Labour council tries to ban Christian street preachers

28 comments

1. Any street preacher of any faith should be banned, people have a right to go about their day without having to put up with religious stuff like this. There are people that do this seemingly on the regular in Stratford, I’m glad I don’t work within earshot of them.

2. If it was up to me talking to other people in public would be banned altogether

   No I don’t want to be God-bothered,
   No I don’t want to donate to your charity,
   No I don’t have any change,
   No I don’t know the way to the station

   ._.

3. I see more Muslim preachers than Christian, but I don’t care either way. I can just walk past them. Pizza places insistently handing out fliers have done more to interfere with me going about my business. The real issue is further down.

   >“An injunction is being sought because the council has received a high number of complaints relating to aggressive behaviour and the use of loud amplification for preaching, which has caused nuisance and distress to people and businesses within Farnborough and Aldershot town centres.

   If there is aggressive behaviour involved then that’s the problem, not preaching. I’ve never experienced that that but if it’s happening then some action is justified.

4. About fucking time.

   And the none preachers but the board with the “answers”

5. One man saw me sitting alone in Burger King and came and sat beside me to talk about the bible, just didn’t care about my boundaries. 

6. It is my belief that people should be free to find Religion: not have Religion *Hunt* for them.

   The absurd case could be made that street preachers disadvantage religions and denominations that aren’t as extroverted. – A nice little argument for religious equality that either ends up with 12 different preachers all jabbering on the same spot, or the entire preacher thing gone and not missed!

7. The mods just blocked criticism of Islam in a previous post. Why did you do this? It’s entirely legal in the UK?

8. It would be nice to be able to go into town and not have someone scream at me about how my existence is an abomination in the eyes of god.

9. If I had my way, ALL street preaching, regardless of religion, would be banned.
   If you venture into the centre of Manchester (UK) , you are bombarded with a cacophany of religious messages down the main shopping street.

   Keep religion in places of worship not on the street.

10. Whilst they’ve never topped The Holy Bible as an album for me I still wouldn’t ban them.

11. I’d be fine with it if was for all religions, but we know how the two tier system works don’t we.

12. I’m all for it if it’s all religion but saying just the Christian ones seems like two tier again. Ban them all. You have places of worship to do this. Let people come to your religion on their own don’t annoy them or drag them into it. I say this as a Catholic.

13. There’s a difference between Muslim preachers and Christian ones. A Christian will preach at you at the most inconvenient time, like in the middle of a bus journey. He’ll stand at the front just shouting or use a microphone in the middle of the street. Muslim preachers just hand you leaflets, and that’s it. So, thank you, Labour.

14. This happened to me years ago but I worked in a shop in the main street of my town. Every Saturday the fuckers would turn up just after opening time and spend the entire day preaching and singing hymns not far from my shop. It Drove me insane having to listen to this.  The council allowed it and did nothing about it.  That is causing a nuisance in my opinion it also isn’t like I could walk away from their constant wailing and gnashing of teeth.  The worst part is one of them was my bloody uncle. There were other shop workers who loathed it as well but nothing could be done because ‘god’ 

15. “Aw, ace a street preacher. I’m really glad they’re here” said literally no one ever.
    Can you imagine if every fast food joint had someone outside shouting about how good their burgers are?

16. I live in the area. Those street preachers are predators that target the young, the old, the sick and vulnerable. They are a cult. They give out their propaganda leaflets and it’s always some variation of “You will all burn in the fires of hell. Jesus loves you”. You can find those ‘leaflets’ littered all over the floor after they give them out. They have 3 stands in Aldershot town centre. Sometimes they even bring a mobile bluetooth PA system and shout about it. Despite having no permit to do so.

    Stopping to talk to them is always a mistake, they hold you hostage by talking absolute nonsense for which there is no adequate response. Trust me there is no sane conversation to be had with these people.

    They won’t tell you who they vote for. They won’t tell you what they do. What they stand for. They won’t talk to you about their members or what they do in the community. They can’t even recall things from the bible with any accuracy. They are absolutely repulsive with no redeeming qualities. They are what I would describe as British christo-fascists.

17. We used to have Speaker’s Corner. May be time to bring it back

18. Im fine with it as long as ALL preacher from all religion get banned from preaching in the streets. In reality I see way more muslim preachers, who often get really aggressive with me once I tell them I left Islam years ago.

    So I agree with banning all religious preachers.

19. Can’t take a stroll in town in Manchester without seeing some knob yelling about pointless drivel. Be that vaccines, jehova, or space aliens.

    Obviously peaceful protest should still be legal and protected though. Dealing with wishy washy drivel is just a side effect of that i suppose

20. I find it can be difficult to tolerate preachers.

    People standing with leaflets, OK, I can walk past. People speaking, depends on volume. Then when it’s loud it depends on what they are saying. 9 times out of 10 I just laugh at it. But I’ve been there when a guy was in my town blaming all the world’s problems on gay people, and as an lgbt+ person that set me off.

    I think humans deserve to go about their business in town without someone preaching to everyone that people like yourself are a disease and are to blame for their economic problems and only through “god” can it be ended. These guys were so hardline they were slagging off the COE for becoming lgbt+ inclusive.

    Either way, that’s when i support hate speech laws.

21. good street preaching should be banned full stop its harassment

22. Probably NOT because they are christian street preachers, but because of what they do. If they are overly pushy on people.

23. They are fascist hypocrites if they are picking on one religion. Ban them all. 

24. What about blasting muslim garbage over loud speakers? Thats encouraged in the islamic shit hole state of England

25. Theres a guy with a microphone and a speaker that likes to dwell between twickenham station and the stadium on event days, that i dont think anyone appreciates

26. Any Christian Street preacher is a blasphemer!

    It is literally against the Bible to preach publicly as it lessens their faith to that of cults and whores.

27. Just ban the use of sound amplifiers in public, problem solved.

    No need to restrict free speech and ban people from saying what they think in public. Fundamentally, people should be allowed to stand on a box in public and express their beliefs.

    If they’re harassing people then charge them with harassment, if they’re threatening people then charge the with threatening people etc.

28. Not criminals but certainly unwanted.

    The loud PA systems are an abomination when used for this purpose.

    The only reason they feel like they have to make so much noise is because they know nobody is listening.

Comments are closed.