Seen on separate days just off Syntagama Square in Athens, Greece.
For the non-religious – your author included – these religious zealots are way too active/visible on the streets of most major US cities. I first experienced religious activism flying from Chicago to New York City in the 1970s to visit my father and witnessed Hare Krishnas proselytizing inside airports: singing, dancing, handing out flyers, accosting anyone passing by. Different approaches were tried, used, discarded to remove them, such as designating airport as private and not public grounds, with some success though legal battles continued well into the 21st century. Obviously, airport security has changed substantially after 9/11 with greatly reduced landside areas in which to protest (if anyone wished to try) and airports have since become sterile and gentrified odes to capitalism.
As an undergraduate at Iowa, the religious buskers preached outside in front of the Old Capital, usually greeted with derision by students with time to actually enjoy the show. And it was a show, often following a fire-and-brimestone script insisting that all students are sinners – usually claiming we all were engaged in premarital sex – and insisting we repent now or be prepared to go to hell. Great entertainment but lacking in educational value, to say the least.
Perhaps I was naive to think that these religious street buskers were unique to the United States, but I truthfully don’t remember seeing it when traveling internationally. And I would notice: just recently I saw the ubiquitous Free Bible Course stand just opposite one promoting Judaism at Minnehaha Falls. I see them regularly, am utterly disgusted by the attempts to make religious life a de facto part of society, the totally lack of acceptance of other religions. But until now, thought it was only in the US.
How depressing.
