At the university where I go to school, we used to have this fundamentalist nutjob preach outside of the student union everyday, up on a mound. His name was Gary Bowman, but he called himself Moses, because he saw himself as a prophet of God. He would go on an on about God and the bible, and how all of us were going to hell. If you drink, you're going to hell. If you smoke, you're going to hell. If you're a guy with long hair, or a woman with short hair, you're going to hell. Women who wear blue jeans can expect to burn in eternal damnation. Men who shave can expect the same. Cheerleading is certainly against God's will, and you most certainly should not listen to Rock and Roll!
Despite this, the guy was actually
cool. He had charisma. It was really quite a phenomonen. Not just because there was some nutcase shouting atop a mound every day, but because of the reaction he always got. He stood on this mound everyday between the student union and the library, near the bus station. It was
the central location where everybody passed by to get to class, and there was always a
huge crowd of people standing around him. I bet he had a hundred people surronding him each day. And they didn't just passively listen. They would jeer, shout insults, heckle him. It was great! This man was a machine. He could take any amount of heckling and keep on preaching. The crowd never let up in their insults or endless logical debates. Once, Moses shouted some statistic that everyone knew was BS, and one guy in the crowd started yelling, "What's your sample size? What's your sample size?". Moses just ignored him and started talking about something else, even though the guy kept shouting it for like 5 minutes. Another time, a guy an a bicycle circled him in about a 2 foot radius for 20 minutes while he gave his sermon. It really seemed to distract him, but he just kept on preaching.
Once, in response to a series of questions about the type of logic he was using, he gave this response:
"ye...yes. It's...it's circular logic, but it's the very best kind of circular logic."
Priceless! Moses agreed that he used circular logic, but he didn't care, and thought it was good!
I would go to class at about noon, and then come back 3 hours later and he would
still be there, giving his sermon. I think he was there every day from 12-5. Last semester, the administration got tired of his sorry ass and passed an
ordinance that said you could only speak on campus grounds 5 times per semester if you were a non-university attendee. There was all sorts of outcry over free speech, but no one was ever able to reverse the administration's decision. So I haven't seen him yet this semester. Kinda sad, 'cause I always enjoyed seeing what the crowds would do to try and humiliate this poor man. Their daily humiliation of him was one of the most entertaining things I've ever been priviledged enough to witness.
I guess there's probably nutjobs shouting on street corners in Philadelphia all the time, but it's sort of unique down here. People actually respond to it en masse instead of just ignoring them. :) Hey, we're people people down here