Being AskedTo Not Block A Sidewalk Is Persecution-ComicCon

[mirele]

You know, if you're nice to the SD cops, they'll do this (sorry about the heeeeuge picture):

A couple of my goofy friends who were at ComicCon to pass out informational literature letting people know about a certain space alien cult paid a cop $5 to "bust" them. At first I was horrified, but then I realized I'd been trolled.

(more here: http://forums.whyweprotest.net/threads/ ... ted.91403/ )

[jesusfreak]

Wow the imaginary conflict and tension with the guy who stopped and listened.

And the irony that one of the his tattoos says "Psalms". :o

[notsocommon]

Wow the imaginary conflict and tension with the guy who stopped and listened.

It is some desperate need to be 'in danger' while 'presenting the gospel' to the 'ebbil demonic heathens!' I mean, dude was wearing frealky contacts! He LOKED at him!! And the police did nothing!

[Childless]

Wow. These people need to get a life. He was persecuting them because he stopped to listen?

Maybe if they tried leaving their house more than once a year, they wouldn't be so wound up.

[notsocommon]

I just watched the vid....and other than a gross violation of personal space, this dude did nothing wrong at all! He stood there, listened, walked away and when other guy said something to him, he was FRIENDLY. He said "God bless you" and "love you, man"

I didn't see any over the glasses menacing looks, either.

[Aurora]

onthebox.us/2011/07/comic-con-trolley-preaching.html

They just posted a short video of their group annoying people on a trolley. From the passenger's faces, it appears that they turned more people off from god then brought them to salvation. Apparently, this was taken at Comic Con.

Check out the comments on that blog post. It sounds like one person reported them to the transit authority!

[Eclipse]

I don't understand what is so wrong with ComicCon that it would be described as a "demonic hornet's nest???" I never been, but I go to a couple sci fi conventions in Ontario. Is it the costumes? I'm confused. I think the answer would be so warped I can't wrap my head around it.

My con weekends are usually the best weekends of the year. is that it, fun? And some much for Matthew 7 about judging others.

[JesusFightClub]

I'm totally loving the descriptions of persecution. They get...stared at. Looked at. Heckled...silently and without facial expressions or gestures. But totally heckled. And it freaks them out.

MY CAT IS HECKLING AND PERSECUTING ME AS WE SPEAK!

Hahahahaha! My two neighbours have seven and five cats respectively. Imagine the terrible persecution they must face.

[lilwriter85]

I don't understand what is so wrong with ComicCon that it would be described as a "demonic hornet's nest???" I never been, but I go to a couple sci fi conventions in Ontario. Is it the costumes? I'm confused. I think the answer would be so warped I can't wrap my head around it.

My con weekends are usually the best weekends of the year. is that it, fun? And some much for Matthew 7 about judging others.

I think there are different reasons why fundies would try to preach or protest near an event like ComicCon. Fundies sometimes will pick up apart anything to say that it is aganist God. I remember several years ago Stan Lee said in an interview that he used to get a lot of hate mail over the years from different Christian organizations about different things they felt were ungodly in his work. He said some people used to think the Bruce Banner character was gay. I lived near a two generation fundie lite family. They lived down the road from me and the grandparents had one house on the property and one of their daughters and her family lived in another house. I became friends with one of her sons. This was back in 90's when Power Rangers was popular. During the summers he used to come over to my house to watch the show and he used to watch at home when his parents were busy doing something. He said that his family didn't want him watching Power Rangers because it had "witchcraft references".

Fundies probably dislike how some people dress for these events. They probably think the costumes are sinful. I think the main reason the WBC protested last year was simply to get attention because Comic Con in recent years is covered more by the mass media. LW might have been inspired by them but I think they have issues with people being big fans of certain things that aren't religious.

[Eclipse]

I think there are different reasons why fundies would try to preach or protest near an event like ComicCon. Fundies sometimes will pick up apart anything to say that it is aganist God. I remember several years ago Stan Lee said in an interview that he used to get a lot of hate mail over the years from different Christian organizations about different things they felt were ungodly in his work. He said some people used to think the Bruce Banner character was gay. I lived near a two generation fundie lite family. They lived down the road from me and the grandparents had one house on the property and one of their daughters and her family lived in another house. I became friends with one of her sons. This was back in 90's when Power Rangers was popular. During the summers he used to come over to my house to watch the show and he used to watch at home when his parents were busy doing something. He said that his family didn't want him watching Power Rangers because it had "witchcraft references".

Fundies probably dislike how some people dress for these events. They probably think the costumes are sinful. I think the main reason the WBC protested last year was simply to get attention because Comic Con in recent years is covered more by the mass media. LW might have been inspired by them but I think they have issues with people being big fans of certain things that aren't religious.

Thank you Lilwriter85. So like Mama Maxwell and her Pepsi, its about the idolatry, besides the costumes. Maybe someone should dress up with Gothard or Doug Phillips, or their patriarchal figure, because that seems to be OK.

[jenny_islander]

It reminds me of the tourists from Minnesota who walked into a waterfront bar and were accosted by a woman who offered to trade sex for cocaine. I can only suppose that they looked well heeled and had the deer-in-the-headlights expression that is commonly associated with cocaine use. In any case, they wrote a letter to our local paper after they made it safely home. It was interesting. I had no idea that my entire town was a grimy, broken down slum full of stumbling drunks and hopeless fallen women who badly needed to say the Magic Jesus Prayer, which would cause the sickly pink energy efficient streetlights to instantly become a healthy halogen white. Or something.

The world is bigger and more complex than you thought it was. Oh dear. :roll:

[Maggie Mae]

It reminds me of a current "debate" in the anchorage daily news right now. Essentially, the mayor declared war ( not really, but he's trying to attack the problem with force insteead of a well thought out plan eliminating the cause of poverty and homelessness) on the homeless. After clearining out the homeless camps, seizing people's possessions and destroying them, one of the homeless men decided to camp out in front of city hall. So the mayor, in all of his wisdom, decided to propose a new law banning anyone from resting on the sidewalk. Its not a busy downtown. It's a very spread out town with no real population center and not a lot of foot traffic, beyond some small office buildings downtown and tourists. Tourists tend to be over 60, and in groups attached to cruise ships and tour busses, so it's not as though one person sitting on a sidewalk calls for legislation. Over reaction? Yes. Hypocritical? Yes. One of the first things this mayor did was veto an pedi ace that would allow for equal treatment of people who identify as lgbt. The reason he gave for the veto was that it was unnecessary and why legislate a problem when there isn't one.

[ChickeyMonkey]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I live here and can't afford to go to Comic-Con. I'd love to just for the experience, as I'm not a sci-fi person or fantasy person, but the Psych cast was there last year (and this year?) and I'd have loved to see them.

On the news yesterday they said it was already sold-out for 2012. Does that mean special badges are sold-out, or all the tickets? Cuz if that's the deal, that totally sucks.

Also, how much does it cost to get a badge/entry into the Con? Does it depend on which day you're going? Do you have to pay extra if you go to the "seminars" (for lack of a better word right now)?

I think it would be comedy/internet GOLD if the WBC went to a Juggalo "concert" (gathering?). One can only dream.

[Alecto]

I think it would be comedy/internet GOLD if the WBC went to a Juggalo "concert" (gathering?). One can only dream.

You could televise that on PPV and possibly pay off a chunk of the national debt.

[defrauding]

I love that the Jews and Muslims in his photos aren't actually praying on the sidewalk.

[TheJewAmongUs]

On the news yesterday they said it was already sold-out for 2012. Does that mean special badges are sold-out, or all the tickets? Cuz if that's the deal, that totally sucks.

Also, how much does it cost to get a badge/entry into the Con? Does it depend on which day you're going? Do you have to pay extra if you go to the "seminars" (for lack of a better word right now)?

All of the panels at the convention center are included in the badge price, but they are not guaranteed. For the popular ones you may wait several hours and if you get in have to sit through other panels. There is off-site stuff, which is not officially put on by Comic-Con that you may or may not need a badge for, and they may charge for that.

The cost for next year is $150 for a 4-day badge ($175 if you get "Preview Night") or $40 per day for Thurs - Sat and $23 for Sunday. It is actually cheaper to get the 4 days individually, but there is a little hassle picking up the individually badge holders each day. Also, this is the first year preview night has cost more.

Last year preview night (on Wednesday, only available on 4-day badges) sold out at the convention. Then the online ticket system crashed 2-3 times when the badges went on sale.

This year they allotted a certain number of passes per day for pre-sales, and they said half the tickets were held for online sales in the fall.

I waited for 3 1/2 hours to get a badge for next year and was not able to get preview night, that portion of the allotment was gone for that day. By comparison, last year, when the price for this year was $105 with or without preview night I waited about 45 seconds in line to pre-register...

[nutella addict]

Nah, Eagles/Cowboys gets way uglier. There's not enough money in existence on this earth to convince me to go near the stadiums in a Cowboys jersey on game day.

Oh definitely! It's even ugly where I live (mostly Eagles fans but not Philly or a Philly suburb), and most of us have the good sense to hide out at home on those game days. I only meant that of the Philly/Pittsburgh sports rivalry, I think it's worst with football, although probably closely followed by hockey.

[formergothardite]

...

I was being no more judgmental than they were. He is not going to like my reply to him either because I told him that this video was the perfect example of why words without love meant nothing. Now I want to see these people out in the streets preaching and go and stare at them. Of course, I'm a white, short, plump female, so they probably wouldn't treat me like they did this guy. Notice in the prayer circle post that when that guy came up and grabbed his hand and then put his hand on his shoulder they reacted completely different. This has nothing to do with not wanting strangers to touch them and everything to do with judging people on how they look.

[Patsy]

Was that you? You weren't being judgmental at all. I was confounded by the response.

[formergothardite]

Yeah, that was me. My one line about why he treated the guy with sarcasm was based on assumption, but nothing else was. Everything else was based on what he wrote or what was in the video. And really, what is the point of street preaching if you ignore the people who stop to listen? Wouldn't it be better to stop to preaching and start interacting?

[notsocommon]

The bald guy looked a bit hostile to the 'heckler.' You see him saying something to the guy, he was sarcastic to him, then....pushes him away?

I am still just baffled as to how they saw this guy as a threat. To the point that a commenter gave self defense tips.

[Patsy]

The bald guy looked like a wanker in the photo with a police officer. (Note I said 'looked like', not 'was', and didn't call for action based on my impression.)

[MonkeyMomma]

onthebox.us/2011/07/comic-con-trolley-preaching.html

They just posted a short video of their group annoying people on a trolley. From the passenger's faces, it appears that they turned more people off from god then brought them to salvation. Apparently, this was taken at Comic Con.

Glad they also took the time to bastardize one of my favorite St. Francis of Assisi quotes at the end. Nice.

[keeperrox]

I don't understand what is so wrong with ComicCon that it would be described as a "demonic hornet's nest???" I never been, but I go to a couple sci fi conventions in Ontario. Is it the costumes? I'm confused. I think the answer would be so warped I can't wrap my head around it.

My con weekends are usually the best weekends of the year. is that it, fun? And some much for Matthew 7 about judging others.

I think it also boils down to one thing; IT'S FOCUS IS NOT THE BIBLE.

If these people were dressing in costumes of Bible characters (I think some costumes of Adam and Eve could get pretty defrauding), listening to panels talk about Bible stories, stands selling graphic novels based on Bible stories, and viewing screenings of the latest Christian films, there would be no problem.

Plus, San Diego Comic-Con is H.U.G.E. huge, so they would get the most attention there.

[VodouDoll]

The guy was wearing evil...contacts? Is that a thing now?

Tony Miano is a small, small man with a desperate need to feel big and important and be seen as a brave, persecuted warrior. He brags a lot about how he used to be a cop and carries a concealed gun while he street-preaches. He's pathetic.