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Screaming Jesus Guy really starting to get on people's nerves

Screaming Jesus Guy on the Red Line

John Stephen Dwyer encountered Screaming Jesus Guy on the Red Line today and he was in full-throttle mode (click to hear).

As Dwyer reports:

He's aggressive, loud, and just comprehensible enough to make it clear he's berating crowd with homophobia.

Craig writes:

I hate this man. He's worse than Sob Story Guy times infinity. He'll just sit there and shout all day if he can.

SJG stands in sharp contrast to Quiet Jesus Lady, who arrives at Forest Hills station after the Jehovah's Witnesses leave for the morning and then just stands there in the lobby with her sign warning of the perils of not repenting.

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Comments

The MBTA needs a no soliciting policy on board vehicles and inside stations.

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They have one.

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How about "The MBTA needs TO ENFORCE their no soliciting policy on board vehicles and inside stations" ?

of course that would take all the fun out of things...

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Serves her cause a whole lot better.

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I remember he was scaring two children in my train and made them cry. Someone told him to stop and pointed out the children and he said, "Good! They should be crying! We should all be crying because of all this sin the world!" Or something along those lines. Eventually they even held the train at Tufts until Transit PD could calm him down. He stopped until he got off at Downtown Crossing and then he started up again.

Last week he was pacing on the DTX platform while my train was holding and I was just about to tell him to quit it when some guy caught his attention and said, "Right on brother! I'm a believer too! Here, have one of my cards." Oddly enough, it kept him quiet for a minute or so until we finally proceeded.

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I saw that incident at DTX too. The guy who gave him his card then came back to his wife (who did not seem amused) and said "Praise God for a brother so bold." If it hadn't been the end of a long day for me, I would have told him that the screaming man does not help cast Christianity in a positive light, but instead makes us look like a bunch of wackos.

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He told (yelled at) me that I was going to hell as I was coming out of work a few weeks ago. All I could do was laugh and tell him to have a good rest of the day.....

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Whatever happened to just saying a quick decade of the Rosary .

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... don't generally do rosaries, considering this to be a blsphemous (or perhaps heathen) practice.

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Anyone who rides the T daily has undoubtedly lost any fear of Hell anyway

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n/t

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"Waiting for Godot" ===> "Waiting for The Red Line"
Also "No Exit".

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Twelfth Night.. in a Row the Red Line is Disabled

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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Half the Trains in this System Are Dead

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It's not really screaming, so much as really hoarse shouting and spitting.

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Even if its homophobic (yes I'm gay, and yes it offends me but I love my 1st Amendment more)

But can't the T ticket this guy for loitering?

Yeah he really ISNT doing anything wrong, but its annoying. Totally OK that he's standing OUTSIDE THE PAID AREA and doing this thing. But to get inside, then ride the trains to further his cause is a bit much and bordering on loitering.

Sorry I don't want this in my face while I ride half awake in the morning to work. So glad I wear headphones and an ipod so most of these folks leave me alone.

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I've gotta admit, it's kinda refreshing to see the "1st amendment" argument used in a format that doesn't devolve to "I'm free to be a bigot without consequences."

Buuuuuuut, the 1st amendment only protects you from persecution from the guv. It doesn't give you the right to hassle people on semi-private facilities... which is what this guy is doing.

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Can't this be resolved with a decibel meter - surely there must be limits regarding how loud you can yell.

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There's definitely a limit to how loud you can shout in my face.

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Oh Dang, I left my sound meter in my other pants :D

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If everyone on the train shouted at him to be quiet, there's no 1st Am. issue. (Not that I recommend it). If the cops tell him to be quiet, it gets into the realm of 1st Am., because the cops = government actor.

But like others said, the T is not a public way or gathering space, so there are limits on what you can say and do. Musicians need a permit for example. I don't know what the 1st Am. implications would be if Screamin' Jesus applied for a permit, but was denied on the basis that he's too annoying. He could possible argue his message is being discriminated against.

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Or not much of one: when he's inside the fare gates, he's preaching to a captive audience, which is a big no-no (and may even be a liability to the T, theoretically, if it doesn't make any effort to enforce this sort of thing). As a side note, I got into it with him on the Silver Line about five years ago, and the more I told him to be quiet (his screaming was interfering with the death metal I was trying to listen to), the louder he got.

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It has been ruled that not all speech is protected by the first amendment. The criteria below are not as protected to the extent that political speech is.

- Incitement

- Fighting Words

- Obscenity

- Defamation

- Commercial Speech

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sings spirituals with him when she sees him on the train. Keeps him quieter, she says.

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I once heard him on the 23 bus go on about the following topics:
1 - Women should not wear pants as it is an affront to god and man because they are trying to be men and should remember their place as women and dress in long dresses only.
2 - A rant about race mixing and homosexuality being punishable by death.
3 - this was the topper - God sent the God Fearing Europeans to eradicate the American Indian because they were too proud and haughty of a people and the Bible says that only the meek shall inherit the earth and the proud shall perish...
Yup, he said that.

Also interesting note - he got on the #1 bus the other day and the driver kicked him off saying "hey buddy, this isn't the 23 or the 28, this is the 1 bus and that behavior won't be tolerated here". Somehow this seemed messed up for the driver to say. The routes in Rox/Dot/Mattapan - rave on! but not on the 1 bus, we won't have that here...odd.

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1 - Women should not wear pants as it is an affront to god and man because they are trying to be men and should remember their place as women and dress in long dresses only.

He's right. He's just 5 months off.

http://improveverywhere.com/2014/01/13/no-pants-subway-ride-2014/

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Really?

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Double-knit Sansabelts, if I remember my scripture correctly.

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By contrast, Quiet Jesus Lady rides the #21, and keeps at it with the quiet Jesusing.

Clearly I live in a better part of Dorchester, as measured by abrasiveness of Jesus people on the bus.

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...except in Scotland, where men wear skirts. In which case, women should only wear pants?

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I encounter this guy on the 23 pretty regularly. He once berated me for wearing women's clothing because my sneakers had pink on them.

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Boomboxes were (rightly) banned because they created a disturbance. This guy is SO much worse and so much more disturbing. Even if you don't listen to his words, the rage is unmistakable.

The DTX Orange Line platform is bad enough during rush hour, but when you thorw him into the mixture, it's dowright hateful. Soon the platform temperture will hover around 95 degrees for the summer.

Can't Screaming Jesus Guy be removed the platform?

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I've seen him get asked to leave DTX by the same T CSA a few times. She told him rush hour is already crazy enough and people didn't need to hear his shouting. I've never seen any other agents ask him to leave though.

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Kidlet informs me there's a Screaming Jesus Lady who gets on the 39 in the morning near Green T, moves to the middle of the bus and starts screaming about how everybody needs to repent. Doesn't have a sign, though (yet).

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I've seen a screaming Jesus lady on the Ashmont LIne. Maybe she travels then entire T.

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From my office I can hear the morning droning of the Dudley Jesus Guy who's down in Dudley Station across from Citizens Bank with a megaphone telling people to "Take time....TAHDAY...to bring Jesus into your life." He asks lots of rhetorical questions and informs us all that god does indeed love us. I actually find it kind of relaxing...from a distance.

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The driver pulled over, told her to leave as she was disturbing his ability to drive, and called the cops.

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Wouldn't this qualify as disturbing the peace?

I'd just crank up some AC/DC for him, "Highway to Hell" or "Hells Bells" seem like good choices...

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One writer mentioned that the T is semi-private. I believe that the T is not private at all. It is a government agency. The MBTA contracts with private companies but the owner is still public and the subway and bus systems are not contracted out. But I'm not a Constitutional lawyer and so I have no idea of how the Courts have interpreted Constitutional free speech in a public transportation context.

I believe however that Constitutional free speech, like all Constitutional rights, are still not unlimited. In other words there are lines where free speech becomes harassing speech or qualify as disturbing the peace.

Disturbance of the peace as it applies to public transportation is what interests me. Specifically what defines disturbing the peace. If I remember correctly the reason that the T can ban loud music from boom boxes is that the volume goes beyond a certain point which qualifies it as disturbing to other riders. So I wonder whether the T would be willing to apply the same principle to loud bleed from earbuds or playing cell phones videos at loud volumes.

I would rather have to deal with a religious fanatic telling me I am going to hell than the sound of a hundred flies buzzing around making the T a hellish experience. A religious fanatic is just one fool who can't keep his mouth shut; a train full of buzzing earbud bleed is a Biblical plague visited by some cruel god upon people who just want to get to work and home.

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Actually, federal courts have held the T is a "non-public forum" and can regulate who gets to say what, as long as it's not arbitrary and capricious about it.

The first ruling on the matter involved condom ads in the 1990s. More recently, there was the matter of the anti-Palestinian ads some group wanted to run.

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The right to free speech as stated by the 1st amendment is in conflict with the right of people to peaceably assemble as stated by the 1st amendment. As in this asshat is disturbing the people peaceably assembled on the train or platform.

But anyhow, I propose a 28th amendment. This amendment would guarantee my right to push anyone who thinks people once rode dinosaurs down a flight of stairs. It should be very specifically written, referencing me by name, so that no one prone to abuse the amendment is granted any rights. I would not, for example, go after Hanna-Barbera.

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Seconded. Can we bring it to a vote?

Rider: Also, people who think POTUS is a foreign born Muslim and who think 9/11 was an inside job.

Rider the 2nd: And anyone who agrees with Dan Bidondi about anything, even how to spell "Bidondi."

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That guy is giving me and everyone i'm riding the T with a headache and no one cares about it. He started annoying me at park street once and keep flailing his arms and signs at me and told him to knock it off and just hopped on the train. There are so many people trying to sell you weird reading materials and they just stand there every time at Harvard, JFK, Park st or the other T stations.

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If I see ***holes like this, I switch cars, seriously. Also, as for the Sob Story folks, why aren't the Transit Police arresting them? It's clearly obvious what they are REALLY using the money for.

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…citing Matthew chapter 6 at him. (Among other things: "'Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.'")

He countered with a cite from Isaiah, instructing people to shout with joy.

I said, "Well, there's your problem. You've got Jesus confused with Isaiah, and you're the one screaming at people that they should obey Jesus."

That got under his skin, and he started screaming at me (which I expect the other passengers on the car appreciated, since at least he was not screaming at them), and he followed me up the stairs at Park Street and out through the turnstiles, so at least the T made another $2 from him.

More seriously, I report him to the T police every single time I see him, pointing out that he is violating the T's harassment and solicitation policies, and that he's perpetually right on the edge as far as breaking the law. And I have seen him routed from the T at least once.

(The day I argued with him was also the day I saw Sob Story guy get ejected from South Station -- and then he turned from me and tried to beg money from me to get to Providence. I went home because I was afraid of scoring a trifecta.)

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I wonder if this is the same guy my boys encountered on the Orange Line a couple of weeks back? He went ballistic when they launched into Frank Turner's Glory Hallelujah in two-part harmony.

At least when he figured out the lyrics of what they were singing, that is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbUCzUk84fE

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"Teacher hit me with a ruler ...."

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they might try "Smiling at Strangers on Trains" not that it would likely garner a different reaction

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and the bus driver told him to be quiet and sit down. Which he did. He also told me I was going to hell, because I complained to the bus driver. Nice. Very classy.

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Being a Nazarene and a Guitarist (6 and 12 string) I would not yell and scream...I would sing.

And the older and more Gospel the better.

Much better than nashing of teeth...don't ya say?

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"nashing" but rather "gnashing" as it sounds completely different when I do.

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I spotted screaming and ranting Jesus guy on the orange line today. He pushed me into the train and got stuck between the doors and no one would help him. Train operator waited a minute to reopen the doors. Tweeted the MBTA on twitter about it and said they would investigate it at Downtown crossing. Staff and driver held train at downtown to get him off and it was a nice quiet ride on the train finally. I couldn't take anymore of him. Thank you MBTA for your quick response and staff who were helpful in trying to make our ride a little more quiet and pleasant.

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