Do not waste your breath arguing with Brother Jed.

The well-known campus preacher made his annual visit to Eastern Wednesday and was met with a crowd of angry and offended students and professors there to fight back against his mostly hate-filled rhetoric.

Him, his wife and whoever else he brings on his visits to campus have one mission: to piss you off.

Every time you scream obscenities, they think it is funny.

Every time you twerk at them, they laugh.

Every time you engage with them, it feeds into the energy they need to have to keep spewing their hateful language.

As a queer woman, a sorority woman and a woman whose relationship with God is something I prefer to keep between me and my God. I understand how much their words can sting, but the best thing you can choose to respond with is indifference.

It may be fun to yell back at them or make you feel better about the words being yelled at and about you, but at the end of the day it would cause much less damage to your spirit to walk away.

I sat down with Jed Wednesday for a good half hour and even on a one-on-one basis; nothing he said had any impact on me negatively or positively.

We talked about religion, about Greek Life, my major and anything else you could think of, and the biggest thing I am able to walk away with is that he is a very miserable person.

He is a 77-year-old man who has spent nearly 50 years wandering college campuses to yell about them having sex or acting in a way that his personal god would not approve of.

He has spent a majority of his life being a troll, so why do we waste time interacting with him?

Because like internet trolls, he gets us fired up.

He knows how to push buttons and how to find other people on his level and trains them to do his dirty work, and when you interact with him all it does is further his drive to continue the completely ridiculous work he does at colleges.

So the next time you feel the urge to scream back at him and his minions, consider walking away and going on with your life.

Jed is getting old. Let’s help him retire.

Corryn Brock is a junior journalism major and can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].