Stone the Preacher

Last week I wrote about how I was pulled down from a 3-foot high mobile traffic sign at the third game of the Lakers Finals by a man I affectionately called “Mr. Big.” (Read it here!)
You may be asking why? Why did he pull me down as “Righteous Richard” and myself preached at the traffic light across from Staples Center?

My answer: Not sure.

We thought we were on public property, and that we were standing on a city-owned sign. Mr. Big came by and tried to stop us from preaching, shouting at me to come down. The reason I ignored him was a lot of people try to stop us; he was no exception, except that he was a lot more forceful. He didn’t identify himself; he had no badge; he looked like one of the multitude of white business people attending the game after getting off work from their downtown office.

As Richard and I discussed the issue with him—post-pulldown—he said that he owned the sign. Did he own the sign? Probably not. But for the sake of preserving our Christian witness, we didn’t get back up on it.

That and the fact that he was a lot bigger than us.

George Whitefield (1749-1769) wrote:

“…I preached twice at Exeter, and, in the evening, I believe I had ten thousand hearers. The bishop and several of his clergy stood near me, as I am informed. A good season it was. All was quiet. and there was a great solemnity in the congregation; but a drunken man threw at me three great stones. One of them cut my head deeply, and was likely to knock me off the table; but blessed be God! I was not at all discomposed.”

(Read Part 1 first by clicking here!)

“Come down from there! Hey! Hey! Come down from there!”

I have heard that so many times, I’ve lost count. Whenever we preach on some type of elevated platform, inevitably, some offended listener tries to push their weight around by demanding, even yelling, that we stop preaching our message and climb down, and act like a normal person. Our standing operating policy is to just ignore the person, anticipating that they will just go away, so that we can continue with our message.

But we couldn’t avoid “Mr. Big” as we stop light preached atop a mobile construction-type sign, across from the Staples Center before Game 3 of the Lakers Finals.

The crowds were huge one half hour before game time at the corner of 11th and Figueroa

In fact, there were so many people crossing, and so much traffic, we were forced to use a very loud portable sound system to reach the teeming Hellbound masses.

Mr. Big apparently didn’t like it. He shouted at me to stop.

I ignored him.

He shouted again.

I ignored him again.

He tugged on my shirt. Then he pulled on my shirt.
Then he grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me down to the ground—a three foot drop!

I was stunned. No one had ever done that before! “I told you to come down!” Mr. Big warned.

After a few words were exchanged between the two of us, we shook hands and parted ways.

The great temptation when things go wrong is to take things personally. When that happens, things can go very badly. I have never been physically accosted before and was very surprised at the anger that welled up inside of me. In the next few years, persecution of one type or another will probably be the norm, so the prudent evangelist will do well to flee to another place where the preaching might afford better, and safer, opportunities.

R.A. Torrey said this in regard to some of the “Don’ts” of open air preaching over a hundred years ago:

Don’t lose your temper. Whatever happens, never lose your temper. You ought never to get angry under any circumstances, but it is especially foolish to do so when you are holding an openair meeting. You will doubtless have many temptations to lose your temper, but never do it. It is very hard to hit a man when he is serene, and if you preserve your serenity, the chances are that you will escape unscathed. Even if a tough strikes you, he cannot do so a second time if you remain calm. Serenity is one of the best safeguards.

Don’t fight. Never fight under any circumstances. Even if they almost pound the life out of you, refuse to fight back. (Read part 3 here!

The four policemen marched ominously toward the man standing on the box in front of Staples Center, riot helmets in hand.
This was not a good sign. On game three of the Lakers finals, would the evangelist preaching to the ticket-holders in line be arrested in effigy—made a scapegoat—for the hometown team’s previous two losses?

I watched quietly as the small LAPD squad walked on by, oblivious to Chris the preacher. Trouble was narrowly averted—for now; but a short time later, things started to get very heated.

To the average Lakers’ fan all evangelists must look the same: crazy, strange, wild-eyed…

…always preaching the same old message: “Repent and trust in Jesus!”

And they’d be right.

The average person doesn’t understand the importance of the Gospel message, and the urgency in which it needs to be preached. 104 people die every 60 seconds, the vast majority of them will end up in Hell. Who knows what could happen at this Lakers’ Finals game?
It might be the final game for many in attendance: Someone could choke to death on a hotdog during a rousing cheer; another might fall out of their loge seat onto unsuspecting fans below resulting in many tragic deaths; still others might have a sudden heart attack—should the Lakers actually win! Time is always of the essence.

But just as we wanted to be there to seek and to save the lost, others wanted us to get lost. And they tried hard to rid the area of the Good News Nuisances. The police relegated Ambassadors’ Alliance leader, Tony Miano, to preaching between two potted plants. (Read Tony’s version of events here.)

“Righteous Richard” Chavarria kept an eagle eye on the police to make sure that they didn’t get out of line.

One man, Shane Griffin, got escorted off Staples’ premises for just handing out tracts.

“Righteous Richard” took the brunt of the abuse this evening, though. While he preached atop a potted plant, a very serious and very determined LAPD officer shouted, “Get off of that!”

“Righteous Richard” hurriedly complied (that’s why he’s known as righteous).

Then the red-jacketed Security officials rousted him.

They even tried to scare him into relinquishing his First Amendment Right to hand out Gospel tracts. He was bold as a lion and stood up to them graciously, even when they threatened him with this statement: “If we see anyone carrying those in, we’ll take them away!” The Redcoats are coming! The Redcoats are coming!

Next, an irate biblical-scholar-homeless man tried to shout him down with poorly parsed Greek hermeneutics.

But what really took the cake, was when “Righteous Richard” was accosted by two volunteer “District Safety” guys after he snapped a photo of a very large man.

You see, I asked Richard to take this very large man’s picture after he suddenly, forcefully, grabbed my shirt and pulled me off my three foot preaching perch… (Read Part 2 here!)