George Edward Smock said he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ in 1972, and from there he has been visiting college campuses preaching repentance to students. Monday he returned to Eastern’s campus.

Smock, known by the moniker Brother Jed, last appeared at Eastern in April.

He and three other witnesses arrived at about 10:30 a.m. Monday and stayed until 4 p.m. to have an open dialogue with students on the campus’ Commemorative Courtyard in front of Ford Hall.

Accompanying Smock were Sister Pat, 24-year-old Mikhail Savenko and Smock’s wife, “Sister” Cindy Smock.

The four originally intended to speak in front of the Doudna Fine Arts Center, however they were asked to relocate after a professor complained that their activity was disrupting classes.

Smock said he suspects the request to move may have been out of distaste for his message, but enjoys preaching on college campuses.

“If you’re going to influence them, you need to get out where they are,” Smock said. “We get down to where the students are living.”

Smock and his witnesses set about talking at students as they passed by throughout the day.

As students walked by Smock and his witnesses told some of the women they would go to Hell if they did not act more proper, and they should have more self-control when it came to things such as sex.

Taylor Bainter, a senior art major, said she disagreed not only with the Smock’s message, but also with their right to be on campus.

Bainter composed a petition to present to President Bill Perry to prevent Smock and his followers to preach on campus.

“It’s not the actual message, but how it’s being said,” Bainter said. “It’s on our campus, and they’re guests. We want to take back our campus.”

Smock, however, was not surprised by the effort to ban him from campus and said it is a typical reaction from students.

“I start off by appealing to their conscience, and that gets them upset. Later on, I’ll be appealing to their intellect,” Smock said.

However, he said in his experience, the positive reactions come later, after people have had time to discuss it with their peers.

“After they’ve made their jokes about the crazy preachers, it’ll probably provoke a lot of serious dialogue about religious issues,” he added.

Leon Mire, a senior philosophy major, and member of the EIU Society for Free Thought said he agreed Smock’s message was delivered in too harsh a manner.

“The idea of how the eternal torture for anyone who doesn’t believe in this particular message is a toxic idea that we need to wake up and realize is not benefitting anyone, is not helpful to our society and is probably not true,” Mire said.

To combat what he believed to be a harmful message, Mire handed out fliers for EIU’s Society for Free Thought.

“We’re an organization that promotes reason, compassion, secular activism,” Mire said. “It’s also a free space for respectful dialogue between the religious and nonreligious.”

Although students were quick to call Smock uncompassionate, he said he has only love for the audiences he preaches to.

“I think students accuse us of being unloving. But they have a misunderstanding of love, essentially acquainting it with some emotional feeling,” Smock said,  “where as love is a choice, it’s an act of the will.”

Danah Hemes, an associate campus minister at the Christian Campus House, said she was upset and emotional at the sight of Smock and his approach to preaching the Word of God.

“It really frustrates me,“ she said. “I think it is going to further remove people from being open to a loving God who really cares about people on this campus and wouldn’t call them names.”

Smock asserted though, that he and his fellow preachers have the best interests of the students in mind, which is why they warn them about the torment of sin and encourage them to repent.

A self-proclaimed rebellious youth, Smock said his life has changed for the better after experiencing Jesus Christ on a personal level.

“I turned from a self-centered to a God-centered life,” he said.

Similarly, Cindy Smock, who met her husband by reporting about him for the college paper, said she led a different life before their meeting.

She reported that Smock had singled her out at a preaching and accused her of sinful acts.

“I was laughing at him and making fun of him,” she said. “He pointed me out of the crowd and said, ‘Repent of your sins, you wicked woman!’”

Cindy Smock said she set out to prove Smock as a hypocrite, and tried to get him to kiss her, although he claimed he had not kissed a girl in more than six years.

Cindy Smock equates the moment Smock refused to kiss her to the moment she remembers finding God.

“That had an impression on me and I thought he was for real, and that maybe Jesus was for real,” she said.

Although Smock’s fire and brimstone methods may have persuaded his wife, they did not prove to be as effective on students who were present.

Sarah Cochran, a freshman pre-medicine major, said a different approach to the student body might encourage members to be more open-minded.

“I recommend that they don’t do it in the public where everyone can hear it,” she said. “I feel like they should have it in a private setting so that people who want to come and hear it can.”

Cochran’s reaction is one the Smock’s have been faced with before.

Cindy Smock attributes their controversial methods to the Bible.

“The men of God went out to where the people were to try to reach the type of person who’s not interested in this type of lecture, and not interested in a bible study right now,” she said. “We’re trying to get the rebellious ones, the hard-hearted, the party animals, to get their attention and wake them up.”

Smock said he agrees with Cindy Smock’s belief that the controversial tactics of religious preaching come from good intentions to persuade their audience to repent for their sins and live a life for God, regardless of their sometimes offensive claims.

“If your speech isn’t disturbing the people we don’t need a first amendment,” Smock said.

Katie Smith can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].