The bright poster screaming of salvation. The blaring megaphone. The crowds of onlookers, some cheering, and some jeering. Who would it be other than the playfully nicknamed preacher, Megaphone Man?
“It’s worth everything I got,” John MacFarlane said, “Even if I get shot out there, even if I get beat up out there, for the sake of that one person’s soul to go to heaven. That’s what matters to me.”
Since my first week here at Colorado Mesa University (CMU), I found it hard not to stumble upon John MacFarlane, better known on campus as Megaphone Man. From the UC Plaza, to Main Street and just about everyone’s Snapchat story, the self-proclaimed preacher always seemed to be hard at work.
Now, CMU is by no means affiliated with any religion, so it might seem curious as to how a preacher would be so popular among the Mavericks. More often than not, when Megaphone Man’s name is brought up, it isn’t because of his gospel, but for the hate he has propagated.
“True love,” MacFarlane said. “That’s what that’s what I worship. I worship. True love, I wish pure undefiled perfect, true love. That’s my God.”
Though much of Megaphone Man’s ideology works on paper, it’s safe to say that his delivery needs a bit more workshopping.
The love and worship MacFarlane preaches is quick to turn into conflict when his messages from God “slut-shame” women in shorts and t-shirts, invalidates the entire LGBT+ community and promises every college student that drinking on a Saturday night will send you straight to Hell.
MacFarlane is nowhere near oblivious to the criticism he often receives from CMU students, yet it does not seem as if the pushback will ever stop him from returning the next day
“The majority [of people] don’t like Jesus at all,” MacFarlane said. “They don’t like the fact that there’s a God. They don’t like the fact that they have to stop sinning. So I know for a fact that the majority don’t want me there, but those few that do, the few that, that do love Jesus, the few that do understand that the truth needs to be told regardless of consequences, regardless of the backlash, I believe that they are being edified by God’s word. And that’s really all that matters.”
I have to admire his zeal and his passion for what he believes in, and it certainly makes campus more lively, but after the repetitive visits, it’s beginning to feel like he may have reached everyone on campus that’s willing to listen.
We all understand your mission, but on behalf of the CMU student community, please go home Megaphone Man.
