Cry to God Ministries turned the campus stage in De Anza College’s main quad into an open air church on Oct. 3, just the latest in a line of street preaching events organized by the group. 

Street preaching is the act of wielding the First Amendment right of free speach to preach the gospel in public.

Cry to God Ministries is not a 501(c) church, meaning it would pay taxes were it to have a central place of worship. The ministry has demonstrated outside of San Jose Sharks games, Shoreline concerts, San Jose’s Christmas in the Park, visits from the Pope and even FanimeCon, a convention for anime lovers.

“You’ve never been spanked; you need a good spanking!” said Kevin Farrer, Internet essayist on the gospel, street protester and the founder of cry2god.com. His remarks were met with a flurry of memes from the crowd, such as “cool story bro,” a phrase meant for quelling Internet trolls.

“They feed off attention,” said Lauren Ashley, a 25-year-old sculpture major. “They’ve been here before but this is the first time [I’ve seen] people yell back at them.”

“We know this is controversial, that’s why we go to colleges.” said another member of the ministry who would only be identified as J.K., “This is between classes and we already have a lot of people; wait till class is out.”

Cry to God is a Northern Californi-based street protesting ministry and consists of about nine people of close relation, united in their religious devotion. The name is taken from a prayer, “A cry to God for mercy . . . ” 

In 2008, the group attended what they called a “crusade” to Africa giving sermons, touring missions and attending a street preaching conference with other missionaries.

While Farrer preached over the hecklers, J.K. said he’ll be up soon. “We tag team it.”

Standing on the back of a bench behind the stage, De Anza student Tom Fan pleaded with the crowd, “If you want to be saved you can go across the street, there are places here on campus. You can find places, you don’t have to go to them and be judged!” 

“They’re acting like the Pharisees” Fan said later. The sentiment was echoed by Zac Harrell, a 25-year-old Graphic Design student.”They preach against having fun.”

Nineteen-year-old business major Bryan L., who refused to give his full name, is another student who shares Fan’s sentiments. “Christians are taught to forgive,” he says. “I don’t believe God to hate or judge without good cause.