Ryan Duffey Strode (born May 25, 1977) is an American former

street preacher A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, ...

who, as a 10-year-old child, became the subject of nationwide controversy in the 1980s for his idiosyncratic style of preaching. Strode's sermons were characterized by bellowing rote-learned excerpts from the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, in particular those pertaining to

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

and

sin In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...

Overview

Duffey Strode was raised by David and Robin Strode in the mountains of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

with his younger sister, Pepper, and brother, Matthew. David Strode had been arrested several times for his own street preaching; he and Robin were homophobic and anti-Catholic in their beliefs. The family relocated to Marion, North Carolina, from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, after David Strode was arrested five times for his street preaching. Duffey Strode and his family made national news in 1988 after then-10-year-old Duffey, 6-year-old Pepper and 5-year-old Matthew began preaching outside their school, Eastfield Elementary School. David Strode told reporters his children's preaching was necessitated by

racial integration Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation). In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity ...

, the

teaching of evolution The status of creation and evolution in public education has been the subject of substantial Creation–evolution controversy, debate and Social conflict, conflict in Law, legal, Politics, political, and Religion, religious circles. Globally, th ...

and

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual acti ...

in public schools. Duffey was suspended from school five times during the 1987–88 school year. In May 1988, five hundred residents of Marion signed a petition asking that the family obey school rules or move out of town. The children's idiosyncratic style of preaching consisted of shouting biblical passages concerning Christian views of Hell and

at their classmates. In the summer of 1988, Strode appeared on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

'', '' Larry King Live'', multiple times on '' Sally'', and at least 14 other television talk-show hosts sought interviews with the preaching children who had become a source of controversy in their mountain town. On the first day of the 1988–89 school year, Strode was suspended again when he told the school principal to go to Hell. After six months of media attention and many school suspensions, Strode's parents agreed to keep their children away from the school and educate the three themselves. At 16 years old, Strode took a job at a

Wendy's Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (1932–2002) on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2018, Wendy's was the ...

fast-food restaurant and began being exposed to secular influences; to his family's dismay, he began wearing a hat backwards and listening to popular music. He began dating Kim Ellington, a girl who attended New Manna Baptist Church, the Marion, North Carolina, megachurch that had previously thrown the Strode family out. He left home in June 1997 to live with a punk rocker friend and the Strode family would not speak to him for 10 months. In November 1997, Duffey and Ellington, then aged 20 and 19 years, respectively, were married at the Marion Community Center, where the Strode family had once faced hundreds of angry townspeople at a filming of ''

The Sally Jessy Raphael Show ''Sally'' (originally titled ''The Sally Jessy Raphael Show'') is an American syndicated tabloid talk show that was hosted by radio talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael. It originally was a half-hour local St. Louis television program, debuting Oc ...

''. David, Robin, Pepper, and Matthew Strode did not attend the wedding. , Strode was a factory worker.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Strode, Duffey American Christians Living people People from Marion, North Carolina 1977 births Campus preachers People from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania