To feel angry about religious shouty people in city centre

[AliceKlar]

I can't understand why Christian/Evangelist 'preachers' (They are always in normal clothes so no idea if they are actually preachers or just random believers) are given permission by the council to stand on a busy street in the city centre and yell about being saved and letting Jesus into our lives etc.

I have nothing against anyone believing in whatever they choose, or even Jehovah's Witnesses going door to door, because you can say no and they go away. In the city centre though there's no escape, especially for the people working inside the shops nearby which often have open door policies. It really makes me annoyed for some reason. Does anyone else find this unreasonable? If people want to hear about Jesus and the Christian religion there are churches that will be only too pleased to help.

I don't mind them but they make no sense whatsoever.

If I worked nearby I'd probably be annoyed listening to it after a while.

God's go-go dancers 😂

He sounds grim tanfield. Although the present selection are very loud and very insistent,I do think they'd actually like to save souls rather than be venomous gits for the sake of it. That St Johns Centre guy sounds rather malign!

There used to be one on Oxford Street who would without fail break off from his diatribe to point at me and tell me I was definitely going to hell whenever I walked past. Much much worse though were the occasional ones who would decide to preach to the top floor of the bus on the way to work. With a deck of commuters refusing to react or make eye contact with them.

Revenanant Being trapped on a bus with one sounds hellish, literally.

Just leaving this here.

Type preacher vs bagpiper into YouTube and there are a collection of bagpipers drowning out hate preachers.

Gingernaut That is excellent!!!!

Revenant there was one of my bus the other week! The driver stopped and told her to 'stop preaching or get aht!'

She muttered about it being a free country and he said he wasn't paid enough and it was his bus anyway so she got off.

Lots of people clapped.

If it's the one who drones on for hours to the tune of "if you're happy and you know it" Maudlinmaud then she likes to spend time in a Co Antrim town at the end of the motorway. (Sorry to be vague ). The only way to effectively get rid of her is a good dump of rain, but don't think I haven't considered a hose.

I am a Christian and to be honest the shouty preachers just make me cringe with embarrassment!
As for shops they should have their doors closed anyway.
I am really worried though to see how many aethiests/secular posters on this thread want religion banned from any outside spaces and only allowed in churches and people's homes. There seem to be lots of posters saying religious people shouldn't be allowed to talk about their faith outside of church or their own home. I think freedom of speech should apply to everyone and not just aethiests.

Campfire I don't think it's against freedom of speech to require those preaching about religion to have a table with information on that people can choose to come up to if they want to find out more. Not have it forced upon them by people yelling through megaphones etc.

Yeah I've had some Christian bellend with a microphone single me out for uninvited abuse. Not a fan.

I'm amazed at how many people want to silence free speech. I'm assuming it's just others you want to silence while still keeping your own rights ?

And do you also want to silence political views that you disagree with, or is it just religion?

Yes of course abuse is always wrong and so is breach of the peace.

But as for noise - towns and cities are full of noise from traffic, music, people shouting and laughing - should we ban all these too?

In many countries people are imprisoned and even killed for taking about their religious beliefs . I think we should treasure the freedoms we have in the UK.

Totally agree with you Kr1stina.

Meh the animal rights campaigners when I visited Peterborough were if anything worse. One took serious exception to my gran's refusal to sign their (rambling pointless) petition and followed her (and us) with a hailer speaker thing. Shouting "murderer" at my 80+ gran. She was as barking as any street preacher (for info we walked round to where we'd seen the pcso and let her intercept the crazy woman).

Decades ago I worked in a shop that was a few metres away from a spot where a preacher (and he was an actual clergyman and not just an unwell person) screamed for hours everyday about how the unbelievers would burn in hell. Lot's of graphic stuff about skin melting off bodies, screams of agony, spikes piercing through your flesh blah blah blah. Apart from the general unpleasantness and hatefulness and misogyny and homophobia and racism, he was also very clearly getting off on thinking about the horrors he described. It was fucking vile, and I had to listen to it for at least 500 hours while just trying to do my job.

These people don't just bother those walking by for a few seconds, they harass people who live and work very close by and who can't just walk away.

Freedom of speech shouldn't mean screaming your hateful opinions at strangers. Set up a stall or stand there handing out flyers. Talk at a normal volume and let interested people come to you. That's fine. But screaming or using a megaphone for hours on end should be considered a disruption of the peace, whether you're talking about God or telling people they deserve eternal agony for wearing socks with sandals.

I'm amazed at how many people want to silence free speech. I'm assuming it's just others you want to silence while still keeping your own rights ?

The thing with free speech. It is essentially your right to an opinion. A christian can stand on speakers corner and say they believe in God and can warn everyone they face eternal damnation if they don't repent of their sins and follow Jesus. Equally, an Atheist can stand on the same speakers corner and tell you all to ignore him / her and that you'll be just fine anyway because we're all a long time dead. Just enjoy now.

I'm all for free speech, but where do you draw the line? In Nottingham. There's been a group of christians doing a 40 day stint outside the treatment centre because that's where women go to have abortions. They stand there with their placards and preaching and have already been moved back from where they were because they were distressing the patients.

Just because you're entitled to free speech doesn't mean the rest of us are obliged to offer you a platform.

I mean the word you* in the generic sense by the way not aimed at anyone specific here.

I'm all for free speech, but where do you draw the line?

You draw the line where it becomes hate speech or involves threatening, abusive or distressing language or constitutes harassment of others.

So those abortion campaigners can be moved because they're harassing others. The preacher you mentioned on grounds of hate speech could be arrested, ASBO'd or moved on.

The thing about free speech is that it can be inconvenient or even annoying when the speaker doesn't share your views.

I'm just willing to put up with the annoyance and irritation to live in a democracy.

If you silence the animal rights protester or religious preacher today, it will be MN and a free press tomorrow .

Incidentally, I would class hate speech as actually calling for another to be harmed, not criticising a lifestyle etc.

That's the thing BillSykesDog. Despite people warning it'd cause upset they were allowed to 'protest' anyway. They could only move them back once they'd started to distress the patients. They're still there on the ring road bit for when people pass by them. These people genuinely believe that it is their right and they have free speech to do this.

Sorry if it's been mentioned before, but does anyone from London remember the Oxford Circus dude with a megaphone? "are you a winner or are you a sinner????" he would bellow. All. Day.

I also saw him outside Wembley doing it at midnight post-gig. My friend said she'd seen him there before after a manic street preachers gig, yelling, "Jesus was the original Manic Street Preacher".

He got an ASBO in the end and had Tom move on, I believe.

I once witnessed him get tangled up with a big gang of dancing shouting clapping orange wearing barefoot Hare Krishnas. Not a fight, just physically engulfed by their dancing along. That was amusing.

The shopping area is a CHURCH of COMMERCIAL CONTROL, and YOU ARE uncomfortable BECAUSE YOU ARE A SLAVE to ITS INFLUENCE.