Ghana bans preaching on buses with jail terms for offenders

8 days ago by fne8w2ah to c/world

Ghana is a predominantly Christian country where preaching on public transport is widespread.
brem 144 points 8 days ago

No living creature should be forced to hear religion yelled at them in public areas simply because they can't leave the area.

path: 0 26164457, hotness: undefined, score: 144, children: 11
fonix232 68 points 8 days ago

No person should be forced to listen to religious crap in public, period.

If you cannot be religious without the urge to tell others, then it's just performative wanking.

And we all know how acceptable public masturbation is.

path: 0 26164457 26165195, hotness: undefined, score: 68, children: 6
brem 15 points 8 days ago

I'd be the first one to warn them that MY religion requires me to shit in their mouf. And probably the first to be murdered on a bus for poopin into an assholes mouf.

path: 0 26164457 26165195 26165408, hotness: undefined, score: 15, children: 1
Taleya 2 points 7 days ago

Whatta way to go tho

path: 0 26164457 26165195 26165408 26180433, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
raspberriesareyummy 5 points 7 days ago

No person should be forced to listen to religious anything, period.

ftfy

path: 0 26164457 26165195 26170380, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
hraegsvelmir 0 points 6 days ago

I don't have an issue with it if they want to do their evangelism like the Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons do around here. I disagree with nearly everything those religions believe, outside the obvious stuff like murder being bad, but at least they do their missionary activities in a civilized way. You want to post up with a table and pamphlets and have conversations with those who approach you in a calm manner, using your normal speaking voice? Good for you, I couldn't care less that you choose to waste your afternoon in this way. I draw the line at the people who act like the only possible way to evangelize is rolling onto a packed train with a mic and amplifier and scream their message so loud, you can't even retreat from it by listening to music with your headphones on. Lots of them leave evangelism far behind and settle firmly in the territory of being mere nuisances to those upon which they inflict their presence.

path: 0 26164457 26165195 26200092, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 2
fonix232 1 point 5 days ago

JWs here in the UK tend to go to your door and bother you even if you ask them repeatedly not to.

I can't imagine it's much different in the US.

path: 0 26164457 26165195 26200092 26203242, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 1
hraegsvelmir 0 points 5 days ago

They stopped doing that where I grew up about 22 years ago, over safety concerns while not being particularly effective, as I recall. Now, I pretty much only ever see them in subway stations or parks, sat behind a little table with a black table cloth over it and a cardboard stand next to it with pamphlets for people to take. I don't support them in any way, but if they're content with evangelizing in that fashion, they pretty much drop out of the list of street preachers that drive me mad entirely. It's far and away less intrusive than the clowns that jump on a rush hour train to scream at the top of their lungs about Jesus, or drag a bluetooth speaker with them to play their Jesus music at high volume while they preach. Lately, I've even seen a bunch having a go at doing that in buses here, where they're constantly falling on people, trying to pace up and down the aisle preaching while the bus is in motion.

path: 0 26164457 26165195 26200092 26203242 26205140, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 0
phx 12 points 8 days ago

Yeah they need to make this a rule everywhere, and especially on flights.

path: 0 26164457 26166504, hotness: undefined, score: 12, children: 1
brem 0 points 8 days ago

Even if it's not a rule, people like me are sometimes around to whisper even crazier shit into their ear from behind.

path: 0 26164457 26166504 26166545, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 0
abbiistabbii 3 points 6 days ago

This is basically why these people do this: they can't walk away.

path: 0 26164457 26200139, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
Tja 0 points 7 days ago

Yeah, that's reserved for sports

path: 0 26164457 26174600, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 0
some_guy 61 points 7 days ago

Good. That's a captive audience. Fuck people who do this. Same as when a dance group plays loud music on a train I can't exit while performing a routine.

path: 0 26167938, hotness: undefined, score: 61, children: 9
chewypoops 5 points 7 days ago

Do you live in a movie? This has never happened to me.

path: 0 26167938 26170978, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 8
mkwt 8 points 7 days ago

I've had that happen in Rome and Barcelona. The sing and dance was invariably followed by a tipping phase where they sent ten year olds around to pass the hat while also trying to pick my pocket.

path: 0 26167938 26170978 26172983, hotness: undefined, score: 8, children: 0
Corkyskog 2 points 7 days ago

Seems like that guys living more than we are

path: 0 26167938 26170978 26171124, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1
CoconutLove 5 points 7 days ago

This kinda shit happens all the time in major cities like NYC, Boston, DC, etc.

path: 0 26167938 26170978 26171124 26174141, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
aquovie 2 points 7 days ago

The dance thing happens in Boston. Rush hour is too crowded to do anything like that but off-hours, you'll see it every once and a while.

I don't think I've seen a preacher. They'd probably get told off.

path: 0 26167938 26170978 26180595, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1
hraegsvelmir 0 points 6 days ago

You might also just have it discouraged from proper enforcement. Most of the people preaching or doing show-time bits on the subway in NYC could already be addressed with laws on the books, as they aren't supposed to be using amplification devices in the train system without a permit (leaving aside the matter of being public nuisances and posing a risk to other passengers in some circumstances), with the absolutely massive assumption that you could actually count on the NYPD to just calmly shut down the performance and issue a citation, rather than viewing it as their chance to practice the new move they learned in their MMA gym the night before. That assumption is doing a ton of heavy lifting in that sentence, though. In practice, I usually just see cops on the train duck out of the car to avoid having to do their job, and when they do intervene, they tend to make the situation worse so that you wish they'd just gone away. I mean, shit, my sister was coming home late from work one night, and a guy on the train was being a creep to her and following her around the car while two NYPD officers on the train just watched, and when she finally asked if they could do something to keep the guy away from her when he was making her uncomfortable, they just decided that was their stop and left her to fend for herself and ran away. Such a useless, spineless organization, the NYPD.

path: 0 26167938 26170978 26180595 26199990, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 0
WeirdGoesPro 2 points 6 days ago

I’ve seen it a lot in NYC.

path: 0 26167938 26170978 26191302, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1
El_Scapacabra 2 points 6 days ago

iiiiiit's SHOWTIME!!!

proceeds to barely avoid kicking random commuters in the face. Fails sometimes.

Fuck these asshats.

path: 0 26167938 26170978 26191302 26195602, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
Mulligrubs 1 point 6 days ago

Take the subway in New York City.

You will also see penis

path: 0 26167938 26170978 26195796, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
lechekaflan 56 points 7 days ago

In some African countries, fundie preachers -- styled after American tent revivalists -- are almost everywhere to the point of omnipresent as evidenced by the large number of banners for local pastors running their own tentpole ministries. Their influence is so enormous that they even warp government policies, as in the case of Uganda and entrenched anti-homosexuality panics.

So this is a change. Like people should have the right to have peaceful uninterrupted conveyance.

path: 0 26166710, hotness: undefined, score: 56, children: 4
Tollana1234567 20 points 7 days ago

its deeper than that, american christian evangelical groups have been going to african countries pushing evangelical legislations to the countries in africa, hence where there are so many anti-lgbtq+ legislations.

path: 0 26166710 26168392, hotness: undefined, score: 20, children: 1
lechekaflan 9 points 7 days ago

Yeah, for those groups Africa is their test lab for which to create their own armies for the supposed upcoming endtimes.

path: 0 26166710 26168392 26168627, hotness: undefined, score: 9, children: 0
hansolo 8 points 7 days ago

Same with Ghana. They've had a Nazi-style anti-LGBTQI bill they've been kicking around for years, likely brought directly to them by fundie US preachers. They once buried a skate park because it "was bringing the gays to children." Seriously.

path: 0 26166710 26177588, hotness: undefined, score: 8, children: 0
mineralfellow 6 points 7 days ago

You see that across levels of development. There are giant glowing banners in Johannesburg that are rather distracting when driving at night. Not sure how many thousands are in those megachurches.

path: 0 26166710 26167507, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 0
hansolo 32 points 7 days ago

I've been on one of these buses. You sit there in the bus, waiting for it to fill up enough to leave. It's hot like a sauna. Everyone is dehydrated (so you don't stop to pee) and miserable. Then some asshat with energy like a reincarnated Richard Simmons jumps on the bus and has music going and shouts at you, or maybe even has a fucking portable PA system, inside a literal tin can on wheels. It lasts forever. No one reacts. No one's into it. No one wants this. Ever. Then the preacher, who is likely just some asshat doing this to scam a few cedis, prays that you won't die on the road. Which is a real threat. So people throw him a little something and he moves on.

Thank the gods above and below, that this will not plague another generation.

path: 0 26177540, hotness: undefined, score: 32, children: 1
anarchy79 4 points 7 days ago

It's begging with a bit of flair. Kind of like busking.

path: 0 26177540 26181400, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 0
fonix232 25 points 8 days ago

Rare Ghana W

path: 0 26165181, hotness: undefined, score: 25, children: 0
TheTechnician27 23 points 8 days ago

Preaching on commercial buses was first prohibited in Ghana in 2012, with offenders facing up to 30 days in prison.

But enforcement was weak and so the practice remained common, particularly on buses. The new law beefs up the penalties for those that flout the ban.

Makes sense why BBC News changed the title; that's fairly misleading.

path: 0 26166389, hotness: undefined, score: 23, children: 0
Taleya 19 points 7 days ago

" I preach on commercial vehicles because not everyone is able to go to church on Sunday. There are a lot of passengers who need our message of salvation to repent from their sins"

How has this man remained unbeaten

path: 0 26180411, hotness: undefined, score: 19, children: 5
anarchy79 5 points 7 days ago

I already repented. Do I still have to listen to this every fucking day on my commute?

Whenever I see one of these I heckle the fuck out of them, it genuinely makes the ride go so much faster, I appreciate they volunteer as verbal punching bags before work, it gets me pumped for a good shift in the coal mines.

path: 0 26180411 26181366, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 2
Saledovil 1 point 6 days ago

Sounds like fun. What do you yell at them?

path: 0 26180411 26181366 26195013, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
Taleya 1 point 6 days ago path: 0 26180411 26181366 26184268, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
Saledovil 4 points 6 days ago

If you beat him, he'll be a martyr. I think using a loud buzzer every time he tries to preach would work better.

path: 0 26180411 26195001, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 1
Taleya 2 points 6 days ago

I've got no problem with martydom. Freely admit that. If it's on the table lemme get some 2x4s and a nailgun so we can do this properly

path: 0 26180411 26195001 26199559, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
YragNitram1956 17 points 7 days ago

I am a reasonable man and am certain that the holy book, the bible is an absolute heap of disgusting, slavery condoning, male infant genital mutilation demanding, repellent, demented, vicious dark age mumbo jumbo. Christians should be told quite clearly that our citizens have the legal right to criticise, lampoon, ridicule and mock god and Jesus to their heart's content, in any way that they wish: that Christians have no special claim to protection from the rough and tumble of post-Enlightenment intellectual, political and social life. If they cannot live in a society in which this is the case, they should go somewhere else; they are, after all, spoilt for choice, at least in theory.

path: 0 26170641, hotness: undefined, score: 17, children: 0
QueenHawlSera 11 points 7 days ago

Preaching religion in public should be treated the same as any other insane threatening rambling and be an arrestable offense

path: 0 26167715, hotness: undefined, score: 11, children: 11
ayyy 13 points 7 days ago

Weird rambling should be an arrestsble offense? What the authoritarian hell?

path: 0 26167715 26168347, hotness: undefined, score: 13, children: 10
QueenHawlSera 1 point 7 days ago

Disturbing the peace by loudly proclaiming absurdities to random passersby

path: 0 26167715 26168347 26168746, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 9
chewypoops -5 points 7 days ago

Just because I don't believe in God doesn't make me an authoritarian. You're just as much of a threat to my freedom as any Christian nationalist.

path: 0 26167715 26168347 26168746 26171084, hotness: undefined, score: -5, children: 8
njm1314 5 points 7 days ago

You went from reasonable to absurd right at the end there.

path: 0 26167715 26168347 26168746 26171084 26177869, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 7
bitteroldcoot 11 points 8 days ago

Good.

path: 0 26165347, hotness: undefined, score: 11, children: 0
Ilixtze 7 points 7 days ago

I heard American airplanes need a law or two like this one.

path: 0 26167585, hotness: undefined, score: 7, children: 1
Corkyskog 2 points 7 days ago

Seriously, you can punch someone on a bus (its frowned upon) but punch someone on an airplane and your going to have a bad time.

path: 0 26167585 26171139, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
Sharkticon 6 points 7 days ago

Yeah that sounds fair.

path: 0 26166970, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 0
GreenBean 6 points 7 days ago

Oh, that there have been a law banning parents from holding children hostage for religious indoctrination when I was a child!

path: 0 26167849, hotness: undefined, score: 6, children: 0
TheFrirish 5 points 7 days ago

Amen to that!

path: 0 26167435, hotness: undefined, score: 5, children: 0
muusemuuse 2 points 7 days ago

Dude, it’s the white mans religion. It’s been used to fuck over every damn culture that’s ever encountered it. Of all people, you should veering away from it rather sharply.

path: 0 26168150, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 4
iknewitwhenisawit 1 point 7 days ago

Meh. I tend to think that Christianity, with all its flaws, is better than the pre-Christian religion in Fiji.

path: 0 26168150 26169692, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 3
VAK 1 point 7 days ago

What was it?

path: 0 26168150 26169692 26169789, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 2
iknewitwhenisawit 2 points 7 days ago

So formal human sacrifices were frequent. Prisoners of war or slain enemies were often offered. The sacrificial victims too were sometimes taken from a distant tribe and when war and  violence failed to supply the demand, some- times the human lambs had to be negotiated.  Regardless of the way the human sacrifice  was obtained, the victim was often fed and fattened to make him fl eshier.  “Then tightly bound…they were placed on  hot stones in one of the usual ovens and being covered over with leaves and earth were  roasted alive while the spectators roared with laughter…”

https://www.fijitimes.com.fj/...

path: 0 26168150 26169692 26169789 26170281, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 1
VAK 2 points 7 days ago

Whoa that's some aztec level shit

path: 0 26168150 26169692 26169789 26170281 26173982, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
AllNewTypeFace 2 points 7 days ago

Based.

path: 0 26178678, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
Treczoks 2 points 7 days ago

If they struck out the "on buses" or "on public transport", it would be better.

path: 0 26181668, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
Naive -2 points 7 days ago

Damn, I have never seen someone preaching in a public transport. Most I have seen is asking for donation for religious organizations. I have seen preaching being done on campuses and I used to do some preaching on my campus for a year (from a different religious background btw).

path: 0 26174047, hotness: undefined, score: -2, children: 2
anarchy79 1 point 7 days ago

We have them in this big mall in Sweden. God knows why. Most atheist country in the world, although maybe that's the point (and maybe that's changing for the worse).

I had a whole script prepared to go there and take their spot before they showed up and be like HELLA fire and brimstone, like Old Testament shit, but I moved abroad. It's still something I really want to do.

Just screaming at people to repent, and they're all sinners, and how dare they, and plasma will shoot out of the eyes of THE LORD to smite them on their way to work or buy a tank top or something.

Best part is I would be right. They should be ashamed of themselves. All of them ALL OF THEEMMMMMM

path: 0 26174047 26181444, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 1
Naive 1 point 6 days ago

Well, when I did preaching, I always preached about love (which I learned from Christian preachers) and I still want to do preaching on that aspect 'cuz I think that we need more people talking about love, be it from pulpit or from any other means.

BTW, your preparation also sounds funny. If I were in Sweden with you, I would love to do that thing together with you. Sad to hear that Sweden is now heading at bad direction.

path: 0 26174047 26181444 26193601, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0
world
world

@lemmy.world

login for more options
58443
34810
9071

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

  • Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:

    • Post news articles only
    • Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
    • Title must match the article headline
    • Not United States Internal News
    • Recent (Past 30 Days)
    • Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
  • Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.

  • Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed.

  • Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.

  • Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025

  • Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

  • Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.

  • Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world

Ask Historians !askhistorians@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/...

  • Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link

go to feed...