Several members of Consuming Fire Fellowship  Church preached to a growing mass of students on Mississippi State University’s Drill Field Tuesday afternoon.
The Fellowship, a church based in Gloster, Mississippi, regularly travels short distance to Baton Rouge to practice confrontational evangelism on Louisiana State University’s campus, as well as many other schools in the southern half of the state.
Samuel Keaton, a street preacher for the Fellowship, said their main goal in preaching at MSU is spreading the gospel message to the students and getting them to repent their sins.
“The foremost thing we’re doing is preaching the gospel, and that is what is said in the Bible. It says go into all the world and preach the gospel. We are trying to follow the gospel and lead people to God,” Keaton said. 
Many students said they had mixed feelings about the message they received from the preachers proclaiming to speak the gospel.
Alex Ward, a junior majoring in philosophy with a double-minor in religion and English, said he thought the group was creating an environment not conducive to discussion of the issue at hand.
“Whether you agree with it or disagree with it, this is the wrong way to do it. You are just drawing attention to yourself without encouraging dialogue about the issue,” Ward said. “They are making it more of a spectacle.”
Freshman biomedical major,Nicole Lee said as a leader of the Evangelism Team at the Baptist Student Union she witnesses and shares the gospel with many people in her residence hall. Lee said the Fellowship group could have reached out to students in a more effective way.
“The Bible talks a lot about Christians being aware of their actions and the way they come across, and I would say the Bible speaks for itself. Yes, Christians should proclaim this message, but it should be one of love and not condemnation, because Jesus did not condemn,” Lee said. “There’s a time and a place for witnessing, but you have to meet people where they are. Jesus would invest his time with people.”
Armed Rasberry, a biosciences graduate student and a member of an atheist organization at MSU, said he was not bothered by the group’s proclamations. 
“As an atheist I really do not care. You gotta treat people with respect,” Rasberry said.
Rasberry said he thought there were two groups of people present for the demonstration: those who took the Bible’s words literally and those who are a progressive part of society. 
He said those who believed in the literal interpretation of the Bible were pushing their views on a group that interpreted the meaning in a very different way.
As the demonstration continued, many students gathered to protest the proclamations of the Fellowship preachers from several different perspectives. Some students said they protested intolerance, evangelism or hatred on the part of the preachers.
Nicole Perry, a freshman in political science major, said she did not want the Fellowship group to push their views on her, and if she is interested in another religion or subject she will explore it for herself.
“I am for religious tolerance.  (The Fellowship preacher) is giving the faith a bad name,” Perry said.
Colleen Mcinnis, freshman international business major, said some of the people gathered at the demonstration that might believe only a little of the message delivered to students could be turned away by the abrasive approach the Fellowship took.
“I am protesting evangelism. I do not think anyone has the right to tell anyone that what they believe is wrong. I believe in every religion, and I do not think I can say that any one is wrong,” Mcinnis said.