Bartholomew's Notes

It is invariably distasteful to write about an attention-seeker who manages to receive a disproportionate amount of public exposure simply by being vile, but I will nevertheless note this item from the campus newspaper of the University of Arizona (the Daily Wildcat):

A student holding a sign that read “You deserve rape” ignited outrage across campus Tuesday, on the same day of a sexual assault awareness event, but administrators declined requests to remove him or his sign.

Dean Saxton — also known as Brother Dean Samuel — regularly preaches on the UA Mall in front of Heritage Hill and the Administration building… Saxton, a junior studying classics and religious studies, said his sermon was meant to convey that “if you dress like a whore, act like a whore, you’re probably going to get raped.”

When not fantasising about sexual violence against women, Saxton’s targets – inevitably – include “homos” and Muslim “pigs“. This site has a photo of Saxton posing with a copy of a 1928 book entitled Nigger to Nigger (by Edward C L Adams), and holding a Ghettopoly box.

Saxton’s “You Deserve Rape” sign is home-made, but the “You Deserve…” phrase recalls the “You Deserve Hell” banners of the “Official Street Preachers”. Saxton also has a “Jesus Hates Sin” t-shirt, written in the distinctive Rockwell font used by Official Street Preachers, and his YouTube account includes a video of the group’s leader, “Brother Ruben” (Ruben Israel),confronting Muslims at Arizona State University. He also writes:

I am going to the SOAPA Conference in LAS VEGAS this news year. Please pray a covering of protection for all that minister during the conference. The field Is being tended wisely and will be ready for Bro Jed, Patient Pat, Sis Cindy, Sinless Sarah, Bro Micah, Saint Cope and others. As we take over the U of A with the SPIRIT OF THE LORD! Also be praying for my European mission’s trip this summer and consider supporting the mission.

And:

To help Dean in spreading the gospel, send your support to:

CMUSA, Bro. Dean, 2402 Longview Dr. Columbia, MO 65203

SOAPA is the Southeast Open Air Preachers’ Association, which is linked to the Official Street Preachers, while CMUSA is Campus Ministry USA. CMUSA is run by “Brother Jed”, and Saxton credits him as his main inspiration.

Brother Jed – real name George Smock – was profiled by the Tuscon Citizen in February:

 His style is highly confrontational and he is known to say things like, “I don’t know how the whorehouses in this town stay open — all of you sorority girls are giving it away for free!” or “A masturbator today is a homosexual tomorrow.” He will freely call the people he speaks to “homos,” “fags,” “sodomites,” “drunks,” or “fornicators.”

…His visits often mark the year’s highest recruitment times for local Atheist and Skeptics groups. Many  milk the opportunity by hosting Brother Jed Bingo.  In these games, listeners are given bingo cards with words on it that regularly appear in his narrative and those who fill their cards out first win a prize.  My copy from last year features such phrases as “Penis,” “Squirt-squirt,” “hiskey,” “Sexual Frenzy,” “Freaks,” “Get Laid,” and “Oral Sex.”  Ironically, he thinks it’s the young people he talks to who are supposedly obsessed with sex.

He also has a Wikipedia profile here. “Saint Cope”, meanwhile, is Clarence Cope, who is profiled here.

Last July, the Brother Ruben and “Official Street Preachers” targeted an Arab festival at Dearborn for abuse that included a pig’s head on a stick; the hostility they provoked was cited across right-wing news-sites as an example of Muslim  hatred of Christians (really).

In 2009 the Official Street Preachers abused worshippers at a mosque in Tampa while en route to evangelising a Super Bowl event; after I wrote about the incident on this blog, I was featured on their website, where I am described as a “beer guzzling, left wing LIBERAL”.

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