As if being a 15 year old boy facing up to 10 years in prison isn’t enough, imagine being a terribly lost sinner and overhearing a preacher talk about the eternal hellfire you face through the cold iron bars of your detention center cell.
That was the reality for one open air preacher who was saved from a life of drugs, violence and crime, who is now that preacher that talks to terribly lost sinners about the eternal hellfire they face. In 2004, Open Air Street Preacher Jesse Morrell was led to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ on a busy collage campus. During his very first attempt to preach to college students, he was placed under arrest for trespassing at the Tyler Junior Collage public campus in Tyler, Texas. Not only was Morrell arrested but he spent the entire day and two nights in the Smith County Jail, sentenced 6 months of probation and ordered to complete 100 days of community service.
Fast forward to November 2019, Morrell is back at TJC’s public campus once again for the first time since 2004. Thanks to the new bill SB18 that took effect on September 1st, 2019, Morrell is now legally allowed to go onto any public collage campus and preach the bible to students without fear of being arrested for violating any Texas laws. While SB18 serves to protect Morrell from criminal persecution and police harassment while on campus, it unfortunately does not give him a physical protective barrier to keep from being physically persecuted from the students on campus.
On November 20th, 2019 Morrell was nearly 3 hours deep into preaching, all attention was on him, a large crowd was gathered and biblical correction was flying out of his mouth in response to the college students ignorance of the bible. As conversations were intensifying, Morrell was completely unaware of the angered man who was marching up behind him with a cup full of what appeared to be a milkshake.
The 3 hour long video below from Morrell’s YouTube channel Jesse Morrell – Open Air Street Preacher has cut straight to the moments leading up to the crazed mans attack. Morrell played it smart, knowing that the crowd would follow him and that the police would be along at any moment due to the commotion, he began to follow the man back in through the college doors that he came out of only to discover that he was and employee at the Starbucks inside of the college Student Center. Not too long after entering into the building, campus police indeed showed up and escorted Morrell back outside.
After the police learned about what had happened they were more then willing to take a report for Morrell in order to press charges against the Starbucks worker who had just assaulted him. In a small way what happened to Morrell on his first day back on campus was a blessing because Morrell has set a precedent with the college students and sent a clear sign to them all that just because he is there preaching and is a faithful and dedicated follower of Christ, that does not make him a target for them to assault and abuse.
Warning: The strong language contained in this video from the college students may be disturbing to some viewers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a5PIaccLdc&t=9403s
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