Brother Micah Armstrong is a street preacher that travels over the eastern United States preaching to college students about his beliefs. He travels with his wife, Elizabeth, and goes to college campuses preaching about how he is superior to everyone else and how most people are going to hell. Brother Micah’s ideas and philosophies are unorthodox and erratic. One of Brother Micah’s methods includes writing and singing songs to express his beliefs. The titles of these songs speak for themselves: “The Happy Homophobe, The Gay Song, and How to Have Sex.” Some of his radical beliefs include anti-Semitism, homophobia, and he expresses hatred towards Muslims. Also Brother Micah is a strong believer that men are superior to women. He thinks that women should “know their place” because they live in “a man’s world.” Unbelievably, these points are not as effective on a college campus as one might think. Every campus he goes to, he is welcomed with a barrage of ridicule and contempt from his audiences. Brother Micah has had things thrown at him and has even been physically assaulted. Even through all of this, Brother Micah has continued to preach… only now he travels with security.
Even though he is a devout “Christian,” as Brother Micah calls himself, he preaches against Christian beliefs and actually deters other Christians from his own teachings. Despite the fact that his teachings are “out in left field,” the biggest problem Micah Armstrong faces is that he continuously contradicts himself. He preaches that everyone is a sinner, yet he claims to be “morally without sin.” He also says that he is not a sinner now but that he has sinned in the past. The problem with this is that Micah says in other skits that if you have sinned, then you are not going to Heaven unless you repent of your sins. However, Micah does not repent because he believes that he is now perfect in God’s eyes.
It also doesn’t help that Brother Micah turns college students away by preaching against what usually goes on at colleges. According to Brother Micah, if you “drink beer, curse, smoke dope, masturbate, fornicate, watch Hollywood movies, listen to rap, or even attend a Protestant church,” you are headed straight to hell. Since most of these things occur on a daily basis in college life, Micah doesn’t get through to many college kids he preaches to. According to Brother Micah homosexuals are going to hell along with “women with low-cut tops, short hair, pants, jobs, and even Sorority girls” are also hell bound. “The only places women should be are in front of the sink and behind the vacuum,” says Micah. Instead of recruiting college kids to become more religious and to repent of their sins, Brother Micah has the opposite effect on students. His radical beliefs and outrageous preaching methods may not be the best fit for converting wild college kids into pure-hearted evangelists, but as long as he believes that his methods are bettering the lives of college students, I don’t see any stopping in his future.
He causes controversy with his radical conservative ideals. He endorses anti-Semitism, which is commonly known as having a prejudice or hostility towards Jews. He also demonstrates a strong hatred towards Muslims and homophobia. Because Micah is so open about his beliefs, he routinely offends crowds in the hundreds wherever he preaches. Most believe that Micah is merely doing this for glory, using his faith to spark anger and un-comfort among those who listen. Or maybe he is actually a sin-free god, as he believes himself to be. He uses a great deal of rhetoric in his speeches, systematically quoting the bible from memory to make college students feel inferior and sinful. Because of his ideals, Brother Micah causes excess controversy, and is the source of the problems he lectures about. Because Micah has such radical beliefs, he challenges religion as a whole around the world.
World Religion has played a vital role in society, past and present. We have learned from the past that religion has been a risky topic of discussion. Through time, religion has become less about what others believe and more about what the single individual believes. With this new-found approach, it has become more acceptable to talk about religion in present day society. However, the discussion can still easily lead to a heated argument. Various cultures across the world have all experienced the forced belief system, where groups of people force their beliefs upon an unwilling individual. England is a prime example of this sort, exclaiming beliefs of eternal fiery doom if one does not accept the words of Christ. Looking back on a culture, where daily witch hunts and executions occurred because of a person’s religious beliefs, seem foolish now. Although we are becoming more socially acceptable of different ideals, the evidence is still there. A continual religious battle in the Middle East is being fought today, separation of church and state has always been a problem, and the Bible belt in the south continues to tighten. America, in itself, is an example of how religion played a part in its founding. The native Americans were not only affected by the disease brought by the explorers, but were also taught the ways of Christianity. These are, of course, the extremes of how religion has affected the world we live in. There are more subtle instances, such as a rapper’s gratitude towards God after his album “Grind that Bitch, Rob that Hoe” wins best Hip-Hop album. Religion is a powerful essence, but the people who use it to influence others are just as powerful. Guided by what is cool, some teenagers can be easily influenced by their idols, blindly following what they do/believe and exploiting it. Once Tom Cruise and Madonna proclaimed their love in Scientology, people began to go crazy for this new religion. Scientology was just as popular as the new Marc Jacobs handbag and just as exciting as Dippin’ Dots. Although this may seem like a horribly bad trend, the plus side to this is that the media has found a way to make religion cool. It is no longer a chore to go to church or temple once a week, but it is now a material object that one needs to own. Religion is a continual shift from what it was to what it will become. The number of people who are religious versus the number of people who are not will always fluctuate and only time will tell where we are heading in the future. History has shown that everyone looses in a war centered on religion and that the main price paid in these battles are human lives. There has been no development on what exactly goes on in the after-life or which religion is the right one; nevertheless, religious battles are still fought and the only answer to stop these troubles is tolerance. A tolerance of others, which needs to be built upon and taught to younger generations, so that we can live in a safer world, where religion is not the problem, but a solution. This is what Brother Micah fails to understand.
The Remix we created was intended to exploit Brother Micah’s contradictions, and demonstrate to the general public that this man is not preaching for the betterment of religion. Instead he is causing excessive animosity between himself and those he preaches to, to promote himself. This demonstrates a violation of one of the most critical deadly sins; pride. It is described as the original, and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and is the ultimate source from which the other six arise. To make this clear in the remix, the most controversial topics were cut out from home-recordings of Brother Micah’s speeches. By repeating the phrases “accept your repent” and “god loves everybody” the remix has a reoccurring theme. This makes it easy to connect Brother Micah’s main points to his contradictions.
Because it is our “god given” right to practice freedom of speech, there is not much we can do to combat people like Brother Micah. There is nothing wrong with having an opinion and sharing it with the world. It is when this is taken to a level that is offensive, factually incorrect, derogatory, and degrading when this right needs to be taken away. Brother Micah routinely has police officers stationed next to him in the event that someone tries to touch or come to close to him (as if he were a celebrity). Officers are required to be present during the speeches because Brother Micah makes comments directed toward specific people and groups of people that cross the line of respect. In the end, Brother Micah should just be referred to as Micah, because in no way does he represent a person that is forgiving/accepting of all walks of life. It is his right to say whatever is on his mind, but the remix accomplished the goal of exploiting his contradictions and argument in general, as well as demonstrating to the public that believing somebody just because he is holding a bible is ill advised.
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