Sounds of the Street Preachers

You wander the streets and you see them around you
They all but surround you
They're happy they found you
They know they can hound you
They smile and you hear that familiar sound, you
Just know this will end only one way - they'll drown you
In scriptures and morals and readings and psalms
And they hold up their arms
Using all of their charms
And already you're moving away in alarm
But they really don't mean to bring you any harm
Because all that they want is a moment in time
In your vision they climb
Is that really a crime?
Back at home if they told you their ultimate cause
You would bar all the windows and lock all the doors
Yet alone in the street they can now make you pause
As your stress level soars
It's their minds against yours
And the second it takes them to sink in their claws
Is the second they think that they've already won
And before you can think of a place you can run
The one chance to avoid them is finished and done
They are already talking of God and his Son
And the street preaching madness has only begun

So just who are these people, and why do they care
If you don't go to prayer
And you don't want to share?
In their Bible and all that its pages declare
Is the truth of their God, and so fine and so rare
That they'd place their hand down on its cover and swear
That their lives are now promised. To what and to where?
An invisible man who is not even there

And where is the source of this deep admiration
Intense motivation
Such pure inspiration?
The son of a God gave them news of salvation
And this information
This realisation
That out of a book they could find revelation
And something that gives them a life transformation
And turns them away from the false explanation
The lies education
Has fed to their nation
This is what drives them on to fight God's Holy war
They must battle the evils they truly abhor
Yet they promise us something we all can explore
Bow your head to the floor
Take the path to God's door
And they tell you that life everlasting's in store
Yet with no word of warning, no chance to implore
When you tell them to leave you alone and 'no more'
Disregarding your protests, your words they ignore
Because all that they know is the one they adore
And the Christian words from their mouths simply pour
And it's Jesus and nothing else counts any more

They can't and they won't and they don't want to leave
They just truly believe
That you need to receive
All the good news this man, or what they now perceive
As a God, has to offer. They cannot conceive
How a person like you would be blind and naive
For they think that your life is so full of temptation
And evil sensation
The path to damnation
But follow their God and you choose liberation
The whole generation
A new congregation
For one destination
A home for your soul at the heart of creation

Their pace is relentless, it's like an attack
On your senses and if you just try to talk back
They ignore all the problems and queries you stack
At the feet of their scripture - that Bible so black
Has not one tiny flaw that they cannot explain
You might try to protest but they're sensing your pain
And they know you'll deny God again and again
But they tell you to think with your heart not your brain
And it drives you insane
And meanwhile they maintain
That the God who so loves you and who they admire
The same God whose book seems to bring awe and inspire
Has but one single purpose - his central desire
Is to burn non-believers like you in the fire
And this is God's love? Then this God is a liar

With such statements your lack of belief is exposed
And the preachers of God see their message opposed
Then a sense of mistrust and hostility grows
And the words they compose
Are from someone who knows
That to deal with such foes
Is the reason they pose
As such plausible speakers of Biblical prose
And just what they suppose
Is that nobody knows
About truth except them and their kind. They compose
Some new ways that your mind
Will be led like the blind
And one day you'll just find
That the doubts of the God you so wrongly maligned
Have been put far behind
And your faith in the saviour of all of mankind
Is the thing that will change you for life and will bind
Heart and soul to God's word, and in grace be entwined

They continue to say
That for them each new day
It just happens that way
And they simply obey
What has brought them to pray
For your soul and to sadly and darkly survey
That without God your lifestyle has led you astray
It just isn't okay
To now turn God away
In the end you will pay
But to their full dismay
You're an unwilling prey
So reluctant they listen as you have your say

And you tell them you've heard them and given it thought
That you've studied the same God and Bible they're taught
You list all of the ways that it all came to naught
And the only good thing from religion you caught
Was a spreading infection called rational thought
And what stirs up your innards and rattles your head
Is the knowledge that fear of a God and the dread
Of a life living frightened to speak out instead
Is now open to critical words and you tread
Where large numbers before you have wanted to go
They just needed to grow
And right now they can show
That their lives without Jesus have meaning, although
Almost all of the preachers don't think this is so

But the atheist numbers increase in their size
And we counter the Christian doctrine of lies
And we pull it apart and we dare criticise
Try to open the shuttered and half-sighted eyes
Of the people who fear God and truly despise
This new group of free thinkers who see the big prize
Is a world without dogma which faith can't disguise

It's a far distant future, I grant you that much
But if each of us stands up and throws down the crutch
Of the Bible then one day we might even touch
The religion around us but meanwhile we clutch
At thin straws if we honestly think we can reach
The closed eyes and blocked ears of the ones who still preach
And as atheists all we can do is take each
New found member, new sceptic, and hope we can teach
That to flourish we all need our powers of speech
We have all the same rights as the faithful and each
Of us has our own mind and the terrible leech
That is sucking the life from each God-absent day
Is some band of evangelists wanting to pray
But next time they meet you
And cheerfully greet you
And start with their God-talk just hot off the street you
May give up and walk on and turn them away
Maybe just for a laugh you could tell them you're gay
Just don't think that you'll change them, at least not today
If you try to outwit them they'll just start to pray
But when next they surround you, here's what you might say:

With my courage restored
With religion I'm bored
That old book is out-dated, your reason is flawed
And you speak of God's peace but his son brought the sword
And now all that I hear when you preach is a fraud
Yes the root of your hatred for me is your Lord
Mindless faith you applaud
While good works are ignored
And for spreading this folly you claim a reward
But when all is explored
And the facts still record
That there's nobody up there, your prayers ignored
Tell me why such a fantasy brings you toward
All these innocent people who, walking abroad
Step around you, avoid you and will not afford
You a look or a glance
So they dodge and they dance
And they side-step the Jesus crowd if there's a chance
To escape from your maddening, saddening trance.

When you speak of my sin, just when did it begin?
Long before I was born you condemned all my kin
And all babies you say hold a cancer within
So I wonder what chance has a mortal to win
With the threat of damnation the chances are slim
And for me with my atheist life they are grim
Faith's not part of my skin
I don't want to go in
To the Heaven you speak of - just more lies you spin

Your religion's so fractured, in dogma you're stuck
And you claim that no evil lies inside your book
But outside its worn pages you never dare look
And in science from thin air your fantasies pluck
Manufactured from muck
All your theories suck
Add in fear, mix with hate, when you simply mistook
What you heard from a sermon that someone made up
And repeated so often that time and good luck
Have all made it sound true. Those who question are struck
With the wrath of their neighbours and such is the plight
Of the words of the doubters and those who would fight
To the death for their country but not for the right
Just to question religion - most cower in fright
And they stay out of sight
They are oh so polite
And if cornered they'll do their best not to ignite
And it's really no wonder the Church has such might
Yet the time for its critics to surface is right
See our flag? No more white
And so now we invite
You to join with this battle of words we incite
All you Christians take home this message tonight
You may think we're in darkness but we bring the light