# Did Religious Cults Used To Hang Out in Airports and Harass Passengers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518 "2009-08-15T14:32:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/21 "2009-08-15T21:19:52Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > In 2004, I was pressured into taking a copy of the Baghavadgita in the St. Louis airport. It isn’t quite like _Airplane!_, where he had to karate through a teeming mass of Hare Krishnas, but I’ve never been anyplace in the US that was immune to public witnessing. Looking at some of the replies, I guess Captain Rex Kramer’s solution on how to get through them can still take place. 🙂 [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qse_wf57tZM/hqdefault.jpg "Airplane Missionaries") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qse_wf57tZM) (The classic Airplane! clip) ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/22 "2009-08-15T22:02:10Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Increased airport security has incidentally reduced the amount of space that is available for witnessing. I’ve noticed that more and more of the shops and eateries tend to be located in the secure areas, so passengers don’t hang around as much in the area of public access. Even more so, the fact that nowadays non-passengers aren’t allowed into the secure area. Those LaRouchies in LAX in the 70s I mentioned above were in the secure area – right at the top of the escalator leading to the gates, where you couldn’t avoid them. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/23 "2009-08-15T22:16:19Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > I saw this thread and said ‘this is a _question_, I am getting old’ Yeah, really… I feel your pain. I knew thay had faded away but really it somehow never quite registered to me that it had been long enough ago that by now people would be wondering if it really were so. (I suppose it’s a matter of time 'til someone asks if there used to be actual porn movie theaters. I shall promptly tell that kid to get off of my lawn.) > [@yabob](#): > > I remember getting hit by a Krishna after they dropped the robes - he was in a very eccentrically cut sport coat in a strange color, with a flower in his lapel, and few other touches that were too “theatrical” for street wear, even in the 70s. He looked like he was trying out for “Godspell”. Have a look at the jacket on the very first HK in the clip from “Airplane!” that has been posted. ISKCON, the Unification Church, the LaRouche campaign and others of the sort were of course also a semipermanent fixture in the neighborhoods around college campuses in that time-frame. Cults were the circa-1980 Big Boogieman for parents sending their boy or girl off to out-of-town schools. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/24 "2009-08-15T22:21:54Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Anyone remember the Face on the Milk Carton? [Etan Patz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etan_Patz) ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/25 "2009-08-15T23:53:13Z")
Just out of curiosity, how old is the OP? ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/26 "2009-08-16T00:00:23Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Just out of curiosity, how old is the OP? I’m curious too. I’m 24 and never had heard of this before…maybe Airplane! would make more sense in retrospect 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/27 "2009-08-16T00:02:53Z")
I’m 24 and was well aware of this… but I think that started with my parents explaining it to me when I watched Airplane! as a kid. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/28 "2009-08-16T00:11:10Z")
A few years ago, I saw members of Falun Gong at the San Jose Airport, sitting at a table between the arrival gates and the baggage carousels. So it’s not something that’s completely disappeared. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/29 "2009-08-16T00:13:39Z")
Yeah, and I’ve been momentarily fooled by the “Free Speech Booth” at SFO a couple times, as alluded to above. But overall, the practice has certainly been cut back to the point where the movie references wouldn’t make much sense if one didn’t learn some history first. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/30 "2009-08-16T00:26:08Z")
Krisna devotees were at OHare a lot in the 70s, but I wouldn’t say “harass” is all that fair a term. More like sincere twits. I had a few lovely chats feigning interest…they were often witless young americans sucked up into the movement, without a shred of insight into how the world actually works. I think I still have a nice two-volume set edited by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada [http://www.harekrishna.com/col/books/bio/prab.html](http://www.harekrishna.com/col/books/bio/prab.html) who was instrumental in founding the movement. Laugh a minute stories. That was my first encounter with the story about Krisna and the Gopi girls wherein our fearless Lord Krisna sneeks a peek at the Gopi girls bathing naked (as I recall it, anyway). No idea why they thought these books would help persuade the masses. I got my set for $20 after chatting the girl up, and I’m pretty sure it cost more than that to produce. It’s a very nice two-set volume. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/31 "2009-08-16T00:48:13Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Even more so, the fact that nowadays non-passengers aren’t allowed into the secure area. Those LaRouchies in LAX in the 70s I mentioned above were in the secure area – right at the top of the escalator leading to the gates, where you couldn’t avoid them. I didn’t think about this, but this is one of the few positive things about the new security. And I cheered at that scene in **Airplane** also. But being from New York, HKs were hardly the first twits I ran into looking for money. ---
**Author:** ![Category5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Category5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Category5)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/32 "2009-08-16T01:16:52Z")
The Krishnas used to cook up huge pots of brown rice and hand it out free to the hungry students on the central lawn of the college campus 20 years ago. Seems if they fed you, they saved you! ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/33 "2009-08-16T01:25:53Z")
Does anyone know if this was a mainly US phenonemon? Because I first flew on a plane in about 1978 (aged 2 or 3), and have no memories of anything like this, but Douglas Adams did mention avoiding airport Hare Krishnas in one of his books, which is where I first heard of anything like it and wondered about it. At that age my flights were always within Europe, (except for once to Africa) and we had many hassles but random religious types were not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/34 "2009-08-16T01:28:53Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > A couple of 1970’s-era movies I’ve seen recently have referenced the idea that airports at the time were a favorite hangout of Hare Krishnas, Moonies, and other fringe religious groups, and they’d use the airport as a means of trying to spread their message to unfortunate passengers. > > Was this really a common occurence back in the day? Yes it was. I learned to really despise them. If you tossed them a few dollars they wanted more. If you said no, they didn’t understand what the word means. They were as bad a cockroaches. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/35 "2009-08-16T01:48:48Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > [Etan Patz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etan_Patz) This has nothing to do with anything. **Freudian Slit** is referring to [The Face on the Milk Carton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Face_on_the_Milk_Carton), the plot of which is started by having a three-year-old girl abducted by a cult of some kind–I think it’s strongly implied that they’re Hare Krishnas, if not outright stated. Actually, rereading the Wikipedia summary, the girl’s parents are actually her grandparents, and their daughter (her mother) joined a cult, then kidnapped the kid later. This is the book that scared the crap out of me as a twelve-year-old–I was convinced that college campuses were just crawling with Hare Krishnas and other cults, waiting to snap up innocent students. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/36 "2009-08-16T01:53:11Z")
I knocked a Moonie on his ass in the Denver airport. He tried to pin a flower on me, and I don’t like being touched by strangers. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/37 "2009-08-16T01:58:50Z")
It wasn’t as extreme as you see in _Airplane!_, but they were definitely there. Speaking of airport sequences I have to wonder how much longer it will be before younger people are surprised by the way in old movies they let non-passengers right up to the gates to see people off or to meet them arriving. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/38 "2009-08-16T02:16:05Z")
Most of these people eventually moved on into Sales and Marketing. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/39 "2009-08-16T02:42:13Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > I knocked a Moonie on his ass in the Denver airport. He tried to pin a flower on me, and I don’t like being touched by strangers. He’s a Moonie and you’re a Meenie. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/40 "2009-08-16T02:42:55Z")
I walked through one airport (O’Hare I think) where there were HK’s on one side of me and some group with a sign that said “Feed Jane Fonda to the Whales” on the other side. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518.md?page=3)