Christianity demonstrator visits campus, met with support and hostility
Freshmen psychology major Victoria Jocko sits next to Jim Deferio with opposing signs.
October 7, 2015
SUNY Buffalo State students gathered outside in the Campbell Student Quad around a man holding a large sign Monday.
The sign was an excerpt from The Bible – Corinthians 6:9 and 10, that listed 10 sins.
Some were debating with him, others might have agreed with him, and some were just observing the whole situation. Some students throughout the day were even reported to have been getting loud enough where UPD had to step in and refrain them and the man from getting any more disruptive. Some other students even opted to spit on the man.
That man was Christianity demonstrator Jim Deferio.
Deferio said this was his sixth or seventh time coming to Buffalo State.
“I started coming here [in] November of 2008,” Deferio said. “I haven’t been here in about two years and I thought I would come again, revisit the campus and talk about Christianity, what God expects from us, and how we have failed God. All of us have failed God including myself.”
Deferio believes that everybody is an equal sinner before God, and that everybody must turn from their sins in order to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Deferio said he had to turn away from his sins, and that he had committed about six of the ten listed on his sign.
Some of the sins listed were having sex out of wedlock, having wrong sex, and praying to “false gods”.
In response to Deferio, who was out in the Quad from about 11 a.m. to after 3 p.m., Julia, a sophomore psychology major, was handing out flyers to students titled, “Most Common Same-sex Confusion in the Bible.” The subtitle stated, “The Bible actually contains no word for homosexuality or homosexual,” followed by bullet points of facts to support the argument.
Similarly to Julia, others came to protest the demonstration and brought out signs of their own. One group brought signs reading “I love you no matter what. Spread peace, love and equality. Not Hate.”
“My girlfriend told me he was out here, and she’s the one that printed out these flyers,” Julia said.
Julia’s girlfriend, Sophie, is a sophomore theater major who did the research and made the flyers.
“She went and she did the research and she printed out the flyers and I was like ‘Okay, I’m helping her,’” Julia said. “And this guy told us, he said all of this stuff about Judgment Day is coming and implied that we are going to Hell.
“I believe that God loves everyone. I don’t think that there’s a problem with being gay. He’s comparing [being] gay to bestiality and rape.”
Julia said there was a very big crowd with a lot of people against Deferio’s beliefs early on, but there was also a crowd that supported him. She thought Deferio’s crowd was being peaceful, but said they would yell at people who did not support Deferio’s beliefs whenever they tried to preach their own ideals.
“I think the manner in which he is doing it is very wrong,” Julia said. “He is telling people that they are not living the correct lifestyle. He’s telling people that there is something wrong with them.”
Adam Beaudoin, a graduate education student, had been observing the demonstration for about a half hour. He thought it was okay for Deferio to be on campus and for students to be debating with him.
“Yeah, it’s okay,” Beaudoin said. “The only problem I have is for the students who want to refute him, I think they need to be more educated because they come off just as, I don’t want to say ignorant, but they come across as, you know, not knowing as much as he does. Some people are refuting him, and they don’t have the facts either. I think we need more knowledgeable people.”
An additional response from Tyler Kruse, a junior biology major, thought that his background in biology gave him somewhat of a need to speak up.
“One of the things that really got to me is his views on evolution and homosexuality,” Kruse said. “He knew a little bit about science, but I could tell some of it was made up.” Kruse said that despite this being a country where you are free to speak your mind, Deferio was “telling people it is wrong to be gay”.
Deferio is a non-denominational born again Christian from Syracuse, NY, who was not affiliated with any religious groups at the time of the demonstration. In the past, Deferio has come with other people.
He doesn’t have to notify University Police when he is coming, but as a courtesy, Deferio said, he did notify UPD prior to his demonstration and gave them his driver license.
Doing these demonstrations, Deferio has certain requirements to abide by. He cannot impede student traffic, stop or single any people out, use obscenities or get too loud.
“Earlier, it got a little bit loud because some students were absolutely screaming at me, and then somebody asked a question and I’m trying to answer the question, and I can’t be heard so I had to speak up,” Deferio said during his demonstration. “Well, the police officer came and he told some of the people, he says, ‘You need to keep it down to a normal voice’ and he says, ‘You also, you agreed to a normal voice.’”
“I don’t know,” Julia said. “I don’t like that people are allowed to come onto this campus and tell us that we are not human beings; that we are bad people because we love people.”
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Jim Deferio • Sep 23, 2016 at 9:39 pm
Wow, this Erik Schmitt guy is quite the troll. When my Facebook was open earlier this year he suddenly began commenting under one of my statuses. I allowed him to comment as a guest (I had no idea who he was or where he was coming from) but after losing a debate with me he began calling names and being just downright belligerent, even after I said that I hope for the best for him and his partner.
Schmitt couldn’t define “science” and what the scientific method entails. When I mentioned that science is built upon at least 17 presuppositions he, and this is funny, thought I was talking about the presuppositional argument for God (i.e. the transcendental argument for God). LOL
When I was in college, a number of professors would say to us, “Mathematics is the language of science.” That statement right there should give Erik one clue as to at least what one of the presuppositions of science is.
I told young Erik Schmitt that he is unqualified to debate but he just kept up the instigation and became rather mean-spirited and he provided absolutely no evidence to back up his claims about evolution and other subjects. I found out that he was doing this to other Christians also who ended up blocking him. I also had to block him.
Btw, Forestry is a science and I went to SUNY-ESF when it was ranked #1 in the nation in its fields of study (though some years it was ranked #2 behind Berkeley). It was strictly upper division and graduate level at that time that I attended there. Incoming juniors had to have at least one year in college physics, more than one year in chemistry, as well as having calculus, computer programming, and plant and animal biology along with other requirements. FORESTRY IS A SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE and at ESF we also had to take soil science, probability & statistics (probability theory), hydrology, meteorology (especially micro-meteorology), and other science courses. Some did use their electives for Management, Economics, Policy or the like but I used mine for science (except for one course in Environmental Impact Statement Analysis).
I accumulated about 230 semester hours of college course work, most of which was at the upper division level and graduate level (superior undergrad students are allowed to take graduate level courses with their adviser’s permission).
Erik Schmitt downplays SUNY’s high level of national and worldwide recognition of their College of Environmental Science & Forestry in Syracuse. He’s from Vermont and perhaps there may be a bit of jealousy at play here.
It is not uncommon for me to engage graduate students and also professors on college campuses. I welcome the traditional dialectic and I always accept a professors request to address their class and to have an exchange with the students and the professors. Universities should be open to a the traditional dialectic. Over the years I have had numerous high quality discussions with students at Buffalo State. One young man from Buffalo State College came out of homosexuality three months after he told me that he was “born gay”.
Erik Schmitt • Jul 1, 2016 at 1:21 pm
Jim, I challenge you to a public debate.
You’ve demonstrated over and over again you do not understand science or how science works, degrees notwithstanding.
I’ll also point out they are undergrad degrees and that you don’t appear to have used them in any professional capacity. Science has also advanced considerably in the intervening decades. Much of what you think you learned may very well be out of date by this point.
Then again, one of your degrees is in forestry, funny how you never mention that one by name.
I wonder why Jim targets undergrad campuses so that a fellow in his 60’s can brag about his superiority compared to 18-21 year olds.
So Jim, care to tussle with someone with a few years and some understanding of epistemology under their belt?
I will await your response to work out the details and logistics. I’d also like to suggest the morality of homosexuality as a potential topic.
Jim Deferio • Oct 14, 2015 at 2:59 pm
Oh, nicely written article! It is fair and balanced, like FOX news, lol.
Jim Deferio • Oct 14, 2015 at 2:56 pm
Julia said,
“I think the manner in which he is doing it is very wrong,” Julia said. “He is telling people that they are not living the correct lifestyle. He’s telling people that there is something wrong with them.”
Julia, id you have to break your standard to establish your standard you are being inconsistent. You are saying that I am wrong but then you are also saying that it is wrong for me to say others are wrong. Do you even listen to yourself?
Tyler Kruse said,
“He knew a little bit about science, but I could tell some of it was made up.”
Tyler, I do have two science degrees and one is in biology. Would you agree to a face to face debate with me inside one of the buildings before an audience? One of the colleges former students and also a biology major, who is now an EX-homosexual, is supposed to come with me the next time I visit.