the sinner/winner question

I have read this post on Nick Hanover's blog about 8 times and still don't know how I feel about it! As a Christian, I suppose I should be happy that people are willing to spread the word of God (albeit in a uniquely different way) but as someone who is responsible for upholding the law, it is tough to hear someone telling people they will "be condemned to an eternal ASBO in hell". I do find his methods quite aggressive at times, but then wonder if a band slowing down the traffic (even more) on Oxford Street while playing loud music is any less aggressive to the regular man in the street?

Phil Howard tells people to give up vanity and take up Christianity, while the officer tells people that there is more to life than shopping. So what makes the different ways of wording the same message anti-social?

While out on the beat a few weeks ago, there was a protest outside the London embassy of an Arabic speaking country by citizens of another Arabophile nation about a political matter. A member of public came up to me and complained that the protesters should be arrested for inciting racial and religious hatred. I asked them why and they said the protesters were dressed as Arabs and were speaking "muslamic". When I told they were dressed like Arabs because they were, and that they were speaking the Muslim language because they were Muslims, they stormed off muttering to themselves.

This begs the question of whether our open air ministry could be misconstrued. Are we inciting religious hatred as these Muslims were in the eyes of the person passing by? Where does the line between anti-social behaviour and religious hatred lie? When do we stop advertising our church and start trying to force God on people? Don't get me wrong, open air ministry has its place, but in this multi-racial, multi-faith and multi-cultural world, we should act with caution.

Please feel free to comment on this, or even to email me - this is something I have been thinking about for a while and would like to know what other people think!

Timmy "Winning sinner" Magic