A Further Appeal to Bullhorn Guy
About a month ago, I took my son downtown for art lessons. Having been away from the core for so long, it became an opportune time to revisit the sights and bask in the atmosphere of an area I used to live.
Then it happened.
Mic’d up, speaker-system in tow, were the blaring messages of a preacher.
His minions were handing out flyers along the street while he lamented about sin and the “good news.” On and on he went about our need to hear the message—and that’s when something inside of me snapped.
I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I’ve since figured it out. What it boils down to, and pardon the cadence, is I’m sick of that shit.
I mean, here I am, a Theology major, Religious Studies scholar, high school Religion teacher and someone who has been deeply studying this for over twenty-five years… and while I’m passionate about it, still feel like I know nothing. One thing I can say is the person of Jesus was one of action. That’s why people followed him. In instances where he stopped to preach, people often walked away or became angry with him.
And that’s what set me off.
This preacher, and many like him (including this incident that got my picture in the news), are surrounded by those in need, but choose to yell at random people instead.
Rob Bell has a wonderful reflection called ‘Bullhorn’ which elucidates this frustration beautifully. Basic argument: the bullhorn strategy isn’t working, nor has it ever worked.
In my anger, I approached this person, looked at him and yelled, “God is dead!”
A perplexing (and dare I say ironic) thing for me to yell considering my background, but in that moment, I felt it.
Within a few blocks of us were homeless shelters, soup kitchens and many organizations in need. There is so much work to be done and if all we’ve done with God is reduce a universal creator to demanding we stand on street corners and yell at people while quoting some poorly translated words… then God is dead and we’re responsible for that murder.
The preacher’s response was immediate.
“God isn’t dead—we are! And it’s our sin that did it.”
More yelling.
No dialogue.
No action.
What’s it going to take to bring God back to life?
I don’t know, but I’d like to think I’m working at it.