I’m not referring to Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Christadelphians or any other of those groups who stand there with their placards and literature, peacefully keeping themselves to themselves. I’m talking about those who forcibly subject others to their beliefs by standing there preaching with microphones, whether in the shopping precinct, at gay events or outside abortion clinics. I’ve seen videos on YouTube of someone having a go at it locally, and it seems to have the effect of annoying passersby while attracting attention to him at the same time.
Moderating:
Since the OP is soliciting opinions and no debate has been framed, this is moved to IMHO.
I lump them in with the others who “pray on the street corners so they may be seen by men.” I’ll consider them closet sinners.
Performative and likely pathological histrionics.
Stranger
We have a couple of those where we live (Chester UK). They are sort of a feature, like inadvertent performance art… nobody has to listen to them, and it would be a bit churlish to challenge them: free speech is allowed, after all.
Doesn’t really bother me unless they start coming up and being aggressive. They hand out their leaflets, we say thanks, accept them and move on. I guess everyone needs a hobby, that’s theirs?
Picketing abortion clinics etc though: that’s different and can become aggressive…
Since he’s recorded his activities on many an occasion no one can be blamed for passing it around online. In this one you can see the level of appreciation he gets for attempting to turn people straight:
Yep. Why would I take advice on Christianity from people who were specifically denounced by Christ himself?
This f’n guy and his Leviticus…
Leviticus 19:28 , “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves.”
(He is heavily tattooed)
My opinion is that everyone has a right to free public speech, and that as long as they are not impinging on others’ rights (there is no right to be unirritated in public), there are far worse things going on in this world right now.
Much of which is driven by religious fanaticism.
Sure, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t being an a**hole.
When I used to live near a beach there was a guy who evangelized on the weekends when it was busy. He had a PA system, played music and preached at as loud a volume as the police would allow, non-stop for hours. That’s just being a jerk. Even if he had been saying sensible, kind things I agreed with, he was being a jerk.
One time somebody beat him up. While I don’t condone that action, I do understand it.
You can see here how obstinate this fellow is when asked to keep the volume down:
My opinion is that they don’t understand human psychology very well. People aren’t very receptive to getting lectured at, especially when they aren’t even the sole recipient of the lecture. The work of changing hearts and minds is done through relationships.
Yes, it’s annoying, and depending on what they are going on about, potentially infuriating.
I only ever once encountered a street evangelist, but if I ever do again I will just point and laugh.
ETA: there’s a fundamentalist Muslim org in Germany that frequently proselytizes on the streets and hands out free Qurans. The campaign is called and labelled “Lies!”, that’s the imperative in German for “Read!”. Given that most Germans know English, you can guess to which ridicule this always leads…
I would say out of all his videos this is the one in which he infuriates passersby the most.
Why are half of all your posts ever on this board links to some random guy’s Youtube videos? Do you have some connection to this guy?
That’s it right there. In my undergrad there was a guy who had a voice like a drill sergeant on steroids. Every day he’d stand in the middle of the quad booming out fire and brimstone. Everyone ignored him.
No, I don’t, apart from the fact that his father was in my year at school, and found religion during adulthood, that’s all. The father actually had his own Facebook page but it was used only as a forum to advertise his beliefs, nothing more, nothing less. When CoVid struck he did a great deal of online protesting against the churches being closed down, and he actually did die from CoVid in the year before last, which makes me wonder if he was secretly attending in-person religious meetings when he wasn’t supposed to.
I once did street preaching for Cthulhu (Honest, I really did). Out of hundreds who passed by, 2 people got the joke. Everybody else thought I was a genuine lunatic. If I had it to do over again, I would have done street preaching for Sauron. I would have killed.
Anyone has the right to speak freely in public, but they do not have the right to be heard. No-one has the right to assault my eardrums, either by shouting in my ear or by using amplifying equipment such that I have no option but to hear them. In my opinion, many noise ordinances are too lenient about noise in general.
There used to be a guy who would walk around in the neighborhood where I worked with a very loud portable amplifier, and you could not hear the person next to you talking when he was within a block. There were a lot of complaints, the police did get involved once or twice, but he kept at it for a few months, and then disappeared.
I suspect the subject matter, religion, gets more leniency than other kinds of harangues or music might do at the same volume. That pisses me off.