About 100 GW students gathered in front of J Street to witness a spectacle that could become a regular occurrence on campus, University of Pennsylvania students said. Brother Steven, a self-proclaimed born-again Christian, clutched a Bible and preached that college students who drink, smoke marijuana or sleep more than 10 hours a night are all sinners who will go to hell.

He was just funny at first, saying random stuff, while Brother Steven fended off verbal attacks from students. But then, Brother Steven verbally attacked Jews, Catholics, Hindus, minorities, homosexuals and anyone who does not fit his description of a born-again Christian. “Stop getting wasted…stop masturbating…I’m a saint. Who else here is a saint?” Now everyone has become confrontational, creating chaos.

Brother Steven also spoke out against homosexuals. “Gays and lesbians are worse than minorities because they choose to be sinners,” he said. “If you really love your homo friends, you’ll tell your homo friends, ‘Stop doing it,’” Brother Steven said.

Sophomore Jon Ziegler said he was turned off by Brother Steven’s message because he damages the religion that he claims to promote. “If I was someone who was looking for direction, and I saw that, it would completely turn me off from Christianity.”

“Religion ‘transcendentalizes’ ordinary cultural differences so that parties feel they are in a cosmic battle between good and evil. Christian nations institutionalized imperialism, violence, and oppression through the Inquisition and the African slave trade. Islam is the soil for much of today’s terrorism, while Israeli forces have often been ruthless too. Hindu nationalists, in the name of their religion, carry out bloody strikes on both Christian churches and Muslim mosques.”

The problem with this view is that the “Communist Russian, Chinese, and Cambodian regimes of the twentieth century rejected all organized religion and belief of God. These societies were all rational and secular, yet they each produced massive violence against its own people without the influence of religion. Why? Allister McGrath points out that when the idea of God is gone, a society will “transcendentalize” something else, some other concept, in order to appear morally and spiritually superior. The Marxists made the State into such an absolute, while the Nazis did it to race and blood.”

Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven….5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth….7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy….9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Matthew 9:10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

John 13:2 …the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus…4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

2 Corinthians 5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.