 "Photo: Devin Neeley")
Wednesday afternoon, amongst approximately 100 New Mexico State students, a radical Methodist evangelical and a student disguised as a storm trooper, debated religion, student morality and salvation.
The Methodist evangelical, Jed Smock of Columbia Missouri, is a part of the Campus Ministry U.S.A., an evangelical movement that focuses on college campuses throughout the United States.
Smock said, "I am here to preach and teach the bible and to encourage students to attend church."
For about an hour, starting around 1 p.m. outside of the Corbett Center Student Union, Smock preached about sexuality, Christianity, morality and salvation.
He was met with shouts from upset students. He even went as far as conducting a homosexual-heterosexual analogy with an extension cord and electrical outlet. His analogy intended to explain that there is no electricity between homosexuals engaging in sexual activity. His analogy gathered shouts and protests from nearly 100 students that were assembled.
David Luera, a senior majoring in education, said, "I think it's good that he is here. He is exercising his freedom to say what he believes."
Around 2 p.m., freshman journalism major Nathaniel Ayoub arrived, disguised as a storm trooper.
The storm trooper began mimicking Smock and asked him questions relative to Christianity.
Ayoub said, "I am not here against Christianity, I am here against his perception of Christianity."
After openly professing to being a devout Christian, the storm trooper tried debating scripture and religion with Smock, but the preacher refused and continued ignoring the storm trooper.
"The reason I did this was not to poke fun at him, but to point out several flaws in his beliefs as a fellow Christian," Ayoub said. "I used the storm trooper outfit as an attention getter. I just think he is giving a bad name to Christians, and I wanted to try to counter that."
Eventually, Smock debated with the storm trooper. They bounced flaws they found in each other's beliefs off of each other.
The storm trooper said he believed the man was using hostility to preach, instead of love. The two continued to exchange words for nearly half an hour, discussing and debating issues while taking questions and comments from the crowd.
The vast majority of students cheered on the storm trooper and shouted disapproval at Smock.
Ayoub said, "We are all God's children, no matter what our beliefs are. Instead of using accusations and hatred to preach, Christians must use love."
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