I almost got hit the head with a Bible today in downtown Seattle. WEIRD.

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More photos after the jump…

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all photos © Kelly O

Kelly O—formerly a Stranger staff photographer, music writer, Drunk of the Week columnist, and more!—finished art school and a soul-crushing internship at a corporate advertising agency in Detroit,...

92 replies on “And then there were these people…”

  5. oh man, it always freaks me out when they’re young and otherwise normal looking. the fat middle-aged guys don’t bother me in the slightest — in fact i find them rather amusing — but when they look like that woman in the first picture, they scare the shit out of me.

  7. I love that the guy holding the sign against “sports nuts” and “baby killers” is wearing a Seahawks hat. And just what is a “church gossip”?

  8. The picture with the people in the duck is the best. “And if you’ll look out on the right side of the Duck, you’ll see the crazy religious bigots”.

  10. #7: A church gossip is a busybody, generally an older woman, who gossips about other people in the church. This is generally done in the form of prayer requests, e.g. “Let’s pray for Mary Ellen Smith, who isn’t here today because she’s taken a job at the Lusty Lady.”

  11. “Kiss the Son” sounds kinda gay. Does the Son like it when you bite his bottom lip a little? I’ll bet he does. Does the Son want to rub his beard-scruff against your beard-scruff? For sure.

    Also: Drunkards, Free Sex, Atheists, Homosexuals? Sign me up!

  17. Um, I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard the bible beaters loud and clear. Proposition 8…passed. Wait, “Sports Nuts”, what???

    Why don’t you and your awesome hat take the day off, Jebediah. You seem a bit confused.

  19. On D.L. Hughley a CNN-ubiquitous Stranger editor made the nice point that if one’s faith leads you to expect the poor fags to end up in hell, isn’t that going to be punishment enough? Why would anyone claiming Christianity think we need the added persecution beforehand of diminished civil rights?

  22. These guys actually remind me of the religious wingnuts who used to protest the huge Halloween celebration in Athens, Ohio at Ohio University. Thousands of college students on the street in costume and a dozen people waving signs saying we’re going to hell for some reason or another. Who can keep track, really.

  23. I really like the the second picture from the bottom:

    “Covetousness is: Idolatry, Materialism… (etc),” and then the retail sign under continues “Cozy Hats”.

    Good job to everyone who went today. You make us all proud (with exception, of course, of the sideshow nutjobs pictured above).

  24. I saw the “Sports Nuts” guy with his Seahawks hat, what a joker. I asked him about it, pointed out the false idol (the seahawk), and nearly belly laughed at how silly his responses where.

    It was definitely reassuring to look up Pike and see thousands of my friends in comparison to the 20 or so of these whack jobs.

  26. It’s true that the smug look is aggravating, but seriously, if she wasn’t a nutbag, I could be interested in showing her some perversions of my own.

  28. ran into some of these people well before the march on Broadway. they tried to give me a flyer and I said no thanks and they got angry really fast and condemned me to hell. I said I didn’t believe in hell, they further condemned me to it and back and forth a couple times until we parted ways. An entertaining enough interaction except for the fact that they were a bunch of hateful guys in their 20s and seemed possibly 3-6 beers away from a hate crime. hope they went home without stopping at a bar. So angry at me for not taking a flyer! I should note that in no way was I visibly associated with the impending march so if they were pissed at me I can only imagine their later reactions to everyone else. I think in general it’s best to ignore such people but couldn’t resist getting into it with them a little bit today.

  29. Dear Guys kissing in front of the Bible-tard: I love you. I’m not gay, but if I had thought about it, I would have dragged a girl out with me just so I could do it too! Share the love!

  30. It seems there is a new sin, one I never heard of before. The “Covetousness Is Idolatory” guy is protesting against:

    Materialism. Gluttony. Drunkeness. Free Sex…. and BINGING?!?!

    What’s that?

  31. #13 – For what it’s worth, a girl from the communist party went off on that smug girl and made her cry. Then another pro-rights guy argued with her (communist girl) for a long time about her approach to the situation.

  33. How is it lost on the guy holding the sign about the sin of “Free Sex” that we gay people are asking for marriage rights? How is that Free Sex? Aren’t we indeed asking for the same ball and chain sex that straight people have? Or is gay sex somehow free in that it is not chained to the Bible for validation? And how exactly is same-sex sex free when one often has to sacrifice so much in coming out? (not as much as in the past for many of us, but still not easy to come out to your family anyway for most people) …. so much for Free Sex dude……

  34. Regarding the very last photo:

    I like to think that Sinnerman is just one dude, like Mr. Jonathan Sinnerman in accounting. “You’re in big trouble with God, Sinnerman. He’d like to see you in his office.”

  37. This might be encouraging… or not:

    While I was down there I actively tracked down these people (I saw everyone but the “Jesus Saves From Hell” guy), and made it my mission to talk to them calmly and logically about Prop 8, and was able to convince EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM that Prop 8 was a bad, unnecessary thing. I’m not kidding.

    How did I succeed at this when the hundreds of clearly correct folks shouting intelligent, witty, succinct refutations to their signs only seemed to exacerbate the divide?

    To begin with, by taking a few seconds to gain their trust by paying lip service to their religious intentions. Personally, I am a pretty devout atheist, but I also know that the quickest way to build consensus is to acknowledge what people you don’t agree with are TRYING to do – in this case, keep “sinners” from going to hell. And the crowd was convinced they were there in support of Prop 8, so everyone ended up talking “past” one another. Which is also, perhaps, why I ended up sounding like the “good cop”.

    Trying to convince someone to relinquish their entire life’s religion during the course of a 90 second encounter seemed a rather daunting goal, so I left that part alone and focused on using their beliefs as leverage to demonstrate why church and state should be separate…

    Most people seemed well-aware that not EVERYTHING suggested by the Bible ought to be a law – you know, the whole “capital punishment for working on Saturday, divorcing, or being a non-virgin bride” (not to mention all the other ridiculous “abominations” out there).

    It was also useful to state that (their) God deliberately gives us free choice to do good or evil, and that if someone chooses to engage in these (so-called) “moral abominations”, it’s up to God to judge – and we needn’t write redundant laws to legislate these biblical moral codes. People should be able to choose “good” over “evil” to please God, rather than to avoid going to jail.

    NOTE: The kind of folks who wave these kinds of signs also seem to be against anything that implies that the state is trying to “play God”, so that’s a good angle to use.

    But probably the main reason it was so easy to convince these people was that I don’t think they actually PRO-Prop 8 in the first place – I didn’t see a single sign that specifically stated this – and after some discussion it seemed clear that while these people WERE morally against homosexuality, they COULD understand why their beliefs shouldn’t be legislated. A small victory, to be sure, but it made me feel good to be able to successfully convey at least THAT small point.

    In fact, after reaching some consensus, I even managed to explain to some that, as well-intentioned as their intent to help “save sinners” en masse might be, the fact that they chose to do it at that particular place at that particular time might make it seem like they were supporting issue the majority of folks there were protesting, and that might be why they were getting so much and such emotional retaliation.

    [Though, truth be told, I think some of them kind of got off on the “persecution” aspect of it, especially given that each of them ended up with 3-4 police officers surrounding and protecting them …]

  38. These people don’t deserve any of our attention and energy. I say, delete all their photos and instead just say there were a few religious loonies at the march, nothing more. Why make their signs ‘bigger’ by putting them up here? We already know how crazy they are.

  39. Being a christian these people sicken me, I believe that they have the right to believe what they do but they do not have the right to tell others what they should believe. There is a guy who goes onto the Western campus who has the big signs and such, and he more or less harasses anyone who crosses close enough to him with his believes (which in my opinion are skewed). I’m not saying these people are that confrontational but the rhetoric on the signs seems to imply an aggressive nature. It’s easy to pull little bits of scripture out of context to condemn anything, in fact the book of Leviticus is all law and lists all the things that are abominations, including coming in contact with a woman who is on her period, cutting your hair around your temple, permanently marking yourself, and so on. These laws were cast out by Jesus in his sermons and teachings, so if you’re a christian and a true follower of Christ these laws are not to be considered hell worthy. I always look to one passage in particular to express the tint of my beliefs:

    Micah 6:8
    He has told you, O man, what is good;
    And what does the LORD require of you
    But to do justice, to love kindness,
    And to walk humbly with your God?
    (the lord doesn’t require ‘not being gay’)

    Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly? sounds like a good plan.

  42. Oh, c’mon! These people had to be a joke. Performance art? Improv anywhere? Nobody is that insane and still able to function day-to-day in society enough to hold down a job so they can buy hats and signs. I think it was brilliant. Clearly, they were painting Jeezuscists in general as raving crazies.

    Also, what #40 said.

  46. “almost got hit on the head with a Bible”

    That reminded me of a line by Woody Allen. He said that he always carries a bullet in his lapel pocket because one day somebody threw a Bible at him and it bounced off of the bullet and saved his life.

  49. the no homo guy has the same facial expression as snl’s church lady, pursed lips and all. get a fucking life. i know what he really wants when he protests so much.

  50. These churchies need some serious editorial help. It took me a minute just to read each poster. Get with the 21st century. Speak in Slogans. The facebook generation don’t have time for all those words. Their too busy texting friends, learning about the world, and voting for equality.

    History is on our side, and we are better looking.

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