A friend of mine writes about an appalling situation in Grand Rapids last weekend. She was at this event, a neighborhood “gay day,” but left before this group of street preachers showed up to preach to everyone. And what did they preach, citing the Bible as justification? That they were going to rape the women there and that the women would enjoy it. Don’t watch this video unless you are prepared to be appalled:
The police came and did nothing at all about this. These same guys preach regularly on the streets in downtown Grand Rapids, apparently.
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d cwilson
August 8, 2012 at 1:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Not watching that video (I’m sure it’s NSF), but does he also realize that, according to the babble, he has marry her then?
Gregory in Seattle
August 8, 2012 at 1:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Apparently, threats to commit violent sexual assault are free speech, as long as it is wrapped up in Scripture. I’m sure there are a lot of MRAs who will make use of this approach.
DrewN
August 8, 2012 at 1:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I have a bible with the nasty bits highlighted as an easy reference for what a terrible, immoral, bizarre, etc. book it is.
He seems to have the same verses highlighted, but for completely different reasons. Color coded too!
Paul W., OM
August 8, 2012 at 1:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
For the record, Isaiah 13 is a prophecy about the fate of Babylon, and it doesn’t say it’s okay to rape uppity or loose women in general.
It’s saying that Babylon will be destroyed militarily, with lots of genocide and mass rape.
It’s talking about what we’d call war crimes and crimes against humanity–ethnic cleansing and mass murder and rape against “enemy peoples”–which is a different thing from individuals raping individuals within a society.
Not that it’s any better, but the guy’s not just evil; he’s a complete moron to pick that chapter to “justify” raping women.
There’s way better verses for that.
catwhisperer
August 8, 2012 at 2:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
DrewN – Gah! I’m just working on the very same thing! I’m feeling a bit disappointed now that it’s not an original thought. Also, it’s pretty tedious.
theschwa
August 8, 2012 at 2:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
At first I thought this was going to be a story about Daniel Tosh moving to street preaching.
Captain Mike
August 8, 2012 at 2:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“The police came and did nothing at all about this.”
I don’t need to watch the video to be appalled. That line did it for me.
I’m all for free speech, but I was always under the impression that direct threats of violence were not classified as protected speech.
Joey Maloney
August 8, 2012 at 2:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Does Michigan have one of those “Stand Your Ground” laws? ‘Cause if a guy is screaming at you that he’s about to sexually assault and kill you, that could certainly put you in fear for your life and if you happened to have your (duly permitted and legal) 2nd Amendment remedy easily to hand, well, I’m just sayin’.
baal
August 8, 2012 at 2:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Friends don’t let friends talk violence. Joey, don’t make the joke.
The better course is to rile up the masses to call the police station to remind them that threats are actionable and may be to share the vid widely and ask religious leaders to speak against it.
lordofsporks
August 8, 2012 at 2:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
There’s no reasoning with troglodytes like them. That the police refused to take action is simply astonishing. Maybe if she’d been threatened by Muslims, not Christians, they’d be a little more willing.
Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant)
August 8, 2012 at 2:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
2 Timothy 2:24
Or is that one of the optional parts?
Bronze Dog
August 8, 2012 at 2:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s a sad irony that this street preacher is also the sort of person who accuses people like us of lacking sexual ethics.
frrolfe
August 8, 2012 at 2:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
the brits are right. you guys dont get irony. ire on ee! get real and get out, or waddle out, of the basementz. nice to get excited about wingnutz but the navel gazing has to be productive. try gazing at someone else’s navel.
moralnihilist
August 8, 2012 at 2:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
http://www.facebook.com/nowgr/posts/10151100291018905
The police didn’t do anything because they claim not to have heard any threats when the protesters were there. Also, no one has stepped forward as a victim. The issue is now under investigation, however.
rogiriverstone
August 8, 2012 at 2:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Atheist SODs (sack of dicks) threaten atheist women with rape, all the time. When an ignorant xian does it, it’s scandalous; when a “critically thinking” atheist does it, it’s business as usual.
moralnihilist
August 8, 2012 at 2:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This story has been picked up by the local media: http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/grand_rapids/Quoting-the-Bible-or-threatening-gays
busterggi
August 8, 2012 at 2:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As long as the godbotherer sends his victim’s father a check for 30 shekels its biblically okey-dokey. After all women are only chattel to be covetted like goods & donkies.
Fred Salvador - The Public Sucks; Fuck Hope
August 8, 2012 at 3:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
These “street preachers” are racists AND misogynists – their beliefs aren’t about moral superiority, they’re about giving the believer an excuse to say and do reprehensible things because he is a reprehensible person.
ryanmannik
August 8, 2012 at 3:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“rogiriverstone says:
August 8, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Atheist SODs (sack of dicks) threaten atheist women with rape, all the time. When an ignorant xian does it, it’s scandalous; when a “critically thinking” atheist does it, it’s business as usual.”
Really dude? No misogyny related scandals in atheism?
d cwilson
August 8, 2012 at 3:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nothing ironic about that whatsoever. The street preacher who around on the Penn State campus in the early 90s would routinely call women whores and men fornicators and would shout at everyone that they deserved to be executed.
As far as I can, it’s just SOP for street preachers.
d cwilson
August 8, 2012 at 3:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Really? Is this your first time reading an atheist blog? Have you never seen the howls of outrage that the Amazing Atheist brought on himself for threatening someone with rape over on reddit?
YankeeCynic
August 8, 2012 at 3:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Excuse me? Have you even been paying attention to the discussions that have been going on in the community about sexual harassment and creating a safe space for women? I’m guessing not, because somebody who thinks that it’s clever to refer to atheists as “SODs” likely doesn’t have the intellectual or ethical fortitude to actually VERIFY whatever slanderous garbage they chose to vomit forth.
Additionally, even if that WAS true how exactly does it excuse the kind of vile behavior shown on the video? Please, enlighten me (though I’m not holding my breath).
raven
August 8, 2012 at 3:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Xians, making atheists since 33 CE.
Xians like the wannabe rapists in Grand Rapids make more atheists in a day than Dawkins, Myers, and Dennett do in a year.
rogiriverstone says: A bunch of dumb lies.
Rogi., nice try but you really need to work on your xian Monster act. Try threatening to kill people and drool when you say it. With some help from a trainer you will be making atheists by the dozens in no time.
Paul W., OM
August 8, 2012 at 3:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I may not have heard all the relevant bits correctly, or interpreted them correctly, but I didn’t take the preacher to be uttering a literal threat against the individuals present.
It seemed to me that he was talking about what’s going to happen at some indefinite time in the future, and using metonymy to say that Come the Race Wars (or something like that), people like him will rape people like them, and that he for one will enjoy it. And implicitly, of course, saying that he would be justified in raping people like them, and feel no remorse.
(He says “the Lord says that what we gonna do on that day” or something close to that.)
That does suggest that he’d be happy to rape those individuals then and there, and that’s scary as shit stuff to say—the guy’s either a dangerous psycho or posturing as one—put I didn’t interpret it as a literal threat.
Maybe it could be taken literally as one, or as a metonymic generalization veiling a real threat that he’s too smart to say literally, but it’s not clear to me that it’s the kind of specific threatening utterance cops can do much of anything about.
It’s certainly hateful and scary, and ambiguous enough to be very scary—it’s certainly plausible that this guy is actually a rapist, and plausible that he’d target those particular uppity women sometime when there’s no camera and no witnesses around. I really wouldn’t want to be one of those women encountering that guy in a dark alley, or just around the neighborhood. He may not be a rapist, and may not have been literally threatening them, but he sure likes to talk a lot like a self-satisfied rapist.
BTW, the women he was talking to reportedly did not tell the police he’d threatened them; I suspect that they interpreted him roughly as I do, not as being specifically threatening. The cops saw the video later, and reportedly took it upon themselves to launch an investigation.
(Or I suppose it could be that they unofficially requested the police check the guy out, but wanted deniability don’t want him coming after them for siccing the cops on him.)
Even though I didn’t take the guy to utter a specific actual threat, I do think the police are right to investigate the guy. If nothing else, it should serve as a warning that any actual fucking with people is likely to land him in court with that video as evidence of his hateful character.
Who Knows?
August 8, 2012 at 3:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This appears to be just a couple of people who choose to use religion to justify their personal wants and desires. Sure, their misogyny is pretty offensive but it is backed up pretty well in the Good Book.
Is that it’s only misogyny why this isn’t being promoted like the video of the gays harassing that other street preacher?
fastlane
August 8, 2012 at 3:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m beginning to suspect frrolfe might be one of mabus’ socks. I assume Ed has checked that?
As for rogiriverstone@15: Citation really fucking needed.
eric
August 8, 2012 at 3:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
OT, but holy crap, FtB just added a bunch more bloggers to the network. I really resent you making my on-line time even less productive than before. :)
More seriously, congrats on all of them…but especially xkcd.
Doug Little
August 8, 2012 at 4:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What fucking rock have you been under?
Makoto
August 8, 2012 at 4:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Stupid question, I’m sure, but a link would be nice – has anyone published the “bible – proving how it’s wrong” edition? Something like a Cliff’s Notes, just showing off the stuff from the bible that we can all pretty much agree is wrong these days? The lines about how to treat your slave, how to marry someone you raped, how you shouldn’t eat shellfish, etc, etc…
Who Cares
August 8, 2012 at 4:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@Makoto(#29):
try http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/
starrkline
August 8, 2012 at 4:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Really not surprising in Grand Rapids. It was a nicer place to live than Detroit overall, but it is unfortunately inundated with conservative Christians.
John Hinkle
August 8, 2012 at 4:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t want to feed troll/idiots, but now I’ve said that I’m going to anyway.
Ireland on us? Well sure! I love Guinness, especially if they’re paying!
grumpyoldfart
August 8, 2012 at 5:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ Paul W #24
You say:
Nope. At the end of the video he makes it clear that he will be the one doing the raping:
He’s not talking about “some indefinite time in the future.” He’s clearly stating that he will be the rapist when he says, “I’m goin’ inside o’ you.”
annieoakley
August 8, 2012 at 7:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If any fool preaching that came near me I would tuck his bible, you can guess where, with help from my 45/90.
Crudely Wrott
August 8, 2012 at 11:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A perfect example of what can be easily classified as a “punk ass”. To wit:
An ignorant, quasi-literate, self appointed authoritarian twelve year old in a dangerously adult (or near adult) body. Shitheads like this need to be publicly pilloried. Their eager younger acolytes should be supplied with overripe produce with which to sharpen their throwing skills in between pick up basketball games.
Perhaps the combined examples and metaphors would lessen the chance that fewer punk asses are engendered in the future.
Forgive me if I dream of a fair and rational world in which people actually learned from their mistakes by virtue of the censure of their peers . . .
Shplane
August 9, 2012 at 12:02 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Right, because no one at all has ever done something reprehensible because someone or something they viewed as an authority told them to do so. Religion doesn’t produce rapists, rapists just gain +2 STR in the presence of holy books!
koren
August 9, 2012 at 12:52 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Gee, I guess they can’t wait for Jesus to come down help them rape people.
left0ver1under
August 9, 2012 at 1:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Joey Maloney (#8):
Well, there’s always pepper spray or henna dyes that mark the perpetrator.
The dye would actually be better because the christian cretin would have to spend the next three weeks with a green face. Everyone would know who he was and what he did, and henna sprays are non-toxic.
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
August 9, 2012 at 2:01 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
They aren’t, except when and where there’s the best, most overwhelming reason for them to be.
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
August 9, 2012 at 2:02 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Damn it. “not to be.”
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
August 9, 2012 at 2:14 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is a non-difference distinction invented by shitsacks like the one depicted to excuse and protect shitsacks like the one depicted.
frrolfe
August 9, 2012 at 4:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFrMU8wmQ9k
sorry that is this by a canadian from canadistan. when you all wake up and stop spouting crap (i’m looking at you,mr heath) maybe you could do something useful like getting a functional democratic party going.
schmeer
August 9, 2012 at 5:44 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
frrolfe,
Why aren’t you being a productive member of society? You’re commenting on a blog instead of working. Get a job deadbeat.
Rip Steakface
August 9, 2012 at 5:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I vote that frrolfe is a sockpuppet of ol’ Mabus.
democommie
August 9, 2012 at 6:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is the only frrolfe I can find:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Rolfe
Seems a good fit.
frrolfe
August 9, 2012 at 7:06 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
well done demo!!!!!!! lotz of internetz to you. gee, you guyz is getting the smartz faster than i wud have thunk. maybe when youse have time youse can create a working democracy!
democommie
August 9, 2012 at 8:23 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
ffffuckintrollffrolfe:
Are you the simplestminded fuckwit in Canada? I think it’s a race betwixt you and mabus (unless, of course, you’re simply one of his several paranoid delusional sockpuppets)–it’s damned hard to tell who’s winning.
Why don’t you try collecting your drool in a cup (well, maybe a 55Gal/208L drum) and we’ll measure it at the end of the day.
Lamefuck will be a lamefuck.
left0ver1under
August 9, 2012 at 8:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Doug Little (#28):
Which rock? The one that covers the rabbit hole to his fantasy land.
One thing is unsurprising, one of the big differences between atheists and theists. The religious will say things like, “He’s not a TRUE christian/muslim/whatever!” when one of theirs does something unethical or illegal. Meanwhile, atheists in this thread are not in denial about the sexual harassment that has happened at conventions. It’s annoying and embarrassing, but no one’s denying it took place.
Moon Jaguar
August 9, 2012 at 9:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hey street preachers: the Hebrew war god who “inspired” Isiah to write that garbage sanctions slavery. Maybe yo asses gonna get some shit too.
Crazy world. Somebody oughta sell tickets.
borax
August 9, 2012 at 9:22 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
To Leftoveriunder. Spot on. When an atheist says some stupid shit, other atheists call them out, thus leading to the “deep divide in the atheist community”. I want to see Pat Roberson say, “there is no line in the bible telling women that it’s their job to keep their pussies clean to prepare for rape”.
As a side note, I wish the video showed the faces of these hateful fuckers so the world could see them and avoid them at all cost.
baal
August 9, 2012 at 10:04 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
rogiriverstone @ August 8, 2012 at 2:50 pm says:
Rogiriverstone, I seen from your other posts that you’re active in the trans* community and yet you use ‘dick’ as an insult? Please consider ‘sack of shit’ in the future. As to your substantive point, others have posted on it so I don’t feel the need to do so.
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
August 9, 2012 at 1:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Have they posted something somewhere that isn’t just cringibly uninformed purity trolling and blatant attention-seeking?
If not, why would you believe they’re actually active in any particular community?
baal
August 9, 2012 at 3:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hi Azkyroth, Short answers are 1) I think so 2) the few posts I’ve read suggest that to me. Are you comfortable with your characterization of Rogiriverstone?
I take Rogiriverstone as newish to FTB. Xe has posted on various FTB blogs and those posts imply Xe is supportive of or member of the trans* community (I’m reconsidering now that you’re disagreeing; i also googled with a FTB site: limit, it was minimally helpful). I do invite you to point out specific instances that you feel add clarity one way or the other. Other folks in the trans* community rarely offend me.
I’m not globally judging Rogi on post merit nor other wise supporting Rogi. There is no shortage of others addressing the specific problems above. I’m really tired of seeing ‘dick’ and ‘penis’ used as an insult and so limited my comment to that.
This is now both ot and derail, for that I apologize.
baal
August 10, 2012 at 3:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hrm, looks like Azkyroth in characterizing Rogiriverstone (cf phar. @8_10_12). I apologies for using ‘trans*’ and rogi in the same posting. I should have read rogi’s posts more carefully and not assume posting on ZJ & other fora was a sign of community identity.
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