UMass students socializing and smoking in the plaza on Wednesday afternoon gave witness to the impassioned testimony of a Montana couple who came to campus to proselytize their Christian faith. The man preached to the students while holding aloft a colorful banner reading “Jesus Bore Our Sins – He Was Crucified Yet He Is Still Alive,” while the woman quietly handed out pamphlets to interested students.

The speaker peppered his address with quotations from scripture, while tailoring his message for the university audience. He urged students to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, warning that university study will only prepare them for a life in the ‘dog eat dog world’ which ‘chews up and spits out’ its workers.

As dozens of students looked on, reactions ranged from amusement to indifference to bewilderment.

“I burst out laughing. It was ridiculous,” remarked senior Tim Waterbury.

Junior Ben Chi, a Christian Fellowship member, sympathized with their message, but had reservations about the presentation. “I just wish they could have picked a more appropriate forum.”

Though the man and woman, who both hail from Montana, are not university students, they are allowed to practice such free speech on campus since the university is a public institution. Perhaps intoxicated by the couple’s uncommonly brazen display of free speech on campus, one dissenting Umass Boston student lit a pamphlet on fire in protest.