Evangelist on Campus Causes Student Outrage

Around 9:00 a.m. on Oct. 8, a man by the name of “Brother Matt” appeared above the steps of the tunnel at the Campus Commons, with a sign reading, “JESUS SAID GO AND SIN NO MORE, HELL IS HORRIBLE NO WARNING IS TOO STRONG." He would speak with passersby, and go on to draw large crowds around 1:00 p.m.

According to Brother Matt, he is a representative of both the Assemblies of God Church and Campus Evangelists. The Assemblies of God doctrine emphasizes evangelicalism- the emphasizing of a relationship with a Protestant God, that includes drawing others into their religion. During his roughly six hours on campus, Brother Matt would shout to the people around him about “your damnation," and would, according to witnesses and recordings, accuse multiple people of color of being “gangster rappers," “drug addicts," or “servants” not of God, but rather white men. He would also accuse the women who walked by him of being “whores” and “sluts," and to “cover [themselves] up” in the presence of men. He would then go on to speak about the “evils of homosexuals," who are, according to himself, “pedophiles and sodomites."

The students surrounding him did not take these comments lightly.

“I think he’s absolutely insane… He’s saying things that are inherently harmful to hurt people,” said a student (whose name has been omitted for privacy reasons) standing in front of Brother Matt, who would go on to battle Brother Matt’s rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community by shouting to the crowd, “God loves you anyway!”

Another student protesting Brother Matt would go on to shout at him (upon his calling of a woman in a crop top a “whore”), “Jesus said gouge your eyes out if you look at a woman with lust!” to which Brother Matt refused to respond.

The police, upon seeing the large crowd of protestors, would tell the students to “stay back and just leave,” and leave Brother Matt alone, but students were unsatisfied with this. “He called me a crossdresser, and he also called me a gangster rapper, which you can argue is racist,” said another student (whose name has also been omitted). “They told all of us to just leave even though he can leave… they told us to back off even though he’s harassing us.”

When asked for a comment on the situation, the police stated that they “would not answer any questions.”

“Repent or perish,” Brother Matt said when asked for a comment. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years… Berkeley to Florida State.” Brother Matt would then become agitated when asked, “How often have you done this at UNC before?” “Are you stupid? What does 25 years mean?” When asked to clarify whether or not he’s done this at UNC, Brother Matt would go on to say, “Yes, a long time ago.”

“Same reaction, many years ago. The more things change, the more things stay the same… We reach everybody. We’re a hundred percent successful.” Upon the end of his comments, he would then say, “Make sure you get it right. Don’t be like these CBS, CNN reporters… The media lies!” He would then say to omit the portion of the interview where he asked if the reporter was “stupid."

“I don’t think it’s fair for him to be speaking on campus… I think UNC needs to put policies in place for people like him. I understand that it’s a public campus, but this crosses a line,” said Juliet Hernandez, a practicing Catholic who condemned Brother Matt’s rhetoric as hate speech. “All of these… street preachers have given me a bad taste in my mouth as a first-year… UNC should not allow this!”

Other students would not directly speak to Brother Matt, but rather make signs of their own. “Street Preachers Are Weird," “Trans Rights," and other signs were made by students who would stand three feet to the left of Brother Matt which he "did not appreciate."

One student would offer him an unopened bottle of water in tears, proclaiming, “I don’t agree with your morals and stuff, and I know you don’t like me, but it’s really hot and you’ve been here for a long time, so I’d like to offer you this!” Brother Matt would refuse.

Brother Matt would leave around 3:00 p.m. after over six hours of heat and shouting, along with over three hours of protests against him. This situation has opened the question to many students on the legitimacy of allowing for religious affiliations to take place on campus, and when the First Amendment's freedom of speech crosses over into hate speech.