Local Stands on Bemidji Avenue & 23rd Street

Guy spends his spare time standing on a street corner to hold a sign about Jesus

By Rhea Wawrzyniak

Word Count: 690
Story #2



By Rhea Wawrzyniak

Brian Thompson stands on the corner of Bemidji Avenue and 23^rd
Street as much as he can to spread to the word.



Most people push the button to cross the cross walk, and stand there waiting for the red hand to turn into the green person so they can walk across the street. Brain Thompson, on the other hand, stands on the street corner of Bemidji Avenue and 23^rd Street, as the traffic rushes by, to get his message out to the many people driving. “Jesus is coming back soon, are you ready?”  

Thompson said he used to be into drugs and alcohol. “I got saved on March 1^st 1993,” he said.

Two years before that, Thompson said, he and a buddy were drinking and driving out in a snow storm and ended up in the ditch. The snow was up to his waist so he couldn’t move when he got hit by a 4-wheel-drive pick-up truck. He didn’t break any bones; in fact, he didn’t even have a scratch.

“God spoke to my spirit at 3:30 in the morning and said, ‘Brian, if you continue down this path this is what is going to happen to you,’” said Thompson. “Well Lord, I’m done drinking.”



Thompson stands on the corner and sets the double sided sign on a pole that comes up to about his waist. As the traffic lights change he turns the sign. “I try to come out here six days a week,” said Thompson. “I am usually out here during the day from noon to six.”



By Rhea Wawrzyniak

Chuck Samuelson, the executive director of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Minnesota, talked about the 1^st
Amendment at the “Five Rights of Freedom, Our 1^st Amendment”
dinner with the ACLU-MN.



The 1^st Amendment protects Thompson and other people like him. At the ACLU-MN dinner, “Five Rights of Freedom, Our 1^st Amendment “, Chuck Samuelson was asked if someone was to stand on the corner of the street with a religious sign would it be covered by the 1^st Amendment? “Yes,” Samuelson replied. “The 1^st Amendment is a wonderful thing, but often times very messy.”

Thompson described the reactions of people to his sign. “The brothers and the sisters of the faith, they wave, thumbs up, or honk,” he said. “The ones that don’t, they give me the middle finger, and swear at me, say that there ain’t no god, and I’m a fool for standing out here.”

 “Every time I see him I wave, or say hi,” said BSU student Lenius. “I think what he is doing is a good thing, however, I also think that there might be better ways to serve the Lord other than standing on a corner with a sign,” said Lenius. “Maybe, he could be out preaching the word of God instead of letting people who drive by read his sign and make up their own assumptions.”

“I feel like he is trying to preach to us and, I felt kind of weird at first,” said BSU student Erik Lindstrand. “But now, I just got used to him standing there.”



“I have nothing against Jesus at all, but I feel like he is almost trying to create a forced opinion” said BSU student Jasmine Grika. “I honestly don’t like him because he is a huge distraction and it gets old after a while.”



By Rhea Wawrzyniak

Brian Thompson standing on the corner of Bemidji Avenue and
 23^rd Street with a sign that says, “Jesus is coming back soon are you ready?”



Thompson said some people talk to him, but others don’t. “They ask me why I am standing out here, I tell them my story and they say, ‘Keep up the good work’ and that’s all I’m trying to do,” said Thompson.