Maybe Brother Stephen didn't read the Book of Matthew on Monday, but if he did it might have had new meaning to him.
Consider Matthew 23:37, selectively edited of course:
"Thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee . . . with chickens . . . wings."
Stephen White, a fundamentalist Christian preacher better known as Brother Stephen, was bombarded Monday with a hail of mulch, sod, syrup and even chicken wings when he preached at the College of New Jersey, according to various reports.
White, who spreads his controversial version of Christianity on college campuses in the Philadelphia area, is infamous at the University for taunting students with his sincere conviction that most Princeton students are going to spend eternity rotting in hell.
White was up to his old routine Monday at the College of New Jersey in nearby Ewing, reading from a Bible and calling students fornicators.
But in addition to being verbally confronted by offended and argumentative students, White was assaulted with fried poultry.
"Kids were screaming, 'There's nothing to see here. This man has nothing worthwhile to say! Go to class!'" said Bryan Boutin, a TCNJ junior. "The students were throwing things at him. They were throwing their chicken fingers at him."
The official story according to Jesse Rosenblum, associate vice president for college relations at TCNJ, is that students were riled up by White and started throwing various objects.
"Several students got agitated, and a very few number of students, but nonetheless, they started throwing things at him like mulch that was down on the ground," he said. "And then one student, I believe, poured syrup on him from the back."
Though the assault seems mild, Boutin said he saw White bleeding. "He got cut with something, I don't know exactly what he got cut with, but he was bleeding," he said. "It was definitely blood on his neck."
One student was arrested by campus police and will go through the campus judiciary process, Rosenblum said.
This is not the only time White's views have aroused physical violence.
In 2000, a Princeton graduate student shoved White after being called a "Jew devil."
Despite the confrontation Monday, Rosenblum said TCNJ is committed to letting all opinions be heard.
"We're a public institution," he said. "We feel a great responsibility to ensure that everybody has First Amendment protection and [Brother Stephen] has a right to speak.
"We do not condone intolerance and that includes intolerance of speakers regardless of the nature of the speech."
This applies, Rosenblum said, even if the speech in question is itself intolerant.
Gabe Zeis, TCNJ's Catholic campus minister, echoed Rosenblum's support of free speech at public institutions.
"I think he has a right on a secular campus, especially at a public one," he said.
However, he does not approve of White's views.
"His message is one of condemnation; his message is one of ostracization, alienation," he said.
Rosenblum said the college did not and will not try to prevent White from returning to TCNJ. In fact, White did return Tuesday and yesterday.
The college has not issued any formal warnings to students not to resort to violence against White.
"I am sure the message has gotten out through appropriate channels," Rosenblum said.
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