I guess the first thing I should do for those who don't know where the nickname "preacher James" came from, I should briefly share about that. I worked full time and went to school part time for a few years. I wanted to graduate from Oklahoma State, so I put in my two weeks notice at my job and decided to go to school full time.
As a full-time student (this was around the spring of 2003) I was spending more time on campus, and I noticed a guy who was on the library lawn, and he was preaching, but it was different than anything I had ever heard in church. This guy (who has the nickname "Preacher Bob") said that all sorority girls were "whores", and all frat guys were "whoremongers", and any woman who wore a short dress was going to hell. He said all kinds of weird things, so one day I was so indignant that I went behind the library, opened up the bible to the Sermon on the Mount, and started expounding on it.
A few weeks later I noticed someone was taking my picture while I was preaching. I didn't mind because they weren't heckling me or threatening me. About 20 minutes later a young lady came out to talk with me. She said that she was with the Daily O'Collegian (school news paper), and she wanted to do an interview with me. I was hesitant, fearing that she would misquote me.
The good news is that the reporter quoted me word for word. The bad news was they decided to put it on the front page of the paper! I was a bit nervous as to what would happen because over 20,000 students, teachers, staff and other people read this on a daily basis. Come to find out, based on the article, that she interviewed other people who had heard my preaching and who liked what I had to say. Later on, I did some editorials for the school newspaper. I graduated in May of 2004, and since then I have gone to seminary and am now a licensed minister for the United Church of Christ.
As to what happened to "Bob", well the ironic thing is that his real name isn't Bob. I won't share what it is here because I want to protect his identity, but after digging a little deeper here's the rest of the story. In 1996 there was a street preacher named Bob who said many of the same things, but he stopped going to OSU. When this new person showed up, many people at OSU thought he was the same guy; so they started calling him "Preacher Bob". I won't share his real name, but he is known at the University of Arkansas as "Moses", and there are a few videos of him on youtube. Thankfully, he hasn't been seen at Oklahoma State in quite a while. I have been blessed to pastor a small church NW of Enid, so I have other things to worry about.
My e-mail is preacherjames34@gmail.com if you have any questions, suggestions, comments, etc. It's not my primary e-mail, so I don't check it every day, but if you write, I will do my best to write back. Please keep the people on the east coast who have lost power in your prayers, as well as those in the west near Colorado and Utah who have lost their homes due to these awful fires.
