Subway Preachers Speak of God - Riders Rush By

Speaking of God, as Souls Hurry By
By JAMES ESTRIN

The graffiti has been replaced by advertising. The tokens have been replaced by MetroCards. But the subway preachers are a constant. They were there before I was born and will likely be there after I die — unless, of course, their occasional prophecy of the exact date that the world will end turns out to be accurate.

Some hand out leaflets quietly while others shout passages from the Bible. Some have a strict schedule; others show up whenever they are moved to do so. There seems to be little uncertainty of mission, no sign of existential angst. Most are Christian, servants of Jesus, but there is the occasional Hasidic Jew wandering the concourses. These proselytizers do not, generally, ask for much. You don’t have to give them money to buy a sandwich, and you’re not really obliged to feel guilty if you look away. If you take a tract or ask a question, you’ve gone well beyond your civic duty. Most riders ignore them. Over the past few months, I did not.



JOHN OKORN, 71

OBSERVED Quietly handing out tracts one Saturday at 6 p.m. in the Atlantic Avenue station in Downtown Brooklyn.

BACKGROUND A retired optical engineer from Long Island, he has been preaching in the subway at least once a week since 1994, partly in response to his deep disappointment after believing a radio minister who predicted that the world would end that year.

MESSAGE Christians should not participate in Halloween.

“Halloween is a pagan holiday. You cannot worship God and then worship idols and witches and demons. I used to do it myself. People do these things because they don't know the truth. I use other tracts at other times of the year. When was the Messiah born? Not on Christmas. There's no such thing as Christmas. There's no such thing as Good Friday or Palm Sunday either.”

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MICHAEL AITCHISON, 55

OBSERVED A Sunday at 3:30 p.m., handing out religious tracts in the Times Square station and having calm conversations with those who stop.

BACKGROUND He is a psychiatric social worker who runs a psychiatric unit in an upstate prison.

MESSAGE The world will end May 21, 2011.

“The day of rapture is the end of God's mercy. It is the day when those who are believers will be caught up in Christ in the air. That is also the beginning of Judgment Day, which is a five-month period that will start with a huge earthquake. On Oct. 21, 2011, the heavens and the earth will burned up in fire.”

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SERGIO TORRES, 26

OBSERVED A Sunday at 3:30 p.m., reading from the Bible very loudly in the Times Square station.

BACKGROUND He said he was “not with a church” and preached when he was moved to do so.

MESSAGE The word of God is the absolute truth.

“People don't want to believe in an omnipotent God creating all of this. They just want to believe in science, evolution or whatever makes them comfortable in order to live the life they want to live. What people don't understand is every day they are watched by God. If they don't believe him, that doesn't make him go away.”

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ERICK CHARLES, 61

OBSERVED Quietly holding a sign in Grand Central Station, as he does every third Sunday.

BACKGROUND He emigrated from Haiti in 1976 and attends church in Harlem.

MESSAGE To remind people about God, and death.

“In the next hour, you don't know what's going to happen to you. Me, too. You could drop dead. We all have to go, one by one. You will meet God as your savior or your judge. We just came here for a while. After this world, there will be a new world. I know for sure everybody has to go.”

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YAHAV GAL, 22

OBSERVED Asking passers-by, “Are you a Jew?” on a Sunday at 1 p.m. in Times Square.

BACKGROUND A Lubavitcher Hasid from Israel who was visiting Brooklyn in September for the holidays, and, “if the Moshiach” — Hebrew for Messiah — “doesn't come in the next few minutes,” planned to return to study at the movement's headquarters there.

MESSAGE To help secular Jews observe holiday rituals, like shaking the lulav last month for Sukkot.

“We try today to get Jews to say thank you to God and bless God. We hope that every mitzvah that a Jew does will bring closer the Moshiach.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 31, 2010

Because of an editing error, an article in some editions last Sunday about preachers on the New York subway misidentified the language in which “Moshiach” means messiah. The word is Hebrew, not Yiddish.

Subway Preachers Speak of God - Riders Rush By - NYTimes.com.