I commute via ferry between the North Bay and the San Francisco financial district on a regular basis. Often, I am greeted at either end by hellfire and damnation preachers swinging booklets with an image of Jesus and screaming at departing passengers to “believe on The Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!” Aside from the flecks of spittle I occasionally garner from these encounters, it’s usually left behind in a block or two of distance.
Of late, the vitriol spewing from a particular damnation monger (aligned with a church group here named Jesus Christ Government) has ramped up. He came at me late last night as I exited the pier and the following conversation took place:
PREACHERMAN (bellowing): You must believe to be saved! (swings bible wildly)
VLAD (wearily): Listen… it’s a fairy tale.
The preacherman is stunned. No-one ever calls him on this, everyone just walks placidly by with an occasional encouraging shout of “Hallelujah!” or “Speak!” from regular church-goers. But after a moment of silence, as I walk away, he finds his voice.
PREACHERMAN (yelling, indignant and wrathful): The Lord rebukes you!
Watching the United States teeter on the brink of theocracy, a condition which has emboldened piss-ant voices of god like the fellow above, I feel compelled by duty to speak up. It’s wrong to walk on by and shrug my shoulders. Complacency allowed these ideas to take hold and weave their fingers into our government. Continued complacency will see a roll back to a society of barefoot women and scarlet letters. A stupid idea is still a stupid idea, even if we call it religion.
So here’s an open suggestion to preachermen everywhere, both small and great. This is not about atheism versus agnosticism versus belief, it’s about honesty and walking the walk.
I realize you have a positive goal in mind when you scream dogma at the top of your lungs about morality or belief, when you attempt to scare people into submission by invoking the wrath of god and when you try to remake a free nation into a fundamentalist Christian hierarchy. I know you’re in service to what you yourself think is a positive end.
However, all you accomplish by behaving in this holier-than-thou fashion is to annoy the masses. We’re not interested in something we can’t touch/taste/see/hear/smell. You’re not doing the Lord’s work when you behave like this. As most of us either shut you out or will soon start swinging back, you’re actually undoing it.
If you really want to work for The Big Man and bring some of the rest of us along with you, try doing the work. Instead of quoting verse and screaming at me to believe, go feed some hungry children. Shelter some homeless folks. Volunteer to care for the elderly. Clean up random trash in your neighborhood. Plant some trees. Donate time to an adult education center or your local Humane Society.
This is what Christ would do: care for those in need.
Actions make things happen, and simply believing is not an action. If you take honest action, you’ll give the rest of us something we can touch/taste/see/hear/smell to believe in.
