George E. Smock, better known as Brother Jed, is an American evangelist whose ministry is concentrated on college campuses, particularly the University of Florida in the 1980s. He first started his campus preaching in 1974.

Brother Jed and his companion Sister Cindy became the object of ridicule for their distinctive preaching style, ("ForniCAtion!!!") and abuse and harangues flew in both directions. In the early 1990s when the Internet was virtually unknown, he became the target of a USENET prank. Readers were instructed to go up to him and say "the machine is watching you" on any campus on which he appeared. The prank was ruined when one USENETer explained the whole thing to Brother Jed—later posting, "sorry if I ruined anything".

It has been suggested that attitudes towards Brother Jed and his style can be used as a measure of one's commitment to freedom of speech.

External link

• brojed.org