LEE DAVIDSON
Assistant Intrigue Editor
"Turn or burn, Auburn. It's salvation or damnation."
These words have commonly been heard echoing across the crowded Concourse as students trudge from one class to another.
Finally it is time to identify the students behind the voice.
Chi Alpha, a national Christian organization on campus, uses the free speech platform located near the Eagle's cage on the Concourse to express its views to Auburn students.
The chapter has 30 to 40 members on Auburn's campus, Ben Bodishbaugh, an active member of Chi Alpha, said.
Of this group, a number of its members choose to speak to students on the Concourse.
"Wisdom cryth without. She uttereth her voice in the streets. She cryth in the chief place of Concourse," said Justin Eldred who quoted Proverbs 1:20-21 in his preaching.
Eldred, a sophomore in international trade, has been a member of Chi Alpha for a year and half.
Goals: "Bible! Read the Bible!"
Matthew Shaddrix, a junior majoring in religion and a Chi Alpha member, said this in an effort to get his message out to Auburn students.
Eldred said the mission of Chi Alpha is "to promote the glory of God." The purpose is "to bear witness to his testimony and to the Word of God. Jesus is our savior; our purpose is to glorify the Son of God."
Chi Alpha is in its third year of ministry on Auburn's campus, Bridget Walker, a charter member of Chi Alpha, said.
The organization is "in no way Greek;" it only derives its name from the greek alphabet, Walker said.
Beverly Norris, vice president of Chi Alpha, said the name came from 2 Corinthians 5:20 which mentions "Christ's Apostles" and calls them to preach.
First Assembly of God sponsors Chi Alpha, Youth Pastor Billy McClendon said.
"Personally I feel that the Chi Alpha guys who preach on campus are there to tell the truth, to tell what the Bible says. If they get away from what the Bible says, then we've got a problem," McClendon said.
Methods: "I am a fanatic about it. Jesus died for me. He died; it is not an illusion. Put that in your paper, write it up and smoke it in your religious pipe."
Shaddrix said this in response to a student's allegation that the preachers are "fanatical, radical and delusional."
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Walker said, "The people that preach are able to say these things for shock value and to get attention. (They want) to get people to come so they can hear the full gospel. It's then that they can hear about the grace of God and what God has to offer them and besides just the condemnation. But a lot of people don't stop long enough to do that."
Attire: "Whether I come out here looking like John the Baptist in camel hair and sandals or whether I come out in a full suit; it's the message of the word of God that counts," Eldred said.
The preachers are students at Auburn and have not attended seminary or received formal training for the work they do, Laura Rosenbaum, a sophomore in pre-business, said.
"I thought that they were from a community church around here. That's the image that they give off that they are preachers, that they have been trained," Rosenbaum said.
Eldred said, "If you're a Christian, you're a preacher. I don't dress for mal.
"When you go to work, you dress accordingly to show respect for the office you are serving. It's not my outside I expect them to judge. It's my heart.
"It's fair to dress this way. I dressed up to come here because I thought it was more respectable," he said.
Reaction: "God is dead. There is no God," John Homes, a junior majoring in electrical engineering said in response to Chi Alpha's preachings. Other students reacted differently.
Students and members of Chi Alpha hold a variety of opinions about what the general crowds call the "Concourse preachers."
Michael Stevens, a junior double majoring in political science and history, said, "Many times people come out here condemning, and that's not good because that's not how they should go about doing this, because it's a turnoff for most people.
"If there is a God, he's not like this. Showing the love of God is good; condemning is bad," Stevens said.
Stevens had been to a Chi Alpha meeting once before, he said.
However, Courtney Baggett, an undeclared sophomore, held a different view.
"I agree with some of the things that he (Shaddrix) said, but not with everything that he said. He stood right here and looked right at me and said that he was not a sinner because he had repented, and he screamed at all these people, and I think that anger is a sin. So therefore, he is sinning and he's telling me he hadn't," Baggett said.
Eric Friday, a junior in political science, said, "When I identify myself somewhere other than here as a Christian, I don't want what pops into somebody's head to be those people that are standing and yelling and pointing at me when I walk past.
"That's not what I want people to think when I say, 'I am a Christian; let me tell you about Jesus.'
"A lot of people have that idea in their head. (Preachers') marketing and advertising strategies are wrong."
Christian Community Response: "We live in a world that is really anti-Christian. The method comes with the messenger that is proclaiming the gospel and everybody's got different methods," McClendon said.
Clete Sipes, student pastor at the Baptist Campus Ministries in Auburn said, "We are here to reach people for Christ, to grow spiritually and to develop a vision for ministry."
"Our goal is to train people how to disciple to other people. We encourage them to build relationships in classes, in study groups - that's our approach," he said.
Sipes has a "policy of not talking about other people unless they are present" but did say that "Christ saw each of us as equal, and he died for each of us regardless of what we say, what we do, what our attitudes are. We need to be grateful for that - our place is not to judge others."
McClendon said, "As a church, we are very vocal in what we feel is an emergency to reach a campus and in that urgency and in that desire for people to know God, the zealousness of people comes out.
"It comes across real strong and everybody is different. We have different characters of people. If there is any error or anything that is questionable, our pastors talk to them about it. They do represent our church."
Pete Newman, a junior in education, serves as master of ceremonies for Campus Crusade for Christ. The goal of Crusade is "to turn lost students into Christ-centered laborers" Newman said.
When asked about the preachers on the Concourse, Newman said, "I admire their tenacity. I think at all times we need to be careful to give the message of Christ in the manner of Christ. I know that Christ preached love, so that's what we preach."
Chi Alpha's Response: "People usually get mad and cuss and yell (when we preach), but you know that's what they did to the Apostles; that's what they did to Jesus," Bodishbaugh said.
Bodishbaugh said people who truly consider themselves to be Christians would not be offended by their preachings because, "If they're not living in sin, they shouldn't feel convicted."
Sophomore Buck Alan Garsed, a small group leader for Chi Alpha, summed up the group's mission. "America is falling apart morally, and we need to turn back to God or he will judge us just like he judged Sodam and Gomora," he said.
Bodishbaugh said, "I think this country is so far backslidden that a rude awakening is needed." Baggett said, "God said, 'Go and preach the Gospel' and I believe that's right, but personally I feel that I'm going to make a bigger difference and be a better witness if I do it through my actions and talking one on one.
"I think if the preachers are screaming, people are going to hear the wrong thing that they say," Baggett said.
AMY BELLIS
Staff Writer
The reason Harry's Bar has been open for 24 years is quite clear. And the reason it hasn't changed in 24 years is the same.
Customers like it.
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"Harry's is a late-night establishment where you go to get a Budweiser and play a game of pool," Mike Douglas, a senior in history, said. "It's not an atmosphere for sipping beer."
"And if you're looking for a nice table to put your beer on, too bad," Dave Schrimsher, a senior in finance, said. "There's nothing but an old air-conditioning unit."
Harry's is a dilapidated brown building located on Opelika Road between Bottcher's and Dugan's.
A man named Maurice Weeks, not Harry, owns the bar.
Weeks said he originally opened a bar in Tuscaloosa called "The Other Place." After long nights with few customers, Weeks said it was time to change the bar's name.
He named it Harry's, after "All American" Harry Hammond, an Alabama basketball player from 1961 to 1965, Weeks said. Six months later, he came to Auburn to own the oldest bar in Lee County with the same name, he said.
Jay Knorr of Eufaula, Ala., said Harry's is "an Auburn landmark. My father went there when he went to Auburn. It's like a handed- down tradition."
Weeks said people would be amazed at the number of current Auburn students whose parents he knew back in the '70s. "There are many fond memories of the past 24 years," he said, "and I could tell you a million stories, but I don't know if they are printable."
Harry's is open six days a week, sells only beer, Snapple and water and is open late.
Douglas said it has a magnetic force after 2 a.m., and it runs along his late night route that begins at Bottcher's and ends at Tiger Time.
Schrimscher said, "You can always count on Harry's being open. It's kind of like a party in someone's garage. It wouldn't surprise me to see Greg Allman hanging out there."
Bill Baker, a "patron in good standing," said, "As long as I've known Maurice (Weeks), which has been about 14 years, he's only raised his beer prices four times."
Weeks said the reason people come to Harry's is "to get drunk and relax."
Absurdity, comedy comes to Telfair Peet Theatre
The Auburn theater department broke all the theatrical norms in their latest production, The Threepenny Opera, directed by Will York.
Written by Bertolt Brecht in 1928, The Threepenny Opera was an attempt to break the conventions of realism on stage by revealing, rather than hiding, the mechanics of a production.
The theater department did an exceptional job of stressing the importance of the mechanics, with a sparse set, stagehands loitering on stage with the cast and the orchestra seated directly behind them.
The cast, who portray a group of back-stabbing criminals, best explain their condition when they all sing in the second act finale, "How do all human beings live? By being rotten. Don't think that being right helps you along. All human beings live by doing wrong."
Macheath (Gordon McMahan), the biggest criminal in the play, runs off to marry Polly Peachum (Tippi Thomas) in a barn.
When Mr. and Mrs. Peachum (Del Treese and Candis Hacker) discover that Macheath is Mack the Knife, they try to stop their daughter from marrying the criminal.
The Peachums are as deceitful as Mack, telling beggars, "If you won't work, you can't beg."
Mack and the Peachums are not the only criminals in the play, though.
Sheriff Tiger Brown (Nevin Miller), is an old buddy of Mack's and refuses to lock him up for his crimes.
When Mrs. Peachum finds Mack's mistress, Betty (Heather Dumont), and another wife, Lucy (Angela Odom), the entire cast goes into a back-stabbing frenzy.
Mack is sent to jail and everyone turns on him, including Tiger, his wives and a band of six gangsters led by Matt the Mint (Craig Glassco).
Mack is to be hanged on the day of the Carnation Parade. He is abandoned by the crooked citizens who go to see the queen in the parade.
I won't tell how the play ends because the production is still playing.
I will say, though, the ending is funny and not at all what I expected.
The Threepenny Opera, with biblical references and lines such as "Wake up all you good Christian scum," is the most absurd theatre production I have ever seen.
If you have not seen the theater department's production of The Threepenny Opera, you still have a chance.
There will be a performance today and Friday at 8 p.m. in the Telfair Peet Theatre. Tickets are $8 for students, and $12 for general admission.
- Andie Thompson
Staff Writer