A video has gone viral of a short-term missions worker preaching in the gate area of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Was her conduct appropriate?
The Amsterdam Airport Preacher: Woman Boldly Preaches In the Gate Area Of AMS
A young woman had just concluded a three-day missions trip to Amsterdam, where time was spent proselytizing to drug dealers and prostitutes in Amsterdam’s famous red light district. Before her flight back, she decided to offer one more sermon to those in the gate area at AMS:
Our girl preached in the airport on our way home from our mission trip and she proclaimed passionately, full of the Spirit and love! This is how we catch flights ✈️ pic.twitter.com/oyxP923QXK
— N I A – C E R I S E (@niacerise) August 16, 2022
Her sermon has now gone viral, with the internet divided on how to process her actions. I’m not a scholar of the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ constitution, but my understanding is that free speech and religious exercise rights are broad, so let’s assume, for this discussion at least, that her conduct was not illegal.
At first, this incident reminded me of the “prayergate” incident at American Airlines, in which a gate agent offered a Christian prayer over the loudspeaker at Washington National Airport. In that incident, I said a gate agent’s prayer was “beautiful, unoffensive, but inappropriate.”
“When religious expression becomes a mouthpiece (literally in this case) to which others are subjected, hostility and resentment grows and religious expression and eventually religious liberty suffers. This is true whether the speaker is the government (especially) but also corporations to captive crowds in public places.”
> Read More: My Thoughts On “Prayergate” At American Airlines
Here, though, we don’t have a government agent or an airline employee doing this on company time, but a passenger. There is a difference.
Part of me marvels at the courage of the young woman for expressing her faith so boldly and so openly. I also do not see the pride or obnoxiousness that often accompany soap box preachers. But part of me thinks that even though her intentions were above reproach and words unoffensive, subjecting a captive audience to any sort of speech is problematic (though I suppose here, unlike an airplane, people can walk away).
I Peter 3:13-16, an epistle of the Apostle Peter in the New Testament of the Bible, addresses the topic of witnessing to others:
“Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.”
Notice what is implicated in offering a reason for the hope that is within you? You are first asked. And it should be done with gentleness and respect.
We can certainly have a debate whether preaching in an airport gate area is gentle or respectful. I can see both sides of that issue. But one reason that I would hesitate to speak in that manner is because I would not ever want to be bombarded with preaching, religious, political, or otherwise, when I am trying to work or converse in an airport gate area.
I recently visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, which currently includes an exhibit honoring the late Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town. This quote really made me pause and reflect:
“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”
Over the centuries, the Bible has been warped and misinterpreted to justify a number of atrocities. Furthermore, we’ve seen people justify heinous action in the name of God, which gets to the heart of what it means to take the Lord’s name in vain.
As I look at my own Christian faith, I realize my witness is meaningless if I do not live a life that backs up the faith that I espouse. Hollow words are far more damning than no words at all. And while I am willing and able (and will joyfully) attest to the hope that is within me to anyone who asks, I am convicted that building relationships first, then sharing the gospel in a “show don’t tell” way is the better strategy. Ultimately, I contend it is God who draws and God who gives faith, so it is actually not up to human cleverness to convince others to believe in Jesus.
And as a very brief aside, may I say that faith in Jesus is recognizing our brokenness and unworthiness and that His death and resurrection for our sins provided a way to be reconciled to God. It is not about living our best life now or living life to the fullest. It is not about a cosmic genie granting us the desires of our heart. It is about putting our faith, which will lead to a transformed life of goodness and healing toward others, in a God who is the creator, sustainer, redeemer, and friend.
CONCLUSION
I look with a certain degree of skepticism and yet a certain degree of appreciation for the young lady who preached in the gate area of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. That’s not something I would do…but I’m not ready to condemn her unlike a gate agent stealing time from his employer to do the same thing.
How about you? How would react to this? View From The Wing also offers his take on this issue here.
As long as she keeps it out of the Business Class lounge. It’s there I want to sin in peace.
LOL!
“ Religion is like a penis. It’s nice to have one and fine to be proud of, just don’t whip it out in public or shove it down someone else’s throat.”
Tasteless and non-productive remark
Truth!!!
That is why I only show up at the gate when the plane is boarding business class. It is a quick walk through the gate and into my seat. Almost zero people’s interaction.
More crimes have been perpetrated on humanity in the name of religion than anything else, besides probably just plain greed, but even there religion was used as cover.
No one should be proud of their religion or think we hold them in high esteem because they are religious, especially the nutjobs in the US that try to push their religion on everyone else.
This is patently false. Over 100 million humans have been murdered by (leftist) communist governments in the past 100 years.
Governments (leftist ones) have killed far more than religion. Of course, communism is a religion so we have to consider that complication…but most don’t think of communism as a religion.
LOL!! I just watched the video and I don’t think she realized that absolutely nobody was paying attention to her. She looked like a zombie just saying words and nobody cared. Feel bad for her. I hope she didn’t try the same onboard the plane.
She was being loud and arguably disruptive, I think that’s the end of the story. If it was any other passenger doing the same thing but not about religion, they would have been asked by airport workers to keep it quiet or be removed.
Absolutely not ok. Imagine if this was an Apple or Android fanboy giving a passionate speech about their product. Who cares? It’s not the place to give speeches, no one asked for or expects that.
Especially when it comes to a religion that has killed so many others in the name of “saving them from eternal damnation”, I think any Jew would get the shudders just remembering the massacres of almost 2,000 years of Christianity. You want to proselytize, don’t do it where people who have come for a different purpose are congregated.
As if people traveling through AMS haven’t suffered enough this summer…
LOL.
I went through Schiphol last week with my family back from vacation in Europe. Got there way in advance of our flight expecting the worst. In and out of security within 5 minutes, water bottle brought from the hotel was OK. Passport check took maybe 10 minutes. All checked bags arrived safely from the flight from Italy into Amsterdam and from Amsterdam into the US. No issues at all.
Outliers always exist.
Loud talking and not wearing a N95 mask. Bad.
As long as it would have been equally acceptable for her to preach satanism, then that’s fine. Most people want an elevated allowance for religion, but only their religion.
Well…many airports have had CNN “preaching” their leftist religious beliefs for decades…so we have had to endure religious preaching at US airports (international ones too?) for many, many years.
And yes, leftism is a religion.
Please, for your own sake and for that of everyone around you, get some mental help that you desperately need.
TOTALLY AGREE. So is conservativism, more specifically as the MAGA / Trump loving crowd acts its fascism
No. Not okay with me. I am a Christian, so it isn’t the message I disagree with. It’s the delivery.
She’s basically shouting at people in an enclosed space. I do not see those people as free to leave, because a passenger is required to be in the gate area prior to boarding. At 30 seconds in she starts pointing a finger in people’s faces. At this point, I’m done.
Shouting and pointing in people’s faces is not acting in accordance with the Biblical passage cited above: “gentleness and respect”.
As for it not being offensive, I can certainly see how some people would find it to be.
Paradoxically, I think that behavior like this is more likely to turn people from religion than toward it.
I don’t think behavior like this should be made illegal, but I hope not to encounter this with any regularity.
In the US she would’ve been banned from the flight and arrested if she was preaching about Islam.
Why is it ok to carry a Confederate flag in the US but not an al Qaida flag? Both were/are opposed to the US government and their followers are enemies of the US.
The only explanation i can come up with is that confederacy is so utterly defeated and it’s followers are such losers that the US government does not consider them a threat. Confederacy was as much terrorism as alqaida is today.
Where can’t you fly an al Queda flag in the US?
Thats because if she was preaching Islam in an airport it probably would have been followed by terrorism.
@chad
Nonsense.
A certain day in September back in 2001 disagrees.
Yes and thousands and thousands of other days disagree with your statement.
I just don’t understand the whole concept of American missionaries. The “prostitutes and drug dealers” she is preaching to are probably employed legally, and are supported with an income, healthcare, and have the security of the Dutch social net to fall back on to. There are churches everywhere in the Netherlands, and it’s likely they’d heard of God/Jesus/Allah/Etc. before they arrived.
It is just so presumptuous to me to think you are doing some sort of benefit going to another country to apparently teach other people “the way.” If this woman really believed in the teachings of Jesus Christ, she would be working hard to provide food/shelter/support to the people in the town she lives in who need it. She could do this by sharing her resources, or lobbying her government or elected officials to take care of victims of drugs, the uninsured, or other people who need help. People in the Netherlands need nothing from her.
I might have missed something but where does it say she is American? More to the point, when did Missionary work become exclusively “American?” I have encountered in my travels missionaries from all over the world.
It didn’t say she was American. It looks like I made that assumption incorrectly. I’ve always viewed missionaries as somewhat of an American phenomenon. Whenever you land in Honduras, or Guatemala, or Nicaragua it always seems like half of the arrivals hall is American teenagers arriving on a church group “mission trip.” I don’t think this is nearly as common in Europe, Australia, or even Canada, but I suppose I could be wrong. I have encountered American missionaries all over the world, in fact I often chat with the LDS ones and buy them ice cream. I cannot recall ever coming across a missionary anywhere that wasn’t American, but as this woman appears to be from the UK, there is indeed at least one out there.
Regardless, American or not, I think my point about helping those less fortunate than you at home is still a salient point.
She is obviously British.
I am sure she just forgot to read Matthew verse. Complete oversight on her part. It’s not a part of my bible so I’ve only read it in passing, but it’s still probably the best thing ever written about public prayer.
Mr Klint
How did your manage to get anything done before CNN broadcasts were eliminated at/in airport gate areas?
Whether something is considered illegal by an enemy government or police state should not be a factor in how we judge something. Slavery was the law for thousands of years and speech is criminalized in Europe. Often the law of government is the real crime and injustice.
No one will ever be punished by God for telling the truth. It may not be a good strategy and be a waste of time, resources, and political capital. It’s guaranteed most will never give up sin. Well meaning but dumb christians only undermine Christianity when they seek to open it up to the masses. We have gay weddings and divorced weddings in some churches. Missionaries sought to christianize what were deemed as “savages” in the Americas which only guaranteed interaction with incompatible groups that has brought nothing but violence and an ill society. We should be focusing on protecting the freedom for real christians so we are not bankrupted for not baking a cake and are not forced to hire those who embolden sin. Missionaries would do better helping their own families and kids and taking them on better vacations and giving the better houses and experiences. Maybe they’ll have more positive fulfillment that way so they don’t turn to sin. A house needs a solid foundation before it can help others. Taking care of your immediate family is the best thing missionaries can do for Christianity.
@Jerry
No real Christian ever would encourage government to take care of people funded through coercion which is exactly what taxation is. Nothing belongs to caesar which is how Jesus was able to trick the evildoers who wanted him to incriminate himself. Christianity is based on charity and good will, not coercion.
A person financially supporting themselves is not the primary concern for God according to Jesus. You may have short term benefit selling yourself to sin but will pay dearly in the long run in this life and the afterlife. Same goes for adultery, not saving oneself for marriage, divorce, habitual drunkardness, and etc.
I was under the impression that John the Baptist baptized tax collectors, and that Paul told us to pay what we owe because the authorities were working for God. I guess neither of them mentioned the 16th amendment, so I suppose it’s up to interpretation.
“speech is criminalized in Europe”
Hate speech is, yes.
The walking around while seeking interaction of strangers is the most egregious part. A nuisance to weary travelers needing to relax or focus. A complication to security – in being able to quickly identify a simultaneous event where law enforcement need to act.
Proselytizing from one stationary position would still be a burdensome imposition to everyone else using the space as intended – but at least less so.