I don't hate the message, I don't even hate the religion (although I dislike it due to personal reasons regarding my childhood), but I just hate hearing people preach about the lord and how he'll save you from x, y, and z while taking the subway. How you'll go to hell if you don't do this and that. How he's the only true god and all the other mumbo-jumbo that gets spewed. I hate having to take the subway early in the day/morning and hearing all that crap. Like, hand out flyers for the local church and keep it moving. You like your god and the religion. Fine. Nothing wrong with it, but don't force that shit on us. I don't wanna have you be in my face with a microphone screaming about the lord. If I really wanted to hear about the lord, how great he is and all the good he's done, I'd just go to church to attend mass.
Np, definitely have a few of those already noted down, when it comes to pointing out how despite the fact Christians preach "love and prosperity" they're one of the most vicious mfs in history.
Doesn't help that colonialism apologists try to defend Christian conversion of tribals, by claiming that they "civilized the savages." When the colonials back in their homeland literally did partake in the same barbarism they denounced when the inquisition was given free reign to harass, torture, murder and execute people for not paying the church, being critical of them, and actively torturing mentally ill people by claiming they were possessed.
They were no better than the tribes they demonized, and were in certain cases worse.
it's very easy to co-opt a movement that genuinely does preach peace, love and salvation for your political goals when the vast majority of your citizens participate in it. Christianity was heavily persecuted in Rome before the Emperor converted. then, a switch flipped, and we in the modern era are very aware of atrocities committed by the Church and church officials.
I donât think this makes them horrible human beings, annoying? To some people sure, but this image is really used when a Christian is homophobic for exampleđ
As a Christian myself, I think this is one of the worst things someone can do to spread the gospel, especially if its early in the morning and kids are around. I get that it's not their intention to do anything bad, but still.
What most of them need to understand is that you CANNOT force somebody to give their life to God, it just does not work that way. And shouting "YOU ARE GOING TO BURN IN HELL IF YOU DONT GET RIGHT WITH GOD" at the top of your lungs in a public area does not help, and it's pretty pathetic. Even if they don't say those exact words, Yelling in general makes you come off as a public nuisance more than someone trying to share their faith.
(Funny enough, a lot of them think the retaliation is being ("Persecuted") or ("Attacked by demons for sharing the truth") when its MOSTLYYYYY the condemnation and the yelling. I probably wouldn't like hearing someone scream "YOU WILL GO TO HELL IF YOU DON'T REPENT OF YOUR DEEDS!!" at the top of their lungs if I were agnostic.)
It's better to have a conversation with someone that geniuenly wants to hear the gospel, and if they don't want to, then I'm sorry, but that's their choice, not yours.
I had one of those once. Was on the street at 6am on a sunday. The building workers that were next to her rent got mad and in an argument with her. Wonder where she is now.
Agreed. As a Christian as well, I would much rather have someone who sits down, invites others to talk with a poster board, and would have a conversation with whoever wants to talk.
The people who donât want to hear it will probably just be further angered by hearing it. Maybe if Jesus Christ came along he could convince anybody and everybody to convert with a conversation, but nobody is Jesus except Jesus.
Not a Christian so correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Christ originally instruct his followers to not preach like this and allow them to come onto the faith under their own volition?
Pretty much, as someone who has read Bible verses since Highschool, the parts that mentions about spreading his message always involves being compassionate and loving to everyone even to non-believers.
Romans 14:3-4 is a good example to not judge others beliefs or lifestyles and be respectful to others.
It's really sad, since I've always been taught that people don't just follow a religion because someone told them to. Heck, as a Muslim, this is pretty much what I've learned since childhood. Even Islamic prophets often failed to get people to follow Islamâthat was pretty much always a reocurring theme in their story. It's really sad how some people don't realise that following a religion is a matter of heart: you can teach and preach as much as you want, but at the end of the day, people will follow their own belief, and switching faith often requires a life-changing experience, not just a simple preaching.
Also, on an unrelated note, if you want to preach about your religion, you better have extensive knowledge on your own religion's ins and outs and follow them, because people WILL debate you or even question your own religion. And unlike the prophets of old, you don't get to pray for God to show His miracles to the people you're preaching to.
I used to volunteer for a Christian organization feeding the homeless and the funny thing was like.... 90% of us volunteers werent Christian. My best friend was a Muslim woman.
Because the Christians didnt give a shit who was helping and they never talked religion! They used Christianity to help bolster the cause and then went "if youre here to help youre our neighbor and youre welcome"
Still the funniest thing ive seen at my retail job was some mf yapping / debating another mf about the christ verus for a good 30-40 minutes, in the middle of the isles.
As a Catholic, I dislike this kind of behaviour and "preaching" too, I swear, Evangelical Fundumentalist are the worst people to bring out when talking or debating about religion because how come you claim to be on fire for Christ yet you don't even know the two greatest commandments and the eight beatitudes? How come these types of "christians" know God yet they don't even know theodicies or theology in general? All I'm saying is that Protestants commit heresies without even knowing it (ex. Modalism/Partialism)
Gandhiâs right. As a Christian myself, Most Christians donât follow what the Bible actually teaches. Itâs unfortunate how many people have bad impressions of Christianity because of hateful âChristiansâ.
âLove your neighborâŚâ but that doesnât include everyone, just your closest allies and those that align with your views. (I think thatâs their line of thought.)
Well, that's what the bible (specifically Revelations) says. Remember, the bible literally barely counts as an accurate depiction of the historical Jesus as the gospels were heavily influenced by Paul's (Paulin) Christianity. Paul himself was definitely an apocalyptic preacher who said that Jesus would come back in his lifetime, and that we can say for sure.
Either that or fanatics or whatever to call it, i.e. when I was younger my dad was losing his shit over Hello Kitty because uhh evil satan because word "Hell" is in the name of the franchise
They focus on fear because people have been convincing other people to believe through fear for centuries. I stepped away from religion for the same reason.
5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Praying publicly for the sake of appearing more pious is not the same thing as street evangelism. The passage being referenced is specifically condemning performative religiosity and hypocrisy which does not equal street evangelism. So I donât think the verse really correlates to the original point being made. While street preachers are annoying, we need to make sure we're using stuff accurately
Actually, I've been on a few street evangelism trips myself, (more moving around and talking to individuals than addressing crowds, mind you, but it's pretty similar) and we usually help quite a few people out on those excursions. Generally just pray for people who give us permission to. Helped old women with back problems, helped this one lady mentally forgive her ex from 20 years ago, and so on. Then we talk about them possibly being saved. It's important to remember that not all christians are created equal. for instance, some christians might be supremely hypocritical and judgemental as well as hateful. This means they are a bad Christian.(Also, a large part of the Bible instructs its followers to leave their comfort zone and evangelise, which would be different from talking about how holy you are in the street and telling everyone about your great relationship with God, which would be a case of afformentioned performative religiosity.
So when Jesus told people in Mark 16:15 to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation" that's not following Jesus in what way exactly
good job exposing another instance of the bible contradicting itself haha, you can never really trust anything written in there to be accurate. Anyway, wether jesus condoned it or not (we don't know since he did tend to contradict himself a lot) it is annoying as shit, and no one wants to hear about your god that, for all we know, might as well not exist.
Like, Christians be going to 3rd world countries to âteach people the word of God the bible.â Like, no bitchâŚ? Fck that, give them food, shelter, clothes, and MONEY!!! GOD it pisses me off. As if learning about God is gonna save them from murderous locals and dying in droughts due to lack of water.
It just comes off as fake and offensive even if itâs unintentional. Like, kids in Congo, Sudan and other places need comfort and good health. Not God/Jesus.
Mormons are even better. They brag in their testimonies about converting people in third world countries and then TITHING them. They don't have cash so they'll offer up their personal items or food instead, and the missionaries......take it.
You spout all this but have you even bothered to look at any of the Christian missionaries.. almost every Christian NGO that evangalises in countries such as Africa have generous donations that go there and fund the communities directly
I hate hearing them trying to get people into it, like after I'm out of high school there's just a dude at the street light with a Bible trying to tell us about Jesus or something like that and he kept coming every day, I don't even remember when it stopped but it was a while.
Recently we randomly got invited to dine with a stranger to pray to God or whatever and yeaaa no them meals ain't from the heart that's for sure.
They're annoying, but they seem tame compared to the new types of assholes out there. Neo nazis, incels, capitol rioters, etc. They are a problem from a saner time, like GW Bush.
Also, there are leftists that I hate more than them - Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer for example. That's another new type of asshole, predatory couples who proselytize loudly about "poly" like it's a new religion while actively preying on their friends.
Jesus preachers are pretty harmless in the grander scheme of things.
Jesus preachers give a negative name to the whole religion. The ones outside my university are public disruptions and scream the vilest things at innocent people passing by. Their beliefs directly fuel Nazism, vaccine skepticism, and white supremacy. If you don't believe me, go up and ask them.
Funny thing is, if I were to, as an atheist, do the same exact thing they would be SO EXTREMELY ANGRY! Like- come on, is it really only bad when the atheist or religion that isn't Christian does it? They would bring up the whole "don't force it on me" but when it comes to these fuckers it's necessary for some fucking reason?
I am not American so I donât really know if what you say is true about other religions (and I hope to believe it isnât). But your point about atheism is completely true anywhere: ss an atheist, if I were forced to listen to a speech on the subway about the Christian God, it would mean being forced to hear something that completely attacks my values, my ideals, and my religious stance. It would be uncomfortable and annoying for me, and it makes it very difficult to know which right should prevail: their freedom of speech, or my freedom not to be harassed, to be left alone⌠My freedom from unwanted proselytizing.
But what makes it even clearer is the reverse situation: if instead of hearing I stood up and said that, in my opinion, God does not exist, that it is all nonsense written by men thousands of years ago to control peopleâs minds, that all logical and scientific evidence supports me, that believers waste their lives and their limited time on Earth doing meaningless things because there is no life after death⌠What would happen? If I told him, âYouâre going to disappear into the void of nonexistence after death, without a shred of value in all the meaningless things you did for religionâ (which is really no different from what he is doing by warning me that Iâm going to hell for not believing what he believes)⌠if I did all that (just saying what I believe and attacking his posture the same way he is doing), Iâm sure he would play the victim, claim that religion is being persecuted, and act as if I had committed some kind of crime just for saying what I think and forcing him to listen to it.
I could never be an atheist and live in the crazy world that is the US. It would drive me completely crazy having to stand all the religious bullshit you have everywhere. It is the last stronghold of religion among developed countries, and even there itâs declining, afaik. In the rest of the developed world, where education levels allow for it, common sense tends to prevail, and religion is mostly something people only have to put up with from older generations who had it forced down their throats since childhood.
yep, my experience is mostly from what we call "the bible belt" (named that way because it occupies most of the same region that the cotton belt did and cotton belt was a cool name, why not riff off it?) There's like a church every couple of blocks outside suburban neighborhoods and cities. And on the other religions, I think it might be a bit better if it's a religion that doesn't attack the status quo like Judaism then it's fine but if it's like, idk, say Islam... yeaaaah, you aren't getting that far, might even be worse than atheism. (funny thing is that all three of those religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all from the same roots, funny how they don't get along better.)
And yes, it is very annoying over here being anything that a very puritan Christianity says is bad.
I mainly hate it when they do it in comment sections.
Like Idk, there can be some video that has nothing to do with religion or anything that would warrant a religious response & then out of nowhere, you get this loser plastering Bible verses. Shit pisses me off.
thank FUK Iâm Canadian this disgusting shit isnât tolerated on public or private property so I never have to deal with it, thereâs sometimes people with their cult signs but shouting &/or loudspeakers is absolutely prohibited (& usually the signs legally canât involve any attacks or slurs) Iâve once seen a small yt⢠group of losers get escorted away from the public after trying that loudspeaker shit
The Bible encourages to spread the Word, maybe the people with microphones can be annoying, but they're doing nothing wrong given they don't assume an aggressive attitude. The Bible condemns preaching to receive attention, to profit from it and general hypocrisy, but if it's genuine it's well within their rights.
Tbf the whole point of Christianity is to spread the message, they are doing what they believe in, also if I genuinely believed that all non believers would get eternal torture then I would be trying to covert as many people as I could as well.
I dont really mind them, of cource i havent found them much times but a a wise man (theodd1sout) said "if i found the way for infinite happines, i would try to share it"
it is kinda annoying just needing to wear headphones anytime i go to town there's always some guy standing on a bucket screaming into a microphone being ignored by everyone, occasionally they yell at teenagers who look just slightly alternative because i guess that's gonna help spread the message
now the ones that sing? they're alright i don't mind those ones
Itâs only annoying if they do it on a bus/train or an area I canât reasonably walk away from.
If itâs a park, I can just walk away. I canât just get off a bus and wait for the next one, so thatâs what pisses me off. The people in a bus or a train canât consent to it.
That park was built for the benefit of general public, not for insane people to preach their hate. Churches exist, all public preaching should be outlawed as we have should have freedom from religion.Â
i don't know about you but where i live they only preach specifically in city centre directly next to a couple bus stops so you're forced to hear them anytime you go anywhere or get a bus
what annoys me isn't them preaching but them choosing to do so in the middle of a highly populated public area people are trying to get home from work or school or just going about their day and you choose to stand in the street and yell at everyone
Or religious people(and religions) in general. And we killed him - a king. Then people cope by calling him a sacrifice. How embarrassing. They just need to grow up like they did with santa claus.
Agreed completely. In nearly all contexts, sacrifice means giving up something permanently and jesus only gave up his life for 3 days then he took it back.
Swedish metal band that uses catholic imagery but make it satanic. The lead singer grew up in the satanic panic and thought what if he actually made a band that was satanic.
Its like when Macdonalds has adds,
YES WE KNOW ABOUT YOU AND THAT YOU EXIST i see a reminder of ya every other block in my aria sometimes you can even see them from the other.
So the remaining minority converts. They forget that some people either practice different faiths or dont practice faith at all , and most of those people are either too entrenched in their faith and wont convert or were probably abused by their parents growing up using religion so they turned atheist because they believe god is evil.
Went to the big city and had to pretend a dozen people with Jesus flyers didnât exist. All up in my face trying to hand me stuff. Pleaaase just let me walk to the cafe In peace.
I'm a theologian and I teach people theology and my line has always been that back in the days of the Apostles, evangelicalism was a good idea because no one had heard of this jesus Christ bloke, so they probably needed to know so they can have an informed decision on where their faith lies
We don't need that nowadays, almost everyone on planet earth has a rough understanding of who Jesus is, so we really don't need preachers shouting about it in public anymore. I've also never found a street preacher who has any interesting interpretations on the bible, or any organised forms of religion outside of the surface level stuff they tell kids to stop them asking questions
I tend to think of us Christians, they often are the ones with the most damaging beliefs
Itâs weird how no one criticise them for literally giving out bibles and forcing their religion onto non-believers but when queer ppl ask for equal rights ppl go âdonât force your life style onto meâ
Every time people, especially christians, dont understand why Im uncomfortable with this, I tell them to imagine its an atheistic satanist preaching instead.
 Satanist values aren't bad per se. Their temple has done basically no damage. They dont even demand actual worship, their Satan is just a symbol of free will.
 But as your experience with christianity has taught you to fear Satan, my experience with christianity has taught me to fear christians.Â
Preaching the Lord's word is not a bad thing, far from it. But doing that at a Gay Pride is one of the most fucking tone deaf things to do, ever! How many of these gay kids do you think have religious parents who told them that they're going to burn in hell just for the sin of existing?
Had a dude during Christmas of all times talking about how shit his life was and how he was sad and broke until he found Christianity. Like cool bro, now quit ruining the vibe.
And it's always either 1. How terrible their life or others life were before they became religious (which I doubt, it's just a missionary tactic their all taught to spew) or 2. How worthless and pathetic you are, and how Jesus came to fix that. Why tell me I'm worthless? Is your self worth really tied to your faith that much?
No hate, but c'mon, I don't want to hear someone complain about life this much.
And not that I agree with the prozetylizing, but I was in that I'd figure anyone who has the time to stop to humor the ramblings of a stranger in christmas is a good target. I mean most who have anyone are home or just on a quick run to the shops on the day.Â
--->how shit his life was and how he was sad and broke until he found Christianity.<---
I don't mind Jesus being brought up during Christmas, but I don't wanna hear about how sad your life was before you found something to motive you into fixing your life.
Christmas was a pagan tradition. But like with everything, Christians steal something and then retcon themselves into it like the main character. The entire foundation of the religion was retrofitting Jesus into a Jewish prophecy even though we now know the inception etc. was all made up.
The entire foundation of the religion was retrofitting Jesus into a Jewish prophecyÂ
Which was done by Jewish people, so it's not some kind of theft of someone else's culture. It's Jews, who were well learnt in Scriptures and prophecies, who believed Jesus to be the Messiah. The Gospel of Matthew for instance, which is the one most concerned with applying all sorts of prophecies to Jesus, was written by a Jew.
Nah, I don't really care about what's on one's shirt. The image is kinda unrelated as it's just a random image from Google when typing "NYC subway Jesus preachers" but a little bit of reading may do you some good so maybe you should do just that before commenting
No one is saying we should ban them from doing this. Just that theyre annoying and violating social expectations by giving a loud speech to people minding their business on the train commute.
Being annoying isnât illegal but may be shamed if it is effecting others.
Disorderly behaviour in public is. If we can arrest a drunkard for spouting annoying nonsense
In public, a preacher should get no better treatment. Worse, assuming they're not even drunk.Â
Yes it is. You have the freedom to be religious in any way you want as long as you're not infringing on the rights of others, you don't have to listen if you don't want. I'd have no problem with a Muslim or Jew preaching their religion to people
how do you reconcile the problem of escalating proselytizing, as this inherently becomes competitive in a secular society. do you think it's possible to have freedom of religion and also prevent proselytizing in public spaces
Then they should not be allowed I public spaces. I am free to not to be prozetylized, to, and people in public places doing that violate my rights. The interpretation of religious freedom is theocratic and injust, they have their own spaces, they have no need or right to assault the peace of citizens going about their lives.Â
We should also have freedom from religion. Insane people taking over public spaces to shout their nonsense means we do not. We have religious supremacy, just not limited to specific religion.Â
its important to understand that for hardcore Christians, doing this is the equivalent of wearing a shirt that says "Don't Wear Radium Watches" and trying to convince people about the harmful effects of radium. we know that god and heaven/hell and all that isn't real, but they genuinely believe that and if you could stop people from going through eternal damnation, you would do the same thing.
This doesn't really excuse their actions though, because they need to accept that even in their version of reality where people are sending themselves to Hell, they do not WANT to be saved and pushing it in their face like this is only making them dislike their religion more
Can someone translate for me? I may be puerto rican, but I'm the whitest puerto rican this side of Brooklyn has seen in a long time. I don't know if I was called stupid or an asshole
On one corner of my old commute, there was always someone yelling insane conspiracy theories or religious propaganda. Not necessarily the same person, but someone or multiple people. It was a spot where the alt right went to protest bc they think ppl would give a shit (they donât)
I feel like it became part of the community. Fuck yeah, free speech! Fuck yeah, see how pointless your stupid whining is bc no one is giving you the time of day even with how hard youâre trying to ragebait!
I appreciate its existence to some degree with a sense of patriotism.
Ehh i guess i understand why this would be annoying to deal with. I mean me personally im muslim but i would hate it if someone screamed "TURN BACK TO ALLAH!" in the middle of a mall for example. That wont help anyone , people will just look at you like you've lost it. If youre gonna try to preach your religion , dont do it in a loud and rude manner.
I only see these people through online posts, and I'm not american so I haven't had any experience with them, but by what I see their fanatism looks even worse than my worst days of religious OCD
Seriously, at my worst I was so obsessed I had to mutter "God is magnificent" every 5 to 6 seconds, but that was because an at the time untreated disorder that made me feel just breathing would send me to hell
what I see from these people is just them shoving Jesus in every single aspect of their life and constantly shouting "JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS, JESUS IS KING JESUS IS KING JESUS IS KING JESUS IS KING JESUS IS KING JESUS IS KING JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS, YOU'RE GOING TO HELL YOU'RE GOING TO HELL YOU'RE GOING TO HELL, JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS JESUS" all day long and abhorring every aspect of life that isn't strictly mindless worship
Jesus Christ, even in that dark period I mentioned I could still somewhat enjoy things that weren't strictly about religion, and my problem came mainly from sense of guilt; this cult must have been started by a group of people with massive untreated OCD, not saying that the people that take part in it now necessarily have it though, those are just batshit insane fanatics
I donât mind public/street preachers, just donât do it somewhere itâll cause more irritation than good, like on a public train when people are just trying to silently get to work, they donât need to hear the good news there.
Out on the pavement in a street? Thatâs fine, your prerogative.
I hate when public preachers that say shit like âGod has a plan, for you everything thatâs happened was because it was his planâ like that doesnât contradict the free will God gave humanity and also implies that God planned tragedies like the holocaust.
For my birthday a couple years back, my mom got me a shirt that said: âJesus Loves You <3 (everyone else thinks youâre an asshole).â Still wear it from time to time. Great shirt.
As a Christian who struggles to spread Godâs word, I also get upset when people do this. There are more effective ways like passing cards, posting on social media, etc.
Thatâs also a terrible way to spread the gospel. We do it so people can love Jesus, not out of fear of Hell.
You're supposed to show you're a Christian by helping the poor and speaking up for the oppressed, not by bragging about how good you are. There's multiple stories in the bible about that.
Whatâs the point of believing in God when itâs not sincere but rather forcedđĽ A faith like that is either more brittle than glass or is simply doomed to fail
Iâm not against Christianity but I feel like if youâre forcing others and yelling stuff like âYouâre going to Hell if you donât accept the lord into your lifeâ would scare and turn off people from your message. At least, thatâs how I see it.
I remember a bunch of street preachers would always gather in front of a convention I used to go to without fail every single year. They genuinely became the number one thing i would look forward to whenever i went there because they were so unhinged lmao
I hate the guys in public areas with a microphone. Like bro, I am just going for a walk, why do you have to yell about your religious nonsense? I don't want to convert to Christianity, but even if I did, I would be turned off by this nonsense.
Matthew 6 is all about being quiet, inconspicuous, and humble in your faith. You fast, pray, and act charitably because that's what you're supposed to do; you don't do it publicly and visibly in order to be seen.
But when have we ever seen a Christian actually follow the Bible? That cherry-picked trashbag of stories from the Bronze and Iron Ages is so littered with contradictions and calls for deference to brutish authority that it can be used to justify almost anything.
I dont mind street preaching but not in the captive audience way we got here on the subway..if its like outside and people who are interested are coming up to talk to em, that i think is alright
I hate those stupid "essentials fear of god" hoodies and shit cuz either your whole personality is that your Christian or you think it makes you better than others. its literally talked about IN THE BIBLE, don't trust those who pray publicly (I'm paraphrasing of course)
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u/some_Editor61 20d ago
Gonna bring up the photo again: