Column:

The greatest uniting force on campus

By Charles Austin

Published Sept. 18, 2007

I hate when people complain about Brother Jed. No one who is at all rational or intelligent is actually offended by his behavior. The only people who claim to be offended by Jed and his lackeys are overdramatic, self-important, knee-jerk ultra-liberals who only complain because they are supposed to complain. These are the same people who refrain from using words like "retarded" and "lame" because the terms are just supposed to be offensive to people with mental or physical disabilities, even when the context is entirely unrelated to handicaps of any kind. People who hold to knee-jerk morals, be they liberal or conservative, are the worst kind of human beings. Brother Jed is a part of this population, as are his detractors.

Everyone has already been exposed to differing religious and political views by this age. We are all familiar with extremists, and I can't imagine their existence is shocking to anyone who managed to get into a university.

Because of the age of his audience, I'd be astonished if Brother Jed has ever swayed more than a small handful of students one way or another in their beliefs. Still, people complain about his very presence on campus and for poorly constructed reasons. There are two popular lines of thinking here, and both are moronic.

On one hand, some argue Brother Jed is turning people away from Christianity. This is not true. The only people dumb enough to think Brother Jed represents Christianity are dumb enough to give their savings account information to a wealthy prince from Zimbabwe who needs an American account in which to transfer his funds. All rational people know Brother Jed is insane and has no sway on their view of Christianity whatsoever.

The other homogenized view of Brother Jed is essentially the above argument but with the religious connotation removed. The proponents of this idea claim his hate speech is harmful to the environment of the campus, but this too is wrong. Brother Jed is by far the greatest uniting force on this campus, and I have yet to see anything else that comes even remotely close.

Speaker's Circle is the only place on campus where people of all backgrounds, religions and political views come together to unite for a single cause. No one agrees with Brother Jed. We all understand that he is a joke, and he is our collective joke to share. Speaker's Circle is the best place on campus to just hang out for a few minutes between classes, run into a friend, hear some amusing banter and, hell, maybe contribute a comment of your own.

Although most commentary is just cynical wit, sane practitioners of Christianity will frequently show up and speak up, denouncing Brother Jed's ideals and offering rational retorts. This is the best and most satisfying part of Speaker's Circle. I don't practice Christianity, and I'm sure I'm not alone in the diverse crowd that passes by each day. Yet, whenever someone speaks up against Brother Jed and his posse, we are all united by a sense of companionship shared by all rational human beings.

For a moment, it doesn't really matter what you believe, because everyone standing around you collectively believes Brother Jed is ridiculous. His rhetoric is juvenile and harmless, and everyone understands this, whether consciously or subconsciously. Brother Jed does more good than harm. Speaker's Circle would be an empty shell of its former self without his charmingly naïve ranting.