John Bilka is the man with the 10-ft. cross and the -- presumably -- 30-lb marbles. His cross is tagged with bible verses and phrasings of every imaginable human sin. He's a tough guy to miss. But if you don't see him, worry not, you'll hear him. From blocks away you can hear John condemning people and their loved ones to hell unless they repent right away. For anyone with an ounce of intelligence and/or maturity, it's easy to dismiss John as just another religious zealot.
But a clever religious zealot he is. See he's made camp at 12th & P, right outside Lincoln's only downtown movie theater. And in case you were never a teenager, I'll fill you in: turns out the teens like these talking pictures. Go figure. So John is positioned with a cross, some serious pipes and some "literature" about his teachings. And while the average adult can bypass John and continue on to see the latest Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker offering without an ounce of religious guilt, the average teen sees a fight to be picked. And pick they do.John Bilka spends about 90% of his time in baseball manager-umpire-like fights with people 1/4 his age. He seeks them out by preaching from that corner, and he jumps right in the ring with gloves drawn the second one of them makes a comment about him or his Jesus stick. It's actually pretty sad to watch. These kids usually have a fairly good point, but are predictably unable to articulate it, and eventually they walk away as John screams at them. The kids think he's crazy. Johns think he's won. And I go watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix again. I mean, uh, sports. I go watch sports. At a bar. With beers.
Now I could fill up your entire computer screen with all the problems I have with John: overly aggressive religious zealotry, disturbing the peace, hate-mongering, tarnishing the image of downtown Lincoln, etc. I'll leave that to the Lincoln Secular Humanists, who combat John by holding up signs of their own across the street (with things like "God Hates Wet Dreams." Secular Humanists: 1. Crazy Evangelist: 0). My main issue is what he's doing to teens in Lincoln. He attacks, he condescends and he argues points with them from the plane of faith, while they fight back from the plane of realism. I'm not saying one side is right or wrong, but as the adult in a discussion you are responsible for leveling the playing field. John should be providing rational arguments for what he believes, not glaring at them from atop his soapbox and spouting his completely irrelevant claims. He speaks like a Jesus Pull Toy, where if you pull the string affixed to his back, he'll utter one of 6 or so phrases. It doesn't make for the most enlightening discussion (especially when that discussion is with a 14-year old), it doesn't serve the advancement of civilized discourse, it doesn't teach kids anything and, sadly, it almost certainly drives more kids (and people in general) away from God than toward him. And I don't know if you've read the latest approval ratings, but the Big Man's are about as high as Cheney's -- especially among kids.
So then John is serving the exact opposite purpose than what he's saying he intends. Right? He says he's trying to teach people about God to bring them into their faith, but he's actually turning them away. Why? Because it makes him feel better about himself. See, a guy like John doesn't really care if any of these kids come to church. He's doing his part. He's shouldering his Jesus Load (literally. I mean, how much does that cross have to weigh?). "Converting" people is not his concern, he's just covering his own ass so that he can sleep sound at night, believing his life and afterlife to be secure. And he does this all by picking fights with people who don't have the maturity or emotional intelligence to fight back. It's the religious equivalent of Barry Bonds breaking the home run record against a team of 6-year-old girls.
I leave with a quote from John's favorite book. It's a cliche, but I'm gonna go ahead and analyze it for the street preacher.
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." -Matthew 7:12
So according to John's book, when he gets to heaven, ole Peter will be waiting with a 20-ft. cross. And John, equipped with a mere 70 years of earthly knowledge will have all his arguments and justifications interrupted and dwarfed by Peter's millions of years of earthly knowledge. And John will be forced to walk away and duck into some insufferable romantic comedy while Peter screams at him and his friends.
Luckily for John, the Rev. Jerry Falwell will be there with a shoulder to cry on.
cheers.
.charlie
*Photo of John Bilka courtesy of the Daily Nebraskan
7 comments:
A very smart post, Charlie.
amazing. i think my favorite part about seeing ol' crossy (my code name for him since i never knew what it really was until now) was not him yelling, nor the people across the streets, but there's always this group of four or five teenagers sitting on the cement right near him, just watching the fights. they never say anything in the affirmative or negative, just watching like a real life young and the restless.
This guy drives me nuts. I, too, believe that he's driving more people away than bringing people to any sort of faith. He doesn't seem to seek any common ground with anyone.
And let me say, speaking from my 13 years as a believer, that the approach John takes makes no sense to me. None. Jesus didn't yell at people. He yelled at religious zealots and at false teachers and at those who sought to gain by exploiting religion, but he didn't yell at the majority of the people he met. Instead, Jesus loved them.
In my opinion, if John is really concerned about the eternity of those he sees going into the movies, he shouldn't hard sell them on religion, he should buy them popcorn. He should sit through the movie with people, hang out with them, laugh with them... simply love them.
Jesus' message was simple, and he said that himself (Matthew 11:29-30). I don't think John gets that, unfortunately. For that matter, I don't think a lot of mainline churches get that. The Church is failing entire generations by offering conditional love. I want our church doors to be flung wide open to all!
I believe God will change lives; Christians just need to love those living them.
Well said bret.
First off dumbfuck, the signs we hold up are "God hates wet dreams" not love. Oh yeah and second off he is crazy I went to a marilyn manson show in august in lincoln and he said i was going to hell and i told him if thats the case so be it!Its not his right to judge a person one of the ten commandments thou shall not judge. But i mean really he comes up to me and asks if i go to church, i tell him no and he asks what religion i am, I tell him i have a mixtures of religions he asks which ones and i tell him buddhist, hinduism, and rasta. He tells me i am going to hell and i told him that he shouldnt judge, he says oh i am not judging its true and he says how do you know your god exists i say because my gods dont back out from me like christ did!He says that he didnt back out from me and i told him yes he did, christians hate me and i believe anyone who could hate me is fuckin stupid, why hate a person for a religion, orientation, or race? He says he didnt hate people for that, two guys walk by holding hands, he said "fags, read your bible" and i told him people would listen to him if he didnt judge, then he asked if i read bibles for my religion i told him i study it not read a bible, he asked me what makes my religion better, i told him no religion is better. I asked how do know god exists, he said the bible says so, I told him books can be fictional.
My point is we dont pick the fights he does and if he reads this then i have two words for him fuck you.
Alright, Anonymous. Settle down. Sorry for the typo, I've fixed it. And if you read the post, I'm not siding against you, I'm siding with you. I don't like that guy, either.
In all honesty, thanks for commenting. I appreciate your thoughts and I agree with them.
This post wasn't about whose God is right or wrong. It's about not forcing God on someone who isn't willing. That's all.
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