Three members of the Consuming Fire Fellowship, a Woodville-based evangelist church, sparked heated debate on campus on Monday when they condemned students to hell for their sinful lifestyles. Many students gathered around the flagpole in the Circle to oppose their message.
Visits from the Consuming Fire Fellowship aren’t new to the university. In past years, the group ignited controversy on campus with its explicit warnings about hellfire and eternal damnation.
“They are upsetting everybody,” Nailah Bell, a senior majoring in psychology, said. “They have been here several times since last year.”
Bell believes their messages are very repetitive. An atheist herself, she said she finds the fellowship protesters’ rants to be entertaining.
The men wore T-shirts and carried signs that read “Who will Jesus damn?” and contained scriptures referring to repentance and a list of sins they believe are committed by many college students, as they attempted to inform students about their salvation.
Brother Josh, who portrays himself as a King James Bible-believing Christian, said his organization has a meaningful purpose.
“The purpose of everything we do is to bring obedience and glory under God as he commanded in his word,” Brother Josh said. “What we are doing is going around the world and preaching the gospel to every creature.”
Blake Nations, a freshman civil engineering major, led the majority of opposing students to the other side of the Circle and led a prayer.
Nations said he doesn’t mind the Consuming Fire Fellowship members being on campus because everyone is entitled to free speech and personal religious beliefs.
“I feel that it’s unfortunate that they are up there portraying a negative image while claiming to be Christ-like,” Nations said. “I believe that the real key to Christianity is love. The Bible commands that we love one another. Prayer is probably the greatest example of that.”
After seeing the number of students who surrounded him as he led the prayer gave him faith, Nations said he believes it shows there are more people on campus who believe in love and prayer.
The Consuming Fire Fellowship members yelled at the praying students, referring to them as a “circle of sinners” and condemning them to Hell.
Camp Best, an EDHE professor, believes in free speech, but not hate speech.
“I certainly believe in free speech, but I don’t think they should be using explicit language,” Best said. “They should speak more civilly and thoughtfully because their language distracts from the conversation they are trying to have.”
Brother Josh said he wasn’t surprised by the students’ reactions.
“I know students are going to react to our message,” he said. “Because the Bible says that the preaching of the cross is foolish to sinners.”
