Friday, May 20, 2011

Street Pastors - No Thanks.

I was in my local earlier, having a coffee and reading the local paper. I noticed an article called 'Pastors out on patrol' which on reading didn't sit well with me. Readers of my blog have probably cottoned on that organised religion does not sit well with me at all.

For people unaware of what 'Street Pastors' are all about then I'll explain. They are basically narrow minded interfering do-gooders acting in the name of the alleged big man upstairs. Other towns and cities have them, and they are on the rise seemingly, patrolling and helping people in distress or in need of help, handing out water or flip flops to drunken people who may have lost shoes etc.

On the surface of course this all looks good and helpful but beneath the patronising veneer as with anything in organised religion there's always an ulterior motive.

Firstly though, lets look at the reasoning behind my blog. My first point I will raise is that is Newark really big enough to warrant having street pastors? The simple answer is no, we don't have many pubs and bars, we only have one nightclub that of late has been heavily policed at weekends. With this in mind, go back to my point of ulterior motive, they in a practical basis aren't needed, so why are they here? They are here of course to patronise, to preach in subtle ways and to condescend.

Britain has had a drinking culture for hundreds of years, people get drunk, people get into difficulties and we have something called the 'police' to deal with incidents. More importantly we also have something even bigger group to take responsibility for drunken people in trouble, it's called the general public who can help or call an ambulance should they wish or have a moral inclination to do so. The Tories probably embrace street pastors as they can cut police on the beat and let their flawed big society idea take shape with blinkered christian busy bodies making people feel that what they are doing is of course morally wrong and if they need help they should find god. Basically street pastors in effect is a covert recruiting system, simple as. You only have to look at other christian based organisations (and I can name some) that help people with drink and drugs problems, the end goal is always the same - find god, join us, get brainwashed into believing a load of fictional rubbish.

People should be able to go out on the streets without seeing a presence of religion, if you have faith or want to worship - go to church. The majority of drinking adults are quite responsible when out drinking, of course people get drunk, have accidents or end up in trouble but that of course is part of the perils of alcohol but most of us can take responsibility for friends without any need for help. For more serious instances then we have the police, so why do we need street pastors?

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