Naz Jafferi
Staff Writer
"God is Fear," read the cap of a born-again Christian who warned a group of heckling University of Houston students to repent and live, or perish.
"People are raping God of His authority," said Tom Carliste, who spoke Thursday outside the University Center Satellite. For more than two hours Carliste attacked the immorality of premarital sex, smoking, education for the purpose of self-fulfillment and sports.
"This is great entertainment," said Dani Wiltz, junior nutrition major. Wiltz said she was listening to Carliste because she had nothing better to do.
Carliste's criticism of premarital sex and education was archaic and frivolous, according to passerby Marshall Preddy.
"I think he's attacking the most basic of sins and not promoting goodness, which is what Christianity is all about," Preddy said.
Carliste, who is a member of Campus Ministry USA, visited Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos last week and has preached at campuses across the country. Before his conversion, Carliste said he led a "lustful" lifestyle, accompanied by drugs and rock music.
He said he was majoring in engineering at The Ohio State University when he was inspired by a preacher on the campus. He later quit school to work for a few years. Now unemployed, he said "the Lord provides" for his sustenance.
"We can't change people's minds," Carliste said. "But the Bible says to warn the wicked."
Carliste denounced several religious faiths. "The Catholic pope did not die for you. Mohammed did not die for you, (and) God does not want you to worship cows," he said. Joseph Stang, junior computer science major, is a devout Baptist who said he disagrees with Carliste's methods.
"I think he makes people like me look like idiots," Stang said. "He's telling people who don't want to hear."
"I don't impose my beliefs on anyone, so he shouldn't either," said senior psychology major Vanice Martinez.
At Georgia College, Carliste said he was arrested for disrupting the peace by preaching publicly. At the University of Michigan, he said a female student attacked him with knives while he was speaking. He was uninjured, but the student was prosecuted.
"He has the freedom of speech," said Martinez. "We have the freedom of counter-speech." Martinez was one of many students who responded to Carliste's oratory.
Wiltz said she disagreed with Martinez and maintained that Carliste did not have the right to preach on campus without a permit. Carliste did not have a permit.
Wiltz said, "If you let him in, then you can let the KKK in."
UH has a "Time/Place/ Manner" policy regarding freedom of expression and assembly on campus. It states, "the university will not permit any individual or group of individuals to disrupt or attempt to disrupt the operation and functioning of the university by any device."