Public Preachers In Your Town

[OakTree500]

Hey all,

So where I live, its a small town in the north, and in general its very quiet. Many of the local shops, like many smaller places in the UK, are closed and our very remaining places are mostly charity shops/coffee shops.

The point of my post is, I've noticed more and more that we're getting preachers in the town itself, almost every day at this point. It wasn't unusual to see "somebody" once in a blue moon, but it seems to be really ramping up here. In the cities there is always somebody with a speaker/microphone and/or a sign or something ranting away. If anything some of the nearer cities are at least more "equal" and have multiple different religions represented in that respect.

Here, where I live, we have people simply stood about with a stand full of flyers who don't speak unless you approach them [I think they are JW's], but more recently the 'crazy' type have been turning up - singing songs/displaying propaganda [one literally had a fake newspaper which headline said something about an Atheist deathbed converting] and otherwise generally being a pain in the ass. More recently we had a group of A-holes turning up during our local Pride Festival, which was a real low point for me personally.

Personally I tend to try and ignore it/them as best I can, but it's getting harder to do so.

Do you have anything like this where you live? How do you interact/deal with it?

[Dexta]

The Satanic Temple (they're atheists really) commissioned and put up a giant Baphomet statue next to a ten commandments "statue" in protest at it being allowed on public ground.
Fight fire with fire perhaps, or should that be fight hellfire with reason and compassion...if you've got the time and inclination.

https://thesatanictemple.com/

[brewerb]

We probably still have them but I don't get to the places that they usually set up in all that much. Around here the most notable thing is billboards and crap on their cars. The John 3:16 jokers can often be found in the stands at our sporting events.

[OakTree500]

We probably still have them but I don't get to the places that they usually set up in all that much. Around here the most notable thing is billboards and crap on their cars. The John 3:16 jokers can often be found in the stands at our sporting events.

I saw somebody around here with a ton of Jesus signs on their car - which for this area is "unusual" to say the least. I think this place is just going mad or something.

[Inkubus]

As always ridicule is the best counter.

Wear one of these, or similar:



And hand out these:

[SYZ]

Nope, none in our little town. Neither earlier nor now.

[OakTree500]

As always ridicule is the best counter.

Wear one of these, or similar:

An Eye Patch?

[Inkubus]

Henderson presented the argument that "global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800s". Link

[Thumpalumpacus]

We don't have soap-box preachers here, but yes, the billboards are a thing.

[pattylt]

Denver sees more of these than my town. When I have seen one, I shake my, point and laugh. It’s all the energy I have for religitards.

[Minimalist]

As always ridicule is the best counter.

Wear one of these, or similar:



And hand out these:

Ramen!

[mordant]

The only place in my life I ever encountered actual street preachers was in downtown Minneapolis, summer of 1974. They used to hector people getting off the bus to get to work.

My wife had a shirttail relative who was a fairly well-known street preacher (mostly haunting college campuses). There's even a pilot for a never-produced reality show about him somewhere out on the Internet. His daughters all wore those mid-calf length old-timey dresses.

My wife only met him at her grandmother's funeral. Yes he informed the guests they were all going to hell. Some years later he visited her grandfather in the nursing home with the same message. After that, grandpa left a message with the front desk that he never wanted to see the guy again.

[Rhythmcs]

The closest I've ever been to a street preacher was a guy who played a street preacher in the parking lot for our youth camp so we could see the violence inherent in the system.

Now....all that aside....


If you don't come forward today, the lord is through withya...the devils gotya....I aint shitinya!

[Speedfreak]

I ignore them unless they get up in my face, at that point I politely tell them that I'm not interested.
Doesn't happen all that often around these parts.

[SYZ]

I well remember the raving religious nutters at
Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park London... I wonder
if that's still going on with the same verve and
insane vigour?

[Inkubus]

I think they were laughed off the park.

[Cavebear]

I don't see many street-preachers.  When I worked in Washington DC there were some shouting and talking to god.  But it is trickier these days.  With all those people wearing earbuds, you can't tell who is talking to god or just asking a spouse to get pizza for dinner.

I used to get JW knocking on my door.  I never felt bothered by that.  The more of their time I could waste was worth the effort.

One time, I had a JW with his daughter there (10-12?) and he was (I assume) showing her the business.  So that seemed like some fun.  Wearing my atheist had, I sat on the front steps with him.  He explained god was real and tried to give me some evidence.  So I asked him to prove the Jesus actually existed.  He said "well, it's in the bible.  

I explained that it was circular reasoning.  He was baffled by the concept.  So I explained to his daughter that "circular reasoning" was conclusion reached at the end by assuming the original unproven statement was true.  The Dad went kind of ape-shit about "faith" but the daughter seemed interested.

In any case, no religious door-knockers have visited since.  A couple of years now. Gee, and I have my atheist hat hanging from a hook next to the front door waiting for the next idiot...

[pattylt]

JWs no longer go door to door in the US. It wasn’t productive and too many angry encounters. I think they now just set up booths to lure in suckers for conversations. All their failed prophesies about the end days have tarnished them as well. I think they’re another sect that’s decreasing in size here.

[SYZ]

According to our last federal census, there are
only 64,000 Seventh-day Adventists in Australia,
84,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, 57,000 Mormons,
but 9,887,000 Atheists. Yay!

The current population of Australia is 27,477,300
with 21,357,100 being adults 18+ age.

[OakTree500]

Was out this week in Manchester and there were plenty of people preaching on the street, including a very loud man with a microphone + speaker, asking to debate an Atheist about the creation of the universe or something.

It's not something I had the time for, nor the will to do either, as its such as dumbass thing to try and debate about let alone in that kind of setting with a person who just thinks "god did it" to all questions they have.