Secrets of the City

The best is when I was in college, not in MN, and Brother Jed was parading around the center of campus holding graphic abortion pictures in one hand and the Bible in the other ranting on and on about who knows what.

I used to go there and smoke a doobie and blow the smoke in his face while telling him he was going to Hell for smoking pot.

I miss college.

I just can’t figure out why they waste their time. Obviously my motivation is to get them to say funny things, but what is HE really trying to do?

Bretton, Brother Jed’s travels to a campus are paid for by extreme christian groups which use him as a recruiting tool. If you’re sitting there watching his spectacle thoughtfully or you look agitated by the people mocking Jed, you’ll get approached by a nice, clean-cut person who says they’re not as extreme as Jed, but would you like to hear more about what they do do on campus. It’s just to find people who might join but wouldn’t seek the groups out on their own.

When I was at Oberlin in the late 90s, Jed was a regular visitor to the town square, and he always drew a good crowd of students who basically just laughed heartily at all his best lines. A few people engaged him on occasion – my roommate was very proud of the day that he got him to tacitly endorse slavery when he’d been railing against affirmative action…

I think next time I’ll be ready for him. I was actually at the U to cover the Afscme strike and he just happened to be there.

After working at the U for fifteen-odd years, it’s gotten pretty old to see the hippies trying to reason with Brother Jed.

My favorite Jed memory from being a student was spring of 1999, I think, when he skipped around in a circle, spanking himself with his Bible and yelling “Bad, bad, bad, bad!”

Somebody nearby turned to his friend and said “this guy is so money.”

Finally watched the vid.

All I could think was, those are the same hippies that used to sit there back when I periodically visited the campus, in 1980 or so.

Wonder how many credits they have now, and how many almost majors they’ve barely avoided?

I was at Oberlin in the mid-90s. Do you remember how he used to insert the work “sin” into everything, like “sinsinnati”.

Don’t these students have, oh, I don’t know, studying to do?

Guess not, Rat. They spend time resurrecting old threads.

I would hate to see happen to MnSpeak what happened to RedandNater.com because someone has too much time on their hands.