Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Not On My Street Corner

Daughter and I were out and about this afternoon when we stopped at a light about a mile from our home.  Right outside my window was a young man with a megaphone and a Bible yelling his head off about the wages of sin. Standing next to him was a boy of about ten holding a sign telling me I was going to hell if I did not repent.

It was good my daughter was with me, otherwise the headlines in tomorrow's paper would no doubt have read, "Old Woman Assault's Street Preacher."

I had the strongest urge to leap out of the car, grab that young man by the collar and scream "You idiot, what do you think you're doing?"

From time to time some misguided soul feels compelled to come to Oregon to save our souls. Oregon is one of the so called "unchurched" states.

These confused souls don't realize how hard it is to market their god in a state like Oregon. I've never understood why hellfire and brimstone preachers think anyone would be interested in the god they serve anyway.

It just might be that the beauty that surrounds us in this state is all the evidence needed to believe in a higher power. A bricks and mortar church where the religious wrangle over the politics of religion doesn't hold a lot of appeal when your other choice is a day spent in the beauty of nature. Beats any church experience I've ever had.

I get a little hostile when someone yells at me that I'm going to hell.  Go home street preacher. I don't want you poisoning the air I breathe.

7 comments:

  1. I haven't had that happen to me personally in years but I sure under the emotions you wrote about. What right does someone have to yell that someone else is going to hell just because they happened to walk by the corner where they're standing and they assume everyone but them is a sinner? Screwballs!

    I see the people from Westboro Baptist Church on TV and think what they are doing to include their kids in their "protests" is a twisted form of child abuse.

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  2. Well said, Linda, especially your fifth and sixth paragraphs. My church is definitely the beauty of nature.

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  3. That is why we live in this wonderful country. People can yell and we can just ignore. Somehow I feel that ten year old will grow up to be a real Hell raiser.

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  4. We have a team of street preachers with a pick up truck mounted loud speaker/amplifier and big signs tell us to repent as we march to the match at Sounders games. I so resent their intrusion! I too have the urge to get physical.
    As I child I was taught to fear going to hell. Now as a mature adult I fixed that by just not believing in heaven or hell. My life is here on earth, earth is my sanctuary, and one day when my life is done, my ashes will return to the earth.

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    1. My feelings exactly. I am so marked by the ugliness of fundamentalist religion I will never recover. Probably because I have no desire to recover. I just want those people to leave me alone.

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  5. Fundamentalists and their ilk are a very mean, judgemental almost evil group of people. They do a great disservice to main stream religions and turn many people away to what otherwise could be a good thing for a community. The few that I have known have been the most hypocritical people. Just take a look at the far right politically in this country. Our educational system, which is pathetic, is partially to blame

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    1. Mary, thanks for your excellent comment. All fundamentalism comes from the same root whether it be Christianity, Islam, politics or any other. Having suffered at the hands Christian fundamentalists I am super sensitive to any kind of fundamentalism. We are definitely seeing a strong fundamentalist influence in politics today and it greatly concerns me.

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