I shot this annoying street preacher (second photo) on Saturday at Balbo Park in San Diego. I was killing time when I heard the obnoxious rantings of this fellow. His spiel was typical. Jesus is your lord, you will go to hell when you die if you do not accept Him now. You are a sinner. You need salvation, blah, blah, blah.
He used an amplified speaker to get his voice out. He occupied the center of a popular intersection near the Natural History Museum. He paced in front of large annoying signs that proclaimed echoed his message in lettering painted bright red. This guy screamed, “Notice Me!” with every ounce of his being. Yet nobody would look his way. Nobody would even walk near him or his partner. His effort was wasted.
There were two small things that made me feel good. Five kids with classical instruments were off to the side. The only played when the pastor did his preaching. They were subversive, playing load, and playing to disrupt. It was great. I watched as one of the Christians tried to get the young musicians to stop. One kid game the Christian the bird and pointed to their donations bucket. I walked over and slipped a buck in.
The other thing was a comment a man made to his wife. He said, “I want to punch that guy in the nose.”
His wife said, “Honey, that would not be very Christian.”
Husband said, “But he’s giving real Christians a bad name.”
Real Christians, I almost snorted.
