The next time you’re walking through the Oval and get criticized by Brother Jed for smoking pot, you can remind him of one thing – he did it too. Brother Jed Smock admits that he dealt and used marijuana and LSD in the ’60s. The experience affected him in more ways than one.”I lost about half my brain to drugs,” he said. “I haven’t dealt or smoked since 1972.”Smock insists his life – and brain – were renewed by Christ.If you’re walking through the Oval and are verbally assailed by cries of “homo,” “fornicator,” or “drunkard,” you’ve probably stumbled into the middle of Brother Jed Smock’s fiery preaching.”Someone once told me I was the Don Imus of evangelism,” Smock said, referring to the outspoken morning talk show host.Brother Jed is a regular presence on the Oval, he’s usually on campus an average of 10 days per quarter. Smock’s usual rhetoric consists of assaults on the “sinful” lifestyle of the average college student.”Most people just don’t take sin seriously,” he said.On a typical day, dozens of students line up to argue with Brother Jed. In his nearly 25 years of preaching, he has traveled to about 600 campuses in every state and abroad.”I’m trying to stir the students out of their apathy and get them involved in an argument,” he said.Smock’s ministry is made up of about eight families in Newark, and he relies on donations from them and others for his finances. He often brings his wife and five daughters with him, teaching the children himself.”I don’t have a lot of confidence in the public school system,” he said.Smock is the first to admit his preaching often delves into insults, but he insists, “it’s a holy hatred.””It’s a hatred that’s really rooted in benevolence and goodwill,” he said. “It’s a hatred of sin and people’s selfish character.”This often gets him into trouble. He recalls several incidents at Kent State University, including once when a student threw his briefcase into a fountain and another when about 500 students were ready to riot.”I was so threatened that the police had to arrest me for my own safety,” he said.It was his “typical messages against fornication, drunkenness, and rock ‘n roll music,” that had students so incensed. But for Brother Jed, such incidents are the norm.”Crazy things happen every day,” he said. “For me it’s just another day at the office.””I’m on the ultimate trip now, I’m heaven-bound,” he said.Brother Jed scoffs at the notion that he should tone down his style. He feels his impression on students is positive.”I’m the most loving thing these students have ever seen,” he said.

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