What's That Over There?

For anyone sad to see the “Philadelphia Four” story fade away, there’s more outrage and free speech debates to be had at the University of Arizona, where “traveling evangelist” Jed Smock has been agitating liberals and embarrassing campus Christians all week. Smock, author of Who Will Rise Up: A Call to Confrontational Evangelism, has attracted both detractors and bemused “into irony” student fan groups for sermons that veer from mundane conservative morality to the outlandishly offensive: Mexicans are only good for making burritos and Jews for making bagels and running banks; masturbation leads to homosexuality; and “God has a vagina for every homosexual.” In response, some students shouted back at Smock, circled him on bikes, sang “Kumbaya,” and burned his book. Fantastic. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, raising fines for “indecent” broadcasts to half-a-million dollars per incident.