A group of students spent last Sunday standing in quiet protest in front of the Higher Ground Holiness Church.
Higher Ground paid for Matt Bourgault, member of the Consuming Fire Ministry, to preach at ETSU’s Borchuck Plaza two weeks ago. Bourgault’s strident sermons elicited both heated debate and satirical parody from a large crowd of student spectators.
“I didn’t agree with the way they were promoting their opinion,” said freshman Josh Munday. Munday helped organize the protest at Higher Ground. “I don’t think it was right for them to be judging based on a lot of preconceived notions. They were never willing to listen to other points of view.”
Junior Crystal Diaz also helped organize the protest. “We just felt very strongly they came and made a ruckus. We respect their First Amendment rights, but at the same time, they should be respectful of other people,” she said.
The students, many bearing signs with quotes from the Bible that warned against passing judgment on others, stood quietly in front of the church in full view of passing traffic.
“I was really surprised,” Munday said. “We started seeing the same cars go by. A couple of people stopped and were happy we were spreading a message of love.”
“A lot of people drove by and waved,” Diaz said. “Someone actually gave us $10 because they thought we were doing a good thing.”
When members of Higher Ground exited their service, the students were waiting.
“They came over to us, though I don’t think they truly understood why we were there,” Diaz said. Their reaction was “Come inside so we can proselytize you.”‘
“We were pretty much silent,” Munday said. Church members refused to enter into any sort of discussion about the accusations the church’s minister, T.J. Matney who accompanied Consuming Fire ministers, made at Borchuck Plaza two weeks ago. “They were completely closed off in their minds. All we got was ‘God bless you’ and then they ignored us.”
“It was interesting though,” Diaz said. “They wouldn’t allow their children to come near us.”
Munday said the group of students is planning another protest in the future. “We didn’t really have enough time to organize,” he said, adding that he hopes another visit will draw a larger crowd of students.
“I just hope that if anyone learned anything, it’s that no one is going to hell just because they committed a few sins,” Munday said. “I don’t think that everyone pays for mistakes by burning in hell.”
Higher Ground church members could not be reached for comment.

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