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.

^^ That's the trouble with religion isn't it. They believe that they alone are right, they alone know "the truth", and therefore they have the right to stand there and harass others about it. Wrt abortion campaigns, both Christianity and Islam have male domination at their heart anyway. There's never been one shred of evidence for their view of god, much less the morality they claim he exhibits (which organised religions do change once in a century if their survival requires it anyway), but we're told that their faith must be respected over the norms of public secularism.

I am a bit alarmed by the sudden resurgence of religion in public life in general, so I'm finding street preachers more annoying than usual lately. Anti-abortion campaigners would seriously annoy me.

I'm surprised no-one has called out Philodox. The reason the Jews don't proselytize is that we don't think everyone else is damned. There would be no point in them converting to Judaism, because they can be judged favourably as non-Jews.

(that was originally following AwaywiththePixies at 8:11!)

He was not nice Alice. Every possibility of mental illness.

On a crowded train a few years ago, a chap standing up had got into a conversation about Buddhism and how it had changed his life and so on. The conversation gradually became more one-sided and louder to the point it was a wide-eyed loud lecture that the whole carriage could hear. He was virtually imploring his fellow passengers to become Buddhists and stop drinking (maybe that was his problem to begin with) and that there was no other way - "you're wrong", he would reply to everything. The relief when his station stop came up was immense. Somebody muttered he didn't catch the train to be stuck with a life coach. Any life coach with that moron's approach would quickly have no clients. Excruciating .

Buddhists are definitely the most 'sure' at the moment.

Personally though, i am a bit jealous. I love the 'you will all burn in hell, YOU are a sinner YOU are unclean' type of preaching, it's way more exciting than the passive quiet simpering head tilt version of Christianity. And don't get me started on overhead projection screens in ancient buildings...

'i didn't get where i am today without not interacting with the public tanfield

@Applebite I posted the link to sinner winner man's asbo up thread

He obvs liked to harass concert goers as I got shouted at on both Oxford Street and outside Earls Court whilst queueing for a concert (I think it was something as innocuous as Kylie FFS) on the same day

scary. That was a CJ phrase (Reginald Perrin) wasn't it ?

He interacted to begin with then just alienated people with his boorish arrogance. Having a captive audience probably gave him a boost.

There are a lot of Brethren in this area and every Saturday they (men only) used to stand on a corner outside the bank and shout the gospel. I never saw them engage anyone in conversation. People just seemed to walk by. Presumably they fulfilled whatever they thought they had to do.I think if anyone had tried to attend their (mainly closed) meetings as a result they wouldn't have been able to cope.
But it reminds me of when I was young and people would say 'I may not agree with what you say, but I defend your right to say it.'