Located in: Features
Posted on: October 2nd, 2011 No Comments

Campus agitated by traveling preacher

A crowd formed around Shawn Holes, who identified himself as Shawn the Baptist on campus on Wednesday, Sept. 28. He came to Colorado Mesa University to convey a very strong message regarding religion and eternal life. His message: all who have sinned will spend their eternities in Hell unless they repent.

“We are all lawbreakers in God’s eyes, even if we’ve only told one lie. And we, as lawbreakers, deserve hell because God is Holy and just,” Holes said on his website.

All religions, sexes and even individuals were called out in a negative way by Holes. After listening to Holes for only a short time, it was clear to students that his message was not positive. The interaction between him and the crowd grew very tense.

“He had a mix of stuff that was actually in the Bible with stuff that he had just corrupted,” CMU sophomore Aaron Eggiman said.

Holes read from the Bible, but criticized students in the crowd.

“He was leaving people with no hope. It was a message of hate. He never talked about God’s grace or salvation once,” Eggiman said.

The man’s message upset many students. Eggiman and other students involved in Christian groups on campus brought up the verse, 1 Corinthians 13, which states, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” The entire scene ended up as a hate fest.

“He just had a bitterness and hate towards people,” Eggiman said.

Holes was on campus from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. After frustrating several students the cops were called. Police arrived around 2:30 p.m. and asked Holes to leave. Shortly after, many Grand Junction news reporters arrived to interview Holes and several students.

Holes travels from campus to campus across the nation to convey the same message. Holes said he is married with two older children and he travels with a group of people who share the same beliefs. Holes’ website says “Shawn the Baptist” is a Christian trying to inspire people by spreading the word of God.

“Today at Colorado Mesa University instead of singing to me a happy birthday song, one student assaulted me and ruined my amplifier and hit me with a filled gatorade bottle,” he said on his Facebook page. “It was horrible. The administration allowed the students to act like animals and run wild. Some of the students in the turmoil of everything said that this campus needs Jesus and are extremely glad we preached the Gospel. Others of course made false accusations and lied about us and are not so happy that we showed up.”

Holes has provoked negative reactions from many other schools. On Friday, Sept. 30 Holes preached at Boise State University. His Facebook comment was less than positive after that visit as well.

“Don and I preached at BSU today,” he wrote. “It was a very diverse crowd. Plenty of so-called Christians that did not like the Gospel being preached heckled me. Every time I would mention grace, love, forgiveness, Lordship salvation, and propitiation the Christians would look away. It is sad to see how many of the Christian college students don’t like the gospel.”

spfost@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

New User? Click here to register