# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/81 "2012-09-04T19:27:31Z")
Pear pimples for hairy fishnuts! (Sorry…couldn’t resist…) ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/82 "2012-09-04T19:28:08Z")
> [@Category5](#): > > Watch the movie “Miami Blues” … from the very beginning… hilarious You mean [this scene?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HqDd4_HZ1I) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/83 "2012-09-04T23:51:44Z")
The way I remember it, they we’ren’t nearly annoying as the almost militant Pro-Nuclear power guys. Protesters in suits, even. When you declined to look at their stuff, they were all, ooh, no electricity for you!:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/84 "2012-09-05T00:06:31Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Most of these people eventually moved on into Sales and Marketing. You made me laugh. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/85 "2012-09-05T00:56:12Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > … > I saw this thread and said ‘this is a _question_, I am getting old’ Me too. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/86 "2012-09-05T01:03:02Z")
Sorry, I haven’t read the whole thread, but I just wanted to comment that there was a time in my adult memory when you could walk right into the airport, go straight to the gate, and board your plane. No muss, no fuss, no bother. Cheap entertainment for me and my first husband was just to go out to the airport (Love Field in Dallas) and hang around the way a later generation used to hang around at malls. (This was before malls.) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/87 "2012-09-05T01:16:53Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Cheap entertainment for me and my first husband was just to go out to the airport (Love Field in Dallas) and hang around the way a later generation used to hang around at malls. (This was before malls.) [Malls are older](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence_Arcade) than airplanes. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/88 "2012-09-05T01:30:26Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > I went to O’Hare airport once and got hit on by a Hare Krishna for money after flattering me while pinning a poppy to my shirt all in the time it took to turn around and focus on her face having heard a woman start to talk behind me. I was in high school and with ma dropping someone off. I said I didn’t have money and needed to find ma. She immediately asked me to get money from ma. it was pretty much the Hare Krishna that hung out at the airports. They bothered people all over in public places. > > The fact that the courts ruled against them being in the airport show you that they were there and a nuisance. > [Hare Krishna airport solicitations curtailed](http://www.rickross.com/reference/krishna/krishna1.html) I remember all of that back in the 70’s. Hare Krishnas trying to claim they were only giving out flowers and then asking if the person wanted to make a donation in the face of the obvious fact that many of their people were very aggressive about trying to solicit these “donations”. ---
**Author:** ![Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/89 "2012-09-05T02:06:26Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I remember all of that back in the 70’s. Hare Krishnas trying to claim they were only giving out flowers and then asking if the person wanted to make a donation in the face of the obvious fact that many of their people were very aggressive about trying to solicit these “donations”. My memory of airports in the 70s is similar; several H.K.s would stand in front of you blocking you while one shoved a thick book in your direction and strongly requested money in exchange for the book. I never gave them any. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/90 "2012-09-05T02:17:26Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I remember all of that back in the 70’s. Hare Krishnas trying to claim they were only giving out flowers and then asking if the person wanted to make a donation in the face of the obvious fact that many of their people were very aggressive about trying to solicit these “donations”. > [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](#): > > My memory of airports in the 70s is similar; several H.K.s would stand in front of you blocking you while one shoved a thick book in your direction and strongly requested money in exchange for the book. I never gave them any. [Documentary evidence.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qse_wf57tZM) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/91 "2012-09-05T02:26:19Z")
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the anti-HK clickers. [Some enterprising soul started distributing these little clickers](http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19790826&id=UgEkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pGcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3569,4966981) and the idea was that when you saw an HK descending upon some poor sap, all the regular flyers in the area would pull out their clickers, point them at the HK, and start clicking. I only saw it actually happen a couple of times, but it worked, they went scurrying away. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/92 "2012-09-05T03:34:23Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > [Malls are older](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence_Arcade) than airplanes. 😛 And your point would be?? Anyway, we didn’t have a mall nearby. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/93 "2012-09-10T07:10:45Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > 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. Where I used to work one woman drove a pickup truck with a “Feed Jane Fonda to the Whales” bumper sticker on the back. People would ask her, “What do you have against whales?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/94 "2012-09-10T17:39:06Z")
I was solicited once by a HK who insisted I take his book. After I accepted the book and tried to continue on my way, he said, “That will be ten dollars” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/95 "2012-09-10T19:18:12Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Where I used to work one woman drove a pickup truck with a “Feed Jane Fonda to the Whales” bumper sticker on the back. People would ask her, “What do you have against whales?” 😃 They & the above-mentioned ProNuclear folk were both LaRouchies. In this election year, I miss Lyndon & his half-hour lunatic docummercials. I started travelling about 1996. For the first two years, I got hit-up at LAX by HKs & various Christian “missions” for donations- no one to actually give out literature or share their faith- just donations. But since 1998, I think, nothing. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/96 "2012-09-10T19:43:36Z")
Sorry, so what happened? Did all the sects get barred from airports or is this just a consequence of greater security post 2001? ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/97 "2012-09-11T13:04:13Z")
And here we are on Tuesday, September 11, 2012. Timely. Nowdays we get to enjoy all the TSA idiocy that those terrorists have provoked. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/98 "2012-09-11T14:26:54Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Sorry, so what happened? Did all the sects get barred from airports or is this just a consequence of greater security post 2001? Well, since you cannot just wander around the airport anymore without a ticket, there is a lot less available area for them to play in. Security is also a lot tighter and they have less patience for this nonsense. I kinda suspect a couple of years of handing out books and THEN asking for money also took a toll. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/99 "2012-09-11T14:42:41Z")
I remember being annoyed by a Hare Krishna at O’Hare in maybe 2004. He handed me a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, which I might’ve been interested enough to attempt to read, and then named a price that was surprisingly high. It might’ve been $20 or $40 and that was the end of that. > [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Anyone remember the Face on the Milk Carton? > [@Markxxx](#): > > [Etan Patz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etan_Patz) Interesting that this tangent popped up in this thread. A man confessed to killing Patz in May, although nobody seems sure if he’s telling the truth. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518/100 "2012-09-11T16:16:17Z")
I never noticed Hare Krishnas or any other religious maniacs at New York City airports in the Seventies… but Port Authority Bus Terminal was always crawling with them! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-religious-cults-used-to-hang-out-in-airports-and-harass-passengers/506518.md?page=6)