There are a handful of street preachers around on our campus. Some are just stoners standing on boxes babbling about Jesus, others are older guys, more typical, telling us we are all going to hell and handing out literature, often somewhat aggressively. There was one who was habitually blocking a major building entrance way with his preaching, and I believe the cops took him away.There’s a piece by a student columnist for The Oracle (more irony), a college newspaper of the University of South Florida:
According to Wednesday’s Oracle, a 22-year-old junior sociology major claims that on Oct. 12 she was harassed by a street preacher, John M. Kranert, who often voices his faith on the Cooper Hall lawn. The student, who declined to release her name, has since filed an assault complaint against Kranert. On the day of the incident, she said Kranert charged at her, cocked his fist and stopped mere inches from her face before calling her a whore. According to the student, she was fully covered and minding her own business.She said Kranert demeaned her on prior occasions by saying, “I can tell you’ve been with every man on campus by the way you stand,” and asking if she got her name from Black Entertainment Television because of her caramel complexion. He didn’t know her name, nor did he ask, suggesting the question was purely racist at its roots, according to the Oracle.
Columnist Amy Mariani opines:
If an atheist witnessed any displays of “Christianity” portrayed by the campus evangelists, he or she would be pushed even further away from believing in a god.
One can only hope…[source]
Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:
or Paperback
*Please note:
Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
Easy all-purpose (Christian) fundamentalist-repellant I’ve been trying for a few days now:1. Ask them if they believe in Jesus (yes, of course)2. Ask them if they believe that the bible is the inerrant word of God (not all Christians would answer “yes”, but the loudmouthed ones who are on street corners and the loudmouthed ones in churches who push gays, sexual sin, and “evilution” to the top of their agenda usually do)3. Ask them to follow you to a local store where you will buy a bottle of bleach and a cup.4. Ask them to prove their faith by drinking the bleach and not dying (Mark 16:15-19)5. When they refuse, accuse them of being hypocrits, not being “true Christians”, and basically dismiss anything they have to say thereafter. (you yourself can “act fundie” which is just about the funnest part of this whole ordeal: “I see you are more interested in what is in the collection plate than what is in God’s Holy Word”)oralt 5. Call an ambulance (optional).We need to find equally stupid passages in the OT and Koran. Any suggestions?
or:1. Raise knee of choice sharply into ranter’s testicles.No point 2 necessary.
It seems to me that perhaps the most satisfactory way to deal with these street preachers is to create a new collegiate competitive sport — have students compete to see which student group can have the most devastating effect on the preachers by giving them a live “Mystery Science Theater” treatment. Highest points go to MSTs that drive preachers permanently from campus.