Itinerant pastor Matt Bourgault, along with local pastors T.C. Matney and Israel Ochoa, came to campus last week to preach to students about the sins they believe every college student faces. They began a sort of protest-style method of spreading their message, proclaiming that many of the passing students were destined to burn in hell.
Bourgault, dressed in military fatigues, is part of a ministry called Consuming Campus Fire Ministries. The wandering minister travels across the country to different college campuses and preaches a message of a sinless life.
“The word of God is sent to us through the Bible and we are the messengers whom will judge upon God’s laws,” said Matney, a minister of a local congregation at the Higher Grounds Holiness Church. Matney invited Bourgault to preach at ETSU.
The pastors began their evangelizing Wednesday but lacked a permit and were soon escorted off campus. They returned Thursday and Friday after acquiring a two-day permit, drawing a large crowd of students with their fiery sermons.
Tony Warner, assistant vice president for Culp University Center/campus ID services, registered the Consuming Fire ministers. “Due to the freedom of speech laws they were allowed to come on campus, they had a choice of the two free speech areas,” Warner said.
Student reaction was mixed. Some entered into heated arguments with the ministers while others found the whole affair entertaining. Many students were offended by overt racist and sexist comments made by Bourgault and his fellow ministers.
“He (Bourgault) said my parents were going to hell because they were an interracial couple,” sophomore Nathanael McMahan said. “He said he wasn’t a sinner, but he’s up there promoting racism.”
Bourgault made many comments about women and their place in society. “I told him he was a blasphemer and he responded by telling me to be meek and quiet,” freshman Carrie Subjeck said.
“He’s fragmenting verses and convoluting scripture,” senior Caleb Lewis said. “It’s like a two year old cutting up a picture and putting it back together with glue and Post-itr notes.”
Matney said that the Consuming Fire ministers wanted to, “let this campus know that they have broken the rule of God and the way to be saved is through Christ.”
Matney said people should live a life separate from sin but “the hippies from the ’60s are now teaching students and influencing them in a manner” that prevents that.
Conversations between Bourgault and students were rarely two-sided, and when Bourgault did respond it was usually not in a manner that addressed the original question. One student however found a topic Bourgault was willing to discuss.
“God put weed here. He put weed here for me and you,” freshman philosophy student Dylan Badilla-Bradford said.
“Yes, but God didn’t put it here for that purpose,” Bourgault responded.
“God created all of the plants and animals and put them under our dominion. It says so in Genesis.” Badilla-Bradford insisted.
“But you’re using it for pleasure. That’s a sin,” a flustered Bourgault replied.
“You eat certain foods for pleasure. Do you get pleasure from eating ice cream, yes or no?” Badilla-Bradford asked, pointing out that the Bible called for eating only the simplest of foods. “Do you get pleasure out of eating ice cream or not?”
When pressed, Bourgault did admit to partaking to the delight of student spectators.
“You can’t eat ice cream! You’re defiling your body by eating ice cream,” Badilla-Bradford pointed out. “If pot will send someone to hell, why won’t ice cream?”
Some students were quick to parody the methods employed by the Consuming Fire Ministers. Senior Aaron Overall worked his way through the crowd waving a discrete mathematical structures handbook. “Shouldn’t you be doing you’re homework now? You evil students are failing,” he thundered.
“I think it’s sad that extreme preachers such as him go around and do things like this,” Overall later said. “They are paid by small local churches (or given a love offering) to do things like this.”
One military veteran took issue with the Bourgault’s judgmental attitude. “Soldiers like me were landing on beaches half a world a way to give you the right to stand there and act ignorant,” the veteran yelled. Bourgault, wearing combat fatigues, claimed to have served in the core.
“Did you kill when you were in the service?” a student veteran asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” Bourgault replied.
“Oh, why doesn’t it? Because if you killed you’re going to hell with me, Jack,” the veteran retorted.
“Righteous people don’t go to hell,” Bourgault said, repeatedly claiming that he was perfect and without sin.
Matney hoped students would take the message preached by the ministers to heart and invited students to come to services at Higher Ground Holiness Church, located across from Winged Deer Park in Johnson City. Services are held every Wednesday night beginning at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Author