Ken Fleck, a preacher who visits FAU frequently to evangelize, met students that walked across campus Tuesday morning with a messy sign that read, ‘Ask me why you deserve Hell’.

Fleck’s website claims that his main goal is to spread God’s word on college campuses across America. He has visited over 100 campuses in 40 states in 12 years of preaching, and this isn’t the first time that he has clashed with FAU students. 

Last January, he came to the Boca Raton campus and spewed anti-LGBT words that angered students to the point of protest. The year prior, a student hit Fleck with a golf cart while he preached on campus.

Freshman marketing major Jessica Blewett feels Fleck’s method of preaching is ruining the reputation of Christians.

“I think that this really taints the image of Christians as a whole,” she said.

Fleck shared his views on mask-wearing, preventing COVID-19, politics, and the LGBT community during his time at FAU today.

COVID-19

Fleck declined to wear a mask, though FAU policy requires anyone on campus to do so. He backed up his decision to not wear a mask on campus by saying state law trumps university guidelines.

“The governor says that you can’t punish or fine anyone if they don’t want to wear a face mask, so because this is a public campus, they don’t have authority over my body. They shouldn’t have authority over any student on this campus,” he said.

One student asked Fleck if he believed in science.

“I do believe in science,” Fleck said. “[But] I’m not afraid of a virus that has a 99.988 survival rate.”

Experts say the survival rate of the virus is not an ideal way to measure its impact on public health. Even if someone contracts the virus and survives, they may be prone to lifelong health issues.

“COVID-19 symptoms can sometimes persist for months. The virus can damage the lungs, heart and brain, which increases the risk of long-term health problems,” the Mayo Clinic staff said on their website.

Sophomore biological sciences major Elizabeth Delton expressed how much she dislikes when people use the survival rate as a way to downplay the virus.

“I definitely don’t like when people bring up that statistic. People of all races and cultures lost their lives. Bringing that up basically says that their deaths don’t matter,” she said.

LGBT

Fleck had a heated discussion with a student about what the Bible says about homosexuality. 

“You are now making homosexuality an idol in your life that you are not willing to give up for God,” he said to a bisexual student who preferred to remain unnamed in this story.

The student said that his statement didn’t sound very Christ-like.

“I deserve torture for eternity because I can’t help who I love? That doesn’t sound right,” they said. “What gives you the authority to point out someone else’s sin when you yourself have sinned?”

Fleck believes that it is against what the Bible says, but the student claimed that the true meaning of the passage condemning it was lost in translation.

“Do you speak Hebrew? If you don’t speak it, you cannot translate it,” they said to Fleck.

Fleck claimed that no meaning has ever been lost in translation.

Campus community response

Freshman business major Kaysha Florvil thinks that Fleck’s style causes more harm than good. “That’s not the proper way to preach the gospel,” she said. “I don’t know if his heart is in the right place.”

FAU’s Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) intern Zac McGee agrees. The University of Mississippi graduate is currently learning how to minister under RUF campus pastor Jeff Lee.

“I’ve seen my fair share of street preachers growing up in the Bible Belt,” he said. “He’s standing on a bench and yelling at kids on a Tuesday when they’re just trying to go to accounting.”

Senior marketing major Vince Quaciari agreed with McGee’s sentiment. 

“The guy lives off the attention,” he said. “If no one paid him any mind, he wouldn’t have an audience and then no reason to come back.”

Delton reflected on her own upbringing and how her views have changed due to people like Fleck.

“I was definitely raised in the faith, it was just recently that I got educated and realized how a lot of the shit that we believe in is bullshit,” she said.

Lee said that if Fleck is trying to get students to believe in God, he isn’t doing a good job.

“His method seems kind of counterproductive,” he said. “No matter what his message is, students aren’t taking it seriously so it doesn’t feel very effective.”

Kendall Little is the Managing Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet her @klittlewrites.