During my commute to the office today, a rugged and haggard looking old man clutching a small wooden box boarded the bus I was riding as it made it’s stop along EDSA. He stood in the middle of the bus aisle and immediately greeted everyone a pleasant good morning. He introduced himself as a member of the worker’s union of a particular bus company presently conducting a strike due to unresolved collective bargaining agreement disputes with their employer.
After giving the apathetic majority of passengers in the bus a brief background on the plight of his fellow workers, he humbly implored everyone’s aide by asking for whatever financial support that could be spared. The money was to go to the union, so that it may sustain its basic needs as they continue to struggle and fight for their rights.
As he walked toward my seat, I reached for my wallet and quickly slipped a bill inside the small wooden piggy bank like box he was trying to pass around. He briefly paused to smile and thank me for the gesture before he proceeded to the next row of passenger seats behind me.
After his collection was through, he thanked everyone for their help and proceeded to the bus exit.
As I was watched him step down the bus in to the busy street, I suddenly remembered what happened the night before during my commute from the office.
My wife and I had just boarded our homebound bus when I saw something that I haven’t seen in quite a while. It was one of those air-conditioned bus preachers. I am not sure if street preaching is still done by religious groups in some parts of Manila, but I do know how air-conditioned bus preaching has been the standard way of public evangelization these days. And for good reasons, it’s more convenient, it’s cooler, safer, relatively quieter, and most of all a good handful of people who take air-conditioned busses belong to the upper middle social class, which I suppose is the likely target audience.
The preacher I saw was a young neatly dressed lady. I was seated at the far end of the bus and couldn’t actually hear what she was saying. But I had a good view of how she was completely being ignored by nearly everyone in the bus that she might as well be a huge luggage, seen as nothing more as an obstacle in the middle of the narrow bus aisle.
Usually bus drivers either tone down the volume of the radio or onboard television when preachers start talking. But lately I’ve noticed how the tolerance of drivers and conductors has gone down. The lady preacher with her weak and tired voice was easily drowned by the loud TV on board, the chaos from the traffic outside, the bus conductor periodically yelling out stops, and the general noise made by some of the passengers in the bus.
It was already somewhere around seven to eight o’clock in the evening. I was watching her from where I was sitting and I could easily tell how exhausted she was from her facial expressions and the way she was talking. I was thinking how she was probably at it the entire day, hopping from bus to bus, trying to spread the good news to commuters.
As expected, she concluded her preaching by handing out envelopes for church donations. I am not entirely sure, but judging from the looks of the envelopes she collected, majority of them where returned the same way they were handed out, bare and empty.
I’ll be honest; I do feel a little spasm of guilt for not having spared anything for preacher lady while just this morning I willingly supported a workers union representative in a heartbeat. But I tell you, if placed in the same scenario again, I believe I would have most probably reacted the same way.
So, was the church’s mission of saving souls less important compared to an industrial dispute between workers and employers?
I do know how scripture said to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. And I would bet that there are probably inspiring testimonies out there on how someone’s life was dramatically changed by a church worker who preached inside an air conditioned bus.
But to tell you the truth, I have always questioned the methodology of street preaching, especially the ones that involve soliciting money. And I pity poor hard working full time church workers who are made to hop from one air conditioned bus to the next to preach the Bible and solicit voluntarily church contributions. It’s just hard work that doesn’t pay off in terms of converts.
I think what some people fail to realize is how the simple act of passing around empty envelopes after a brief sermon that no one cared to listen to just kills the sincerity of what is being accomplished. Furthermore, a religious group should be picky about where or from whom the money supporting their cause is coming from. If some groups can afford to grill and criticize other beliefs in the pulpit, they can afford to solicit tithes and offerings exclusively from its members.
I am not against public preaching, though part of me believes there is a time and place for everything. More so, I do not approve of bus companies allowing preachers conducting sermons in the bus if only to have them compete with the on board television or radio. A little respect please. If you feel they are a nuisance to the business then just create a policy that your staff will politely and respectfully enforce.
So to rationalize, what's the difference between the preacher and the union member? Simply the union representative got the peso because it was exactly what he was asking for. And as for preacher lady, I think the Irish rock group The Cranberries said (or sang) it best with the chorus verse “Salvation is free”.
But would I have given preacher lady the same support if she directly said she needed money to eat because she was hopping from bus to bus all day preaching? Perhaps. Do I give offerings and support the local church I attend? Absolutely.
Motive. Time. Place.
