I’ll make this clear straight from the beginning…I’m not here to offend anyone!

I was reading Luke’s post about a leaflet given to a child trick or treating warning them of the evils of Halloween and it’s fuelled my own rant about some Saturday preachers who can only be called Bible Bashers as they would only give all other Christians a bad name.

I’ll risk giving my pride a bashing and think back to my early teenage years when on a Saturday myself and about 300 other teenagers would spend the day hanging out outside City Hall in Belfast city centre; a strange assortment of emos, goths, punks, skaters and metalers (I’ll not bore you with admitting which one I was :-p ). Anywho, being a Saturday and being in the centre we would share our space with Saturday preachers. I remember being an excitable 13 year old and having fun chats with guys in togas and sandals giving out bright orange cross necklaces and other friendly young people coming up and just having a chat with you. But then came the bible bashers – I remember walking around town and some man shouted at me with a microphone that I was going to hell – how rude! i was absolutely mortified…and more importantly, offended – especially as I was a Christian! He saw a teenager so obviously I must have been an atheist, alcoholic, druggie, slut and why not throw in murderer for good measure!

Some organisations were amazing with outreaching to teenagers – we had an event called Manafest in the Ulster Hall for Christians (not even segregation between Protestants and Catholics!) which was christiany and did have a message to share, but also brought together nearly 1000 young people together under one roof and had live bands and guest speakers – there was nothing condemning about it in the slightest and I had many friends who weren’t religious at all who went for the fun of the whole evening and the good music and I guess, the hope is, if they become curious or interested then they’re surrounded by friendly people they can chat to and get information without being laughed at or misinformed.

Now fast forward six years and we find me spending money I shouldn’t be in Reading. A cold wintery day and walking along the street with my friend wrapped up on jumpers, coats, hats, scarves and gloves and yet, despite this outwardly conservative appearance (quite unlike my usual facebook pictures – pleasure don’t judge me!) I must have been dripping in sin for once again I was selected by a Bible Basher to be humiliated in front of everyone who could hear him on his microphone.

 

“You there! You think you’ve met a nice boy and you think he loves you but he’ll leave you now he’s got what he wants from you! Oh you’ll cry but he’ll cheat on you because he can’t respect you. He’s only after what he can get from you!”

 

…..what!?!?!

 

I didn’t know whether to be more offended that this man was calling me a slut or that he was assuming that all girls are mindless idiots who can’t make decisions for themselves and only do what men tell them to or pressure them into doing. This makes me so angry! Does he really expect that I’m going to just turn round, run over to him and burst out crying:

 

“You’re so right! I’m being used – my body is no longer my temple! Please help me rid myself of sin and become an innocent virgin again!”

 

Ptsch!

 

No, “ptsch” isn’t the right word. Bollocks. Much better.