Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions Why Those Street Preachers Really Make Us Uncomfortable

Why Those Street Preachers Really Make Us Uncomfortable

Growing up, I loved the concept of truth. I loved the idea that such a huge concept was reducible to something I could completely comprehend and grasp. I loved the idea that I could reduce it to the finiteness of my human understanding and—thereby—control it. These are the kinds of things that give us humans comfort. We love knowing that we know, and we love knowing that we know more than the other guy.

Mystery scares us. So we, through whatever means possible, seek to find answers. And when we think we’ve found the answers we’ve been looking for, we work hard to eliminate the existence of things that disrupt those points of view.

Most weekends in downtown Orlando, the main thoroughfare echoes with the shouts of street preachers—their voices amplified by bullhorns and microphones.

They spout the same script on repeat—a series of judgments and condemnations, often directed specifically at passersby. With each glimpse comes a perception followed by the exclamation of a judgement of who they think that person is. If it’s a woman wearing heels and a short dress, out comes the label, “whore.” If it’s two well dressed men walking together, “fornicator.” If it’s a stammering step, “drunk.” In the absence of any perceptible sin, general ones suffice—“liar,” “thief,” “gossip.”

In the past, I’ve engaged these men. Today, I walk by in prayer, “Lord, silence them.” Most people walk by trying to ignore these men. They’re always men. The pace speeds up. The conversation with their friend gets louder. Anything to ignore the shouts.

But in the mind of the truth obsessed, this is interpreted as, “These people are afraid of the truth. The truth we’re speaking makes them uncomfortable in their sin to the point that they can’t even be around it. So they run.”

But truth is not what’s making them run. I would consider myself to be pretty discerning, and I’m certain that’s not what they’re running from. I am able to stand in a place and detect things. It’s helped me to lead well in larger group forums—as a speaker, as a worship leader, as a host, as an actor or writer or director. I sense the climate of the room and consider the factors that are contributing to that climate. If there’s tension, I can literally feel the weight of that tension and discern the source of the tension. When the room is weary, I bear a piece of that weariness and am compelled to end it.

The same is true when I walk by those purveyors of judgement. What they—in their self-proclaimed martyrdom—sense as people running from truth is exactly the opposite. We are running from something that we as humans are not meant to bear. Judgement, unrest, hate and vitriol.

Humans are not made for these things.

In the same way our internal immune system fights against foreign bacteria, the image of God within every human fights against the plague of injustice and hate.

I’ve spoken to those men a few times, and one of their common talking points is this phrase: “We’re the most loving people out here. We’re the only ones wiling to tell the truth.” And in this statement, the error is revealed.

The fruit of the spirit does not include truth, but it does include love, joy, peace, patience and kindness—among others. These attitudes are completely separate from truth. That means words of truth can be spoken while simultaneously being completely void of love, joy, peace, patience and kindness. In fact:

Truth can be spoken with ill intentions and actually be accompanied by destruction.

Lots of people—especially the religious—like to lump things into one of two categories: godly or ungodly. And if one’s perception of their truth is that it is godly, it will always be godly. And if one’s perception of someone else is that they are ungodly, then everything they do will be ungodly. But, in our attempt to simplify grand truths of life and the universe, we miss out on the big picture.

There are godly things than can be done in an ungodly way. 
And there are ungodly things that can be done in a godly way.
Nothing is completely lumped into one of those categories or the other.