Tea and Sweatpants...

I really thought we were past the days of Bible pounding and screaming at people as they walk by on the street. I'm not sure who's idea it was to yell at people to make them love Jesus but I'm pretty sure I've never seen it work. The other day I was in downtown Portland waiting for the bus. I had been standing there for a very long time, only to find out my bus wasn't going to be coming by that stop on that day! That's besides the point. Anyway, I just bought this great book from Powell's and had taken that stupid plastic cover off that always gets in the way. So I'm standing there waiting and reading this big fatty book when two girls (about my age) walked by. They didn't just walk, they starting screaming at me! It took a minute for me to figure out why they were yelling but I guess they thought I was going to preach at them! They were yelling things like "don't you tell me how to live" "Jesus also said..." I then started being like..."this isn't a Bible" and defending myself. But then I was really feeling strange about that too, was I saying I didn't want to be "caught" on a street corner reading a Bible? Grrr... I found out that I was standing under a sign for some ministry and I'm assuming those girls had been yelled at and called sinners by them before. So, all in all, I'm a bit frustrated that I can't read a book that looks like a Bible while standing on a street corner without a stranger fearing that I would call them a sinner and tell them that they will burn in hell.