Who is Jesse Morell? Get to know your opposition
By Zac Clark, Staff Writer
I am of the opinion that knowledge is power. It damns us and it saves us. Life is like one big pop quiz, and the questions just keep “popping” up, waiting to be answered by one who is willing to do a little digging. For better or for worse, it leaves those who do the digging unsurprised by life’s unexpected “pops.” While it may lead one to spoil a surprise birthday party or two, it does have its advantages now and then.
Say, when a protestor tells you that “YOU DESERVE TO GO TO HELL” on your way to your Thursday afternoon class. That is when I wish I had the upper hand.
So I figured I would share some information here that I know I would have liked to have when my day was more than ruffled and my friends were more than insulted.
The man who came to our campus last week–the one in the neon-green shirt, sporting a well-kept van dyke goatee–is Jesse Morrell. He is the leader and founder of an organization called “Open Air Outreach,” whose mission is “To take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to sinners through open air preach, calling them to forsake their sins and trust in Christ, and to train up other believers to do likewise.”
He is young, only 26, and is the father of a family of four whose picture he proudly emblazons on his website (openairoutreach.com) in order to inspire donations to his cause. His primary funding comes from a lawsuit–a $25,000 payout from the city of New Haven–that he instigated when he arrived on one of the 97 campuses he has visited nationwide.
I realize I am feeding the troll here. I am providing him with attention—however, I would rather be informed than stumble around in the dark when a person tries to poke a hole in my soul with rage-inducing rhetoric. It helps me stay calm, cool and collected when hate speech is thrown my way. I only hope that providing this little amount of information will inspire similar, educated reactions, whether they are ones of silence or of cutthroat commentary.
There are many things wrong in your article. 1. I do not have a goatee. I have a beard. 2. I am not 26. I am 27. 3. I am not a father of four. I am a father of two. And 4. My lawsuit in New Haven brought $25,000 to my attornies in attorney fees. I myself was only awarded a single dollar. So that it not my “primary funding.” Wow. You were wrong on almost every point you made. I think the only thing you got right is what you copy and pasted from my website.
And mistake number 5, it is 100 campuses, not 97.
97 Campuses?? Actually Zac, Kalamazoo College was Campus 100. I would say dear Zac you should be very careful about how you try to shed a bad light on people, you may want to get your facts straight first…To me it is so intresting that you see life as a “Pop Quiz” I suppose once you are out of your very sheltered liberal college surroundings you will stand as a man and FINALLY develop some rational, reasonable thinking of your own. See, when you have rational and reasonable thinking you can establish firm foundations and have clarity of mind, you do not depend on an email from your administration to dictate to whom you will speak and on which day you will speak or how you will conduct your actions for the day, NO you would be reslove in your thinking and ready and able to defend with intelligence your beliefs and deeds.
I will say this about your article, I AM GLAD YOU WERE LISTENING
and Jesse is right if you are unrighteous you are worthy of Hell, if you are not born again you will likewise parish, being eternally seperated from the one that fearfully and wonderfully made YOU!!
Do not dispise a man for his youth, do not dispise him because at a young age he has resolve, Do not dispise him because he has a family and that he is happy to share the beauty of his family, and how very IGNORANT to think a man with a family of 4 would live off a settlment of which he was personally given 1 single dollar and EVEN if he had been given the full $25000. 00 that’s would have been a mere $6250/yr for the last 4 years which is not much at all for a family of 4
Zac Clark, what made me most hopeful about your article is that you admit to your heart being “POKED”, You Zac are not a special case of heart poking, pricking or cutting:
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Now when they heard this, they WERE CUT TO THE HEART, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, WHAT SHALL WE DO?” Then Peter said to them, “REPENT, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Acts 37-39
Zac you and All of Kalamazoo College were called to repentence, I pray NONE of you have rest until you can surrender to the One who is called The Prince of Peace.