Doing Good or Damage

This morning, I saw a picture of a man holding up a cross at the scramble light on the Ball State University Campus. The caption talked about how the man and his family yelled at students passing by, warning them of the impending judgment day and that the students needed to repent or they would burn in hell. The caption also talked how various student groups came and tried to urge the man and his family to leave...

I'm sitting here pondering this whole thing...When I was a student on the BSU campus, I used to sit around and listen to the various "street-preachers" telling us that we were all sinners doomed to burn in hell forever unless we repented. While I knew this was true, I was always offended at the nature of how this message was proclaimed. It seemed to come out of a spirit of hate rather than a spirit of love. I always had feelings of judgment and anger, rather than grace and mercy...So, I wonder what students that don't know Jesus think about this stuff.

I'm going to venture over to campus this afternoon to see if this guy is still out there. I want to watch the reaction of the students and maybe ask him a few questions.

My big issue with this is I wonder if the actions of this family are doing more damage to the Message of Christ than good? I'm sure they feel like they are doing the right thing...But, I just can't get this thought out of my head that this style of Bible-thumping, fire & brimstone, turn or burn evangelism is turning more people off to the message of grace and hope and love than it is bringing towards Christ.

I just wonder if maybe this family would make a larger impact if they handed out free meals, free cups of coffee, and just told people that Jesus loves them???