My grandfather always told me to never discuss religion and politics with others. While I used to agree with this sentiment, I have come to realize that for college students, it is important for us to talk about these complex issues with others in order to form our ideas.
As a result of never wanting to discuss these sensitive issues with others, I didn’t truly have an opinion that was my own regarding organized religion. It wasn’t until this past summer — after my first experience being shouted at by one of the Brickyard preachers — that I actually began to create my own opinions about religion.
Walking through the NC State Brickyard on any average weekday can often be met with various shouts and yells of someone preaching the Christian text. The Brickyard preachers — local men and women that sermonize teachings of the Bible on NC State’s campus — have become a Wolfpack norm.
The Brickyard preachers serve an important role to students that pass within earshot of them: they force students to have their own opinion when it comes to religion. Whether a student agrees or disagrees with what the minister is saying is less critical to this argument, but what matters is that the student must form an opinion.
The Brickyard preachers, although sometimes intense (for example, when they tell students they are condemned to hell), are presenting a perspective concerning religion, God and other theological ideas. Stephen Morris, a media intern for Gospel of God Ministries and a ‘Brickyard preacher,’ shared the importance of his presence on campus to offer a different perspective.
“Being here at a public university, you’re not going to get, in your classes, a biblical understanding about the world, and it’s hardly going to play a part in most philosophical classes.” Morris said. “In education, usually this form of biblical belief will get shunned. So it definitely allows for a Christian worldview to be proclaimed and made known.”
It is very easy for anyone to be ignorant if they never choose to hear about religion, but when it’s being forced on your ears as you walk into the Atrium, you can’t ignore it.
“[The purpose] is to bring the word of God to people,” Morris said. “So, we believe that people are in need of the message of reconciliation, and that, by proclaiming the good news, people can be transformed; they can be brought out of death and brought into light.”
Although Morris means to bring others to the “light of God,” this statement reminded me of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, in which an individual can be brought into the light of knowledge from the cave of ignorance. Plato’s main point is that once an individual sees the light, they can no longer act with the same blissful ignorance that they had in the cave. Likewise, with the Brickyard preachers, once you are exposed to their perspective, you are not able to stay content with ignorance and a lack of an opinion.
As an informed and critically thinking student body, we need to have opinions on topics that are sensitive, controversial and important within our nation. Additionally, we need to hear from other sides so that, even if we hear opposing viewpoints, we are forced to think more critically about our viewpoints. Moreover, when we think more about our opinions, we strengthen and understand why we agree with them rather than believing something told to us by a parent or another authority figure.
As Malcolm X once said, “A man who stands for nothing will fall for everything.” We need opinions, and we sometimes need a nudge to think about those opinions. Even though the Brickyard preachers all have various perspectives on the religion of Christianity, they force us to think about our opinions of religion to ensure that they are our own and based on our morals and values.
