Evangelists on trains.

[birchesgreen]

The god Valenta is a higher deity.

Heretic!

 

[LRV3004]

Maybe not the trains but during my bus driving days there was a regular lady who would preach on board. She always had loads of bags with her so was known as the “bag lady”. Apparently she was homeless but was always well presented and always had a valid ticket. She was always polite to the drivers too, but once she started preaching, the passengers (mainly students), would get annoyed. Some would get off the bus and wait for the next one; the services along that particular route were EXTREMELY frequent anyway!
Her methods proved useful to me personally because if I spotted her waiting to board my bus, I would get out of my cab, cheerfully greet her and help her with her bags. The regular students would realise and get off quickly, thus leaving me with a relatively empty bus and a generally good drive from one end of the route to the other!!!!
I sometimes wonder if she’s still around riding the buses and “doing her thing”!

 

[LYradial]

Having received a phone call from my very elderly disabled aunt begging for help as there were strange people banging on her door I am no longer polite or tolerant

 

[duffield]

Having received a phone call from my very elderly disabled aunt begging for help as there were strange people banging on her door I am no longer polite or tolerant

My prominent "We do not wish to discuss religion" sign at the front door has proved 100% effective for the last 20-odd years

 

[Three-Nine]

Its probably not worth trying to debate individuals engaged in such activities; they sometimes are quite well prepared with comebacks and its usually impossible for the average person to answer every “Ah, but what about…?!” (I’ve seen this happen with a street preacher in my home town).

From anecdotes from the US, where this kind of thing possibly happens more often, the one thing that does seem to throw them for a loop is knowing a particular religious text better than they do (especially the more lurid parts that aren’t as familiar as the more famous passages).

On the whole though, probably best just to alert whatever rail authority is closest to hand and ignore if possible.

 

[75A]

I take the Royal Family line and anyone like this at my door is told to 'Bug..r Off' seems to work well., but then again I'm also 6 foot 6 tall.

 

[edwin_m]

Is this one for Chapter 61, verse 016: "Though shalt see it, say it and be eternally sorted"?

 

[LYradial]

Thinking about it, they do not want to con you out of a few quid for roof repairs or or home insulation, they actually want to take over your brain for the rest of your life which really is far worse in my view

 

[InkyScrolls]

There is a gentleman who frequents one of the lines I drive on. He is always very polite and once informed me most solemnly that it would be to my advantage if I avoided Harrogate for the next six months, as at some point during that time God was going to cause a volcano to rise in Knaresborough, its eruption destroying both towns.

This was five years ago and to the best of my knowledge this cataclysm has yet to come to pass.

 

[bearhugger]

Unlikely to be JWs, they up until recently required members to log a certain amount of hours prostelytising but the sanctioned activities never included ranting at people in public. Knocking on doors and distributing literature in order to lure people in to talking about god is their thing.

I seem to remember reading somewhere (probably on this forum on a different thread) some time back that JW's weren't allowed in stations with their boards & leaflets & that's why you tend to also see them just outside station premises in a lot of places too.

 

[Thirteen]

God Botherers get on my nerves especially the ones with megaphones and speakers.

 

[duffield]

God Botherers get on my nerves especially the ones with megaphones and speakers.

In the street they don't annoy me, because I pass them and they're out of earshot in a minute or two. But I feel very sorry for the shop workers whose shops they've set up just outside, who have no choice but to put up with it full blast for hours on end.

I approve strongly of the local authorities who have banned the use of amplification (for any purpose, not just preaching obviously) in certain areas. You may have the right to preach in public but you shouldn't have the right to use amplification to drive shop workers mad.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

My dad always told them he was an independent bhudist!

Someone once told me an effective deterrent is: "I'm sorry, I'm a druid and I'm a very busy druid..." *SLAM*

 

[RailWonderer]

Is there anything that can be done about this seemingly new phenomenon? Although it would be difficult to enforce, they must be breaking at least one railway bye-law.

I had it 13 years ago on a GE service so it isn't new, an African preacher wouldn't leave the carriage but was polite enough. I don't mind them in the high street preaching as they regularly do, but in a closed carriage it isn't respectful to passengers who, as previously said, might want to sleep or be left alone.

Unlikely to be JWs, they up until recently required members to log a certain amount of hours prostelytising but the sanctioned activities never included ranting at people in public. Knocking on doors and distributing literature in order to lure people in to talking about god is their thing.

They don't always talk. I had a smartly dressed ten year old boy hand me a leaflet at my door and said thank you and may god be with you and I just smiled and waved. I live not far from the UK JWs so I get them twice a year and they're always very polite.

 

[duffield]

Someone once told me an effective deterrent is: "I'm sorry, I'm a druid and I'm a very busy druid..." *SLAM*

In the winter if it's cold I wear a long black (cosy) hooded robe over my clothes around the house, so I'd just open the door and say "Sorry, I bat for the other side!"

Not much use on the train though.

 

[LYradial]

Someone once told me an effective deterrent is: "I'm sorry, I'm a druid and I'm a very busy druid..." *SLAM*

you and I are lost causes I’m afraid but never mind that prophet in sandals and a robe who had no possessions did say that we needed no intermediary other than hisword

 

[D6130]

Does anyone else remember the old guy in a three-quarter length brown sack cloth tunic and sandals who used to travel by train into Bradford from Baildon every morning and back every evening? He carried a cube-shaped wooden box on his front which hung round his neck on a cord. He would spend the day wandering around the city centre in the hope of collecting alms and was normally very quiet and quite harmless. However if someone took the Mickey out of him, he would become very angry and animated.

 

[MoominAndChips]

Several years ago, I was outside Chester station, where everyone was being serenaded/aurally assaulted by a very loud and utterly tone-deaf African bloke, "singing" at the top of his voice. IN DA NAAAAAAME A JEEEEEZASSSS!

Bloke walks up to him, pint in hand, and shouts, "Mate, this Jesus of yours, can he make the blind man see?"

"YES HE CAN!"

"HALLELUJAH! Can he make the lame man walk?"

"YES HE CAN!"

"PRAISE JESUS! Ah! but.... Can he raise the dead?"

"YES HE CAN!"

"Can't make you sing in tune though, can he? PACK IT IN MATE!"

And yes, everyone clapped, and he did indeed pack it in

 

[Krokodil]

Often if you politely try to say you aren’t interested they will tell you how you will be eternally damned to pain and suffering at the hands of the devil.

Classic Blackadder:

The thing about Heaven is that Heaven is for people who like the sorts of things that go on in Heaven. Singing, talking to God, watering pot plants. Hell on the other hand is for the people who like the other sort of things...

I approve strongly of the local authorities who have banned the use of amplification (for any purpose, not just preaching obviously) in certain areas. You may have the right to preach in public but you shouldn't have the right to use amplification to drive shop workers mad.

Now that does sound like Heaven. I don't mind good buskers, but only if they're reliant upon acoustic instruments, with no amplification.

 

[Russel]

I sat in Pret yesterday watching the same preacher set up opposite with his army of elderly disciples handing out pieces of paper. Always amazes me where they get the enthusiasm from as i rarely see anyone accept anything with most wanting him to shut up too.

Very true, there is a couple outside of my local station and they've been there every day for years, I've never seen anyone stop to talk to them but they still keep going!

 

[dk1]

Very true, there is a couple outside of my local station and they've been there every day for years, I've never seen anyone stop to talk to them but they still keep going!

Crazy isn’t it? If they were gaining financially I’d understand it.

 

[Pete_uk]

61016

See it, say it, sort it

 

[dk1]

61016

See it, say it, sort it

Last bit should be ‘sorted’

 

[Titfield]

You could always ask the evangelist are we going to Sodom and Gomorrah?

If they say "Yes" then you could reply "You are on the wrong train mate. This ones going to ....... You had better get off at the next stop".

 

[Bertie the bus]

If you really want these evangelists to shut up you could always act the way the cretins in South London did:

Wimbledon station commuters flee train in 'Bible' panic

People climbed on to tracks after being "panicked" by a man reading verses aloud from the holy book.

www.bbc.co.uk

I think they would get the message if you fled in terror!

 

[InkyScrolls]

Does anyone else remember the old guy in a three-quarter length brown sack cloth tunic and sandals who used to travel by train into Bradford from Baildon every morning and back every evening? He carried a cube-shaped wooden box on his front which hung round his neck on a cord. He would spend the day wandering around the city centre in the hope of collecting alms and was normally very quiet and quite harmless. However if someone took the Mickey out of him, he would become very angry and animated.

He still does! I've not seem him as often recently but he's still about.

 

[GusB]

I had a couple of JWs turn up on my doorstep last week. I was grumpy anyway because I'd not long been awake and hadn't yet consumed the required amount of coffee in order to feel human. I was straight to the point: "which organisation do you represent?" When they said "Jehovah's Witnesses", I simply said "bye", closed the door and they moved on.

When I was in my teens I was friends with a couple of guys whose father was the local Free Church minister. Their mother would happily invite all visiting "preachers" in for tea and biscuits; the longer she could keep them there, the less time they had to go and bother anyone else!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

It must take serious dedication to spread the word at 0630 coming from Morden on a freezing cold winter morning. Was once engaged by a personanable youg lady who asked me if I had found the Lord , clutching a well bookmarked Bible.

I was polite , but the other passengers were far from - bad enough being on a dusty Northern line train at that time of the morning , without having to have your torpor disturbed. Captive audience certainly , but ones clients may not be receptive.

 

[duffield]

It must take serious dedication to spread the word at 0630 coming from Morden on a freezing cold winter morning. Was once engaged by a personanable youg lady who asked me if I had found the Lord , clutching a well bookmarked Bible.

I was polite , but the other passengers were far from - bad enough being on a dusty Northern line train at that time of the morning , without having to have your torpor disturbed. Captive audience certainly , but ones clients may not be receptive.

This is the thing, some of these people seem to have absolutely no awareness that some of their actions are more likely to turn people away from religion than towards it - so in their terms they are actually "doing the work of the devil"!

A cynic might say they are more concerned about racking up "brownie points" for their own salvation than they are about actually "saving the souls" of others, otherwise why would they adopt methods which it's often fairly clear are positively alienating people?

 

[Mag_seven]

The standard response from me when I encounter any of these people is "ask no questions, tell no lies".