First of all I know I’m not taking any sort of courageous stand here but this thread got me thinking about Ray Comfort and my Pissed-Off meter immediately jumped from Chillaxed to Fuck The Fucking Fuckers.
I am not going to bitch about this dude’s worldview per se but it might come up as it permeates everything he says and does.
No, what I am going to talk about is the man himself and how he has personally caused my family to lose money (but not in the way you might think).
My parents own and operate a small business. My dad has a full time job and my mom works the business full time. They need both sources of income just to stay above water.
Ray Comfort likes to preach near where my parents business is located (it’s a popular tourist location) and there is a very specific light post that he feels has been deeded to him from on high. Most of the time he sets up there a good sized crowd will gather. Most of these people are already part of Comfort’s ministry but occasionally an atheist will step forward and argue with him. The spectacle is good entertainment and the crowd can swell when this happens. (People like screaming when it’s not directed toward them)
The thing is that due to the exact placement of the light post, when the crowd gathers it completely obstructs the entrance to my parents’ business. Sometimes people are even standing inside their place to hear The Ray speak. When this happens any prospective customers are either unable to get to the entrance or find that it’s not worth wading through the crowd.
Here’s where I get really pissed.
Several times my mom and dad have asked Ray’s lieutenants (because one must not speak directly to The Ray) if they would be so kind as to move their meeting spot. How far have my parents asked them to move? Five Fucking Feet. To the next light post down. They’d still have their post to gather round (because apparently God’s word is more effective when it comes from near a post) and they would no longer be blocking the entrance to my parents’ shop. A win-win to any reasonable person.
What would you guess the response was? If you think that The Ray would be willing to understand where another human being is coming from and attempt to find a solution that is beneficial to all parties then, well, you’ve obviously never heard of Ray Comfort. The response that my mom got for asking them to move Five Fucking Feet was (and I quote verbatim): “You are a demonic influence”. My parents are Christians. Much of their merchandise has bible verses displayed very prominently on it. Hell, my parents probably agree with The Ray on many doctrinal issues.
But in this paranoid fuck’s small, self-centered world any, and I mean ANY, challenge to a choice he has made is seen as clear evidence that The Devil is at work.
Well since my parents would never say it, I’m gonna say it. Ray Comfort, in addition to being a petty, unthinking, incurious, quasi-cult figure, you are also unloving, inflexible, unreasonably defensive and an all-around, good-old-fashioned prick. As a travelling Irish poet once wrote to me on the autograph page of a book of his poetry that I was having him sign: “Dear [Ray], Fuck you to the end of the universe you horrible, horrible cunt.”