“The Bible Talk Guy is lit,” said Mitch Knoth, sophomore in software engineering. “He’s the right type of guy. I feel like [Pisini] is really hypocritical. He’s so judgemental and condescending about other people’s religion.”

Pisini and his colleague claim to be without political party. To them, affiliating with a political group is too divisive. They want to focus on religion. However, Pisini still offered scathing critiques of the Democratic Party.

“All Democrats are going to hell!” he yelled. “These ‘Demon-crats’ support the killing of babies!”

The topic changed before he could offer any criticisms of the Republican Party.

“True Christianity isn’t pointing your finger at people,” said Joey Lee, senior in mechanical engineering. “It’s acknowledging that all humans are broken. But Jesus took our sins and put us in a righteous place before God. The Bible is very clear about this.”

Lee is a member of the SALT Company, one of the largest student Christian groups at Iowa State. He used Matthew 7:1 to back his point, which reads: “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.  For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” 

Note: Edits were made April 26 at 5:03 p.m. to correct the attribution of a Bible verse in the final paragraph.