Religion and Oxford Street

Oxford Street seems to have recently become a magnet for religious fervour. Gone are the days of an occassional procession with wild dancing and drums by the salmon-pink robed Krishnas and the somber old man with his placard urging us to have less lust from less protein (eat less fish, meat, eggs, cheese.... the list was very long, and if you did eat less of these things you probably would indeed have less lust but also less energy and less will).

These have been replaced by an altogether more intrusive approach which has gathered steam since megaphone man first starting preaching the need to end our consuming ways and open our hearts to Jesus whilst standing outside Top Shop or Nike Town. This weekend there was a different set of preachers at Oxford Circus. And I rode the number 12 from Peckham Rye with a couple of United Church of the Kingdom of God-ers on their way to distribute leaflets to the shopping throng. And a woman giving out Seventh Day adventist pamphlets on the 73 and loudly announcing that she wanted to bring the gospel to us, particularly some part of John (but I wasn't listening properly).

I get that urge to shrink into my coat in an attempt to ignore the righteous. However Bails decided she ought to start standing up to share her aetheism publicly as an antedote to all this religious piety, but on thinking about it wasn't sure of her wording so thought she'd start tomorrow.