Campus preacher arrested in N.J.

An evangelist who has attracted huge crowds of students on Locust Walk this semester by calling passersby "whoremongers" and "fornicators," among other things, was arrested last week for trespassing at Princeton University. And, according to Penn's police chief, he could soon find himself in a similar predicament here. Stephen White -- known across campus simply as "Brother Stephen" --Ewas handcuffed and taken into Princeton Borough Police custody last Thursday after Princeton University Police received complaints that he was disrupting nearby classes. White, 35, a Philadelphia resident, was arrested after being asked to leave campus and not return two weeks earlier, according to Princeton University Public Safety crime-prevention specialist Barry Weiser. White said he returned to Princeton after consulting his lawyer, who advised him to speak only on public property -- such as the sidewalks surrounding the campus. The preacher has been visiting Penn several days a week this semester and quickly became notorious for his approach to religion. White said in an interview on College Green yesterday that after speaking to police, they allowed him to go without posting bail as long as he returned for a court hearing on October 26. The authorities also told White that he could not return to Princeton at least until April as a result of trespassing. Princeton Public Safety officials received complaints from a professor in a nearby classroom that White was disturbing the people in the building. "Certainly, we don't prohibit free speech by any means," said Princeton University spokesperson Mary Caffrey. "But we do have certain parameters, and one of them is not disrupting classes." White said he "told [the police] that I was just trying to bring Princeton back to its roots," adding that the university was founded by a "hellfire" preacher. He added that after his arrest, he went to nearby Rutgers University, where more than 100 students listened to him without incident. Yesterday, Penn Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush said she has been in contact with other administrators about telling White to stop preaching on Penn property. "It's something we are examining," Rush said. "People are feeling his communication? is starting to make people feel very unsafe." White frequently attacks homosexuality and non-Christians beliefs but does not usually talk to individuals unless they respond to him. Rush said the issue of White's preaching was brought up at last week's candlelight vigil on campus for Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was brutally murdered earlier this month. Participants in the vigil said that "it was scary to walk by him and hear the kind of hatred that was coming out of his mouth," Rush said. Rush said in a follow-up interview last night, though, that if White is asked to leave, it will be because he is being noisy and disruptive, not because he is making people feel unsafe. Asking him to leave for the latter reason might violate Penn's open-expression policies, she said. University spokesperson Ken Wildes said yesterday that while "Penn embraces free speech? if someone is a danger to the campus community or that person is disruptive to the business of the University, then I think the University would have to take appropriate action." Still, Wildes emphasized that universities are "the last bastion of free speech" and should remain so. Daily Pennsylvanian editor Jennifer Arend contributed to this story.

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