Jeb Smock has a right to say whatever he wants. More importantly, we have a right not to listen.

In my opinion, Smock is preaching from fear and ignorance.

Whether, or not, you want to agree with him is your own personal choice. I choose not to.

That is an important aspect of our freedoms in this country. You or I can say whatever we want, but no one has to agree with us.

We can have our own opinions and think independently of others. In or out of the classroom, that is the most important thing I have learned since coming to Penn State three years ago.

Unless something goes drastically wrong, people are going to spread their opinions all over this campus long after you and I die. No one has to listen to them. Ignoring them might not make them physically go away, but if you do not pay attention to them they can not affect you.

If there is no one to hear their arguments, they cannot win their arguments. I think it would be far better if Smock was allowed to say whatever he wanted and no one heard him than for him not to speak at all.

Evangelist Jed Smock says Muslims and Christians don't worship the same God. How many Gods does he think there are? It seems more likely that the disagreement is over what the one God expects of us. Does he want his worshipers to attack one another and attempt to undermine one another's faith? Smock seems to think so. Smock's claim that God is a trinity to Christians and a unity to Muslims is an oversimplification.

The Christian expression for the Godhead is "triune," which embraces both trinity and unity. For Christians on this overwhelmingly Christian campus to attack the religion of the Muslim minority at any time is at best callous. To do so today when Muslims in this society are beset by every kind of lurking nativism and bigotry is an act of evil. The struggle that is taking place in the world today is not between Christians and Muslims but between what is hateful and fanatical in all traditions and the willingness of people to trust their best instincts in spirituality.

I find the Willard Preachers, well, interesting to say the least. I can readily see why the Muslim Student Association is so offended by their message and the way it is presented.

But I am left with one question: if the MSA is fundamentally sound along with their religion, why are their foundations so shaken and threatened by the preachers? If the preachers were advocating hate, as claimed by the MSA, they would also condone discrimination, murder, terrorism, and violence toward the Muslim community.

The preachers' convictions and principles come from upholding the Bible as an absolute truth, without exception. And if your standing does not lie within the Bible, of course it will be an attack on your beliefs. It is free choice to listen to their sermon, as well as it is to accept or reject their message.

The preachers' mission is to have students make choices in what they believe about God and why they believe it, and from my perspective, they are successfully accomplishing their goal.

In response to the article "Muslims to speak with Spanier" in Thursday's Collegian, I would like to raise two issues. In trying to stifle preacher Jed Smock's and others' free speech opposing the Muslim faith, the Muslim Students Association calls this speech "hatred."

This is a quick way to get President Spanier and the university to respond, and they know it. However, hatred it is not. It is free speech that promotes Christianity and opposes Islam. If it offends Muslims to hear that Islam is wrong and that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Lord to all who believe, so be it.

As a Christian, I am offended daily to hear this name that I revere used in foul ways by students. I am offended by university-sponsored events that promote pre-marital sex by distributing condoms, and by the drunken debauchery that rules over State College on the weekends.

These things that offend give me the opportunity to build up my own defense and belief in Christianity. It is not by living in a perfect world that we see a need for our faith, but by living in this imperfect world.

The second issue is Vice Provost for Educational Equity Terrell Jones' quoted statement: "There is very little difference between Islam and Christianity." Really?

Is that why religion-fueled wars have been plaguing the Middle East for centuries? I can think of at least one very significant difference between these religions, and I would suggest that Jones pick up a New Testament and a Koran and try to figure it out.

Just because both religions believe in the "Golden Rule" and other quite obvious moral truths does not make them similar.

I am writing in reaction to the continuing coverage of the new Willard "preachers," Brother Jed Smock and Bro Cope.

I am furious that they continue to be allowed to preach religious intolerance and Christian blasphemy on our campus. They claim to be preaching Christian beliefs and values, but their words have offended Christians as well as Muslims. Frankly, Smock and Cope have made me ashamed to be a member of the same religion as they are.

This is not the time to be preaching religious intolerance. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, attacks on Muslims elsewhere in the United States occurred with no provocation whatsoever. One of my closest friends, who is Muslim, has recently suffered ethnic and religious intimidation at her home near Philadelphia.

I have been present at both of these "debates," and for what it's worth, the other students present do not take the "preachers" at face value. However, I am convinced that if Smock and Cope are allowed to continue their tirade, there will be attacks on the Muslim community of State College. Smock and Cope would surely not be allowed to continue to preach bigotry and provoke hatred and fear on campus if they were Muslims yelling threats against Christians and and the Christian religion. This is not free speech. This is hate speech and it must be stopped.