Seth and Brian Imprison Itinerant Pastor:

The Daily Tar Heel prints a background of the exciting episode!

I helped put a man in jail the other day. I’ll tell you the whole story later, but as for now, the Daily Tar Heel printed a synopsis of the man’s stay in Chapel Hill. Here it is:

Ambitious evangelist banned from UNC

Media Credit: DTH/Ankit Gupta

Evangelist Timothy Sweet preaches the Gospel on campus last week. He has since been banned from UNC grounds as a result of two trespassings.

Two weeks ago, self-proclaimed evangelist Timothy James Sweet was spreading the Gospel in the Pit and the Student Union.

Last week he was in Wilkes County Jail.

Now, having been banned from entering UNC’s campus and rejected by University evangelical groups, he is deciding whether to forgive or just to move on.

“There’s absolutely nothing I’ve done wrong,” he said Wednesday at the Carolina Coffee Shop on Franklin Street. “I hope the truth comes out.”

Sweet, 27, said he came to Chapel Hill to share his faith, leaving a steady job as a newspaper reporter and turning down several offers of church pastorships.

But here he has no income, no job, lives out of his car and his savings have just about run out.

“Christ suffered for our sins,” Sweet said. “I can suffer for those who don’t know him.”

His plan is to build up local support, with churches and religious groups contributing to a salary.

Though Sweet said InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ have been open to him, leaders of both groups have been quick to distance themselves.

“We know a little bit about him, but we are not affiliated,” said Chad McGhee, a group leader in Crusade. “We don’t think he’s a real pastor or has any credentials.”

And his legal difficulties began at a Feb. 16 InterVarsity event.

The group was holding a prayer vigil, University Baptist Church campus coordinator Nathan Rogers said, when Sweet reportedly disrupted by beginning to preach.

Several women participating contacted Department of Public Safety officers after becoming uncomfortable, Rogers said. Sweet said he was at the event but was not acting improperly.

Sweet was issued a trespassing warning, then transported to Wilkes County, where he had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear on charges of speeding 95 mph in a 65 mph zone, driving with a suspended license and reckless driving to endanger.

He was released from jail on Feb. 20. Four days later, he was arrested for trespassing in the Rams Head parking deck at UNC.

Campus groups have been asked to notify DPS if they see Sweet on campus so they can arrest him.

But Sweet said that the Wilkes County charges stemmed from speeding tickets for which he was not notified of a court date and that the trouble on campus came because of false allegations of harassment.

“I assume it’s because I’m vocal, and if they don’t want to hear about Christ, it’ll make them mad,” he said. He added that he might file civil lawsuits against several University community members who he said have created a negative image of him.

Sweet received a bachelor’s degree in journalism and religion at Penn State University, then earned a master’s degree in divinity in church leadership at Liberty University. He had expected to preach at a church.

But he said he couldn’t find peace. So he gave away his possessions, prayed and came to UNC.

His future plans include staying in Chapel Hill for about 10 years, graduating law school, becoming a traveling preacher and running for president of the United States.

But if his March 31 appeal of the campus ban is unsuccessful, and his reception at UNC doesn’t improve, he said he’ll move along.

“If slander is spreading, do I really want to stay here?”

~ by rapierwit713 on February 28, 2008.