Soapbox preacher creates hostile atmosphere at BSU

Starting in early 1994, I worked for my first-ever newspaper, The Northern Student, the student newspaper at Bemidji State University, where I attended and received my bachelor's degree in mass communication. Over three years, I would be a staff writer, news editor, managing editor and editor. I wrote everything from news stories to feature stories to sports stories to opinion pieces. It was the greatest training ground a journalist could ever have, and I am grateful to the many talented people I worked alongside in my years at The NS.

Sept. 21, 1994

By Jeff Riesner

Managing Editor

and Devlyn Brooks

News Editor

Tempers rose to a flashpoint Thursday during a verbal standoff between a gathering of students and a soapbox preacher who dubbed himself a saint and accused BSU students of being wicked sinners on their way to hell.

Paul Stamm, graduate of Ohio State University, held his audience captive for nearly five hours while preaching outside on the grassy quadrant east of the Upper Hobson Memorial Union.

Armed with the Holy Bible and clad in dark brown polyester slacks with a matching bowtie and horn-rimmed glasses, Stamm challenged students' views, values and beliefs on a variety of topics, including abortion, feminism, sex, Christianity, drugs and masturbation.

During his day-long crusade, he pumped out Bible passages, conducted verbal surveys, deflected insults from the crowd and warded off "wicked" hecklers by forming a symbolic cross with his forefingers.

"Raise you hand if you lie," he yelled to the crowd. "I'll assume you're telling the truth. Raise your hand if you have sex outside of marriage." Several members of the crowd cheered.

"I see there are numerous perverts on campus," he yelled. "Raise your hand if you have a sexually transmitted disease."

Many in the crowd screamed back trying to discourage Stamm's point. To the crowd's response, Stamm bellowed, "I put BSU on a full-scale pervert alert!"

One male student yelled out, "Raise your hand if you think this man is an idiot!" Most of the crowd cheered.

"If you raised your hand to that one, you're going to hell!" Stamm replied, pointing randomly into the audience.

Crowd reactions varied throughout the day in response to Stamm's continuing accusations of sin and negative generalizations on Christianity. One male yelled, "This guy doesn't deserve a crowd." A female piped, "Looks like you have too much time on your hands." A few students yelled obscenities point blank in Stamm's face.

Stamm pointed to a student lighting a cigarette. "You're a cigarette-sucking sinner," he said. He claimed that smoking was "implicitly a sin in the bible."

"I'm not saying one cigarette will send you to hell, but it will sure make you smell like you've been there," he said. Later on, a male student walked up to Stamm, blew smoke directly in his face and walked away from the gathering.

On the subject of masturbation, Stamm held to the premise that it was perverted and "a form of homosexuality." When asked by a crowd member about "wet dreams," Stamm explained that it wasn't a sin because it was not consciously chosen.

"A nocturnal emission could be considered a freebie from God," he said. Stamm added that he "used to be a big masturbator."

Stamm also triggered the tempers of many female students.

"Feminism is a plague on society," he claimed. "Feminism is a social perversion." When one woman approached him to challenge his statement he said, "I don't want any women to talk right now." He then turned away and ignored her arguments.

Another female, Valerie Lofthus, psychology major, continuously pelted Stamm with acorns from several feet away. "I can't say something to everything he says, so this is my expression," she said. Lofthus' actions drew complaints from some bystanders because the acorns were hitting others in the crowd.

Stamm also raised notable objections from the crowd by referring to the nation's First Lady. "Hillary Clinton could get a job as a test pilot in a broom factory," he said.

Stamm's lecture on premarital sex and abortion yielded many of the same negative responses from the crowd, as did his sermons on sin.

"Many of you do not take sin seriously," he said. "... if you want to go to hell .. then burn, baby, burn!"

Although Stamm proclaimed himself to be "a saint," a "born-again virgin" and a worker for "the governor of the universe," he admitted to a past life of sin.

"I have a confession to make," he said. "I used to be a decadent, degenerate low-life. ... I deserve the hottest part of hell because I used to be extremely wicked. I used to go bar hopping. I used to shoot pool, play cards and gamble," he said.

Stamm's final challenge to the group was on the subject of Christianity, which drew heated emotional reactions from the crowd. Referring to those students who felt they were Christians, Stamm said, "Ivory soap is only 99.44 percent pure. ... What about that other .56 percent?"

Several people confronted Staff face-to-face with Bibles to challenge Stamm's convictions. At one point the crowd recited the Lord's Prayer, directing their words toward Stamm.

After Staff refused to back down to one student's argument and continued to mock the student's belief, the man yelled in Stamm's face, "Don't tell me I'm not a Christian. ... My mother died in my arms. ... Don't tell me I'm not a Christian." The student then stormed away from the crowd, Bible in hand.

According to BSU Security Officer Jayesh Balakisnan, he felt a violent outbreak was impending, so he contacted the Department of Security and Safety, which, in turn called the Bemidji Police Department.

"One guy ran charging into the crowd and wanted to punch (Stamm), and his buddy stopped him. So I called it in," he said. Balakisnan said he had been monitoring the situation for about 10 minutes before calling for help.

Bemidji police officers responded and dispersed the crowd. They advised Stamm of his rights: That he could stay as long as he had his conversations on an individual basis. the officers also warned him of disorderly conduct charges, but did not formally charge him with any crime.

In closing arguments, Stamm added a bit of advice for the students of BSU to repent, and warned them that there are consequences to sin, both temporary and eternal.

"I just want to let the students know that there is a final coming up," he said, "and it won't be graded on a curve. It will be graded pass or fail."