The number of street preachers in the Netherlands is increasing, and with it, the nuisance in some municipalities. This emerged from an NOS survey of multiple municipalities.
Of the 18 municipalities contacted, nine said that street preaching has become more prominent. They include Amersfoort, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Groningen, Dronten, Kampen, Tilburg, Zwolle, and Nijmegen.
Residents in Kampen, Tilburg, and Groningen are also experiencing more nuisance from the preachers who try to convert others to their religion. Tilburg, for example, received only one complaint last year, but this year there have been 28 so far. The reports concern, among other things, the volume at which preaching is done, the repetition of the same points, and the “poor singing and speaking skills of the street preachers.”
Theologians interviewed by NOS said that periods of crisis, such as the present, motivate evangelists. Like-minded people can also easily encourage each other to join in.
“Here in Zwolle they use a megaphone, and that has quite a range, but I can’t intervene with that,” Mayor Peter Snijders (VVD) said. The only thing he said he can do is urge the street preachers to move to a different location. “But if an evangelist doesn’t want to, as a mayor I have no grounds to stand on.”
