There’s now, apparently, an epidemic of Christians who get on planes and begin preaching when they know they finally have a captive audience. Evangelist Whitney Lynn, one of the more notorious culprits of this, even said as much in a recent TikTok post: “I just love a captive audience.”


The fact that the sermons are unwanted doesn’t bother the evangelists at all because, for once, they have an audience that can’t walk away. And the hope that strangers might convert outweighs any concern that they’ll conclude Christians are lunatics.

There’s unfortunately very little airline staff can do to stop this. While there are rules regarding passengers who are disobedient or belligerent, preaching doesn’t necessarily cross a line. Flight attendants can politely ask them to stop, but I have yet to see any examples of plane preachers getting kicked off flights because they wouldn’t shut up.

Which means we’re just stuck with the possibility Christians may hijack a flight with their voices.

How is this not being belligerent? What if this was a MAGAt doing this (probably already is)?

If anything, this seems like a quick way for a fellow passenger to get annoyed and punch out the disruptive preacher. If this happened on a plane I was on, I’d clap for the person who decked the preacher. It really says something about how this “religion” is dying off if thos is a tactic they’re resorting to.

*Edit: if I were the flight crew, I’d start by asking the passenger to sit down. If they didn’t I’d warn the passenger with something like:

Ma’am, you are continuing to be being a disruption despite being told you knock it off. You can either sit down and be quiet, or you will be sat down and quieted. Please take your seat.

Then if they still insited, I’d either have an air marshall “take care of them” them, or I would.

  • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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    43 minutes ago

    I would probably respond to every line he says with something like “Lucifer accepts your praise” “The darklord knows that you keep him in your heart” "Each prayer strengthens your beloved Satan, he casts a boon to all his worshippers. What do you ask of him? " ad infinitum…

    • odelik@lemmy.today
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      33 minutes ago

      I’d do the same thing to a plane preacher as I do to street preachers (which are quite common at large events in my city).

      Get up in their face, throw some devil horns, and start shouting, " Haiiiiiiiiil Satan! Come on my brethren, haaaaaaaail Satan!"

      If they continue, I repeat. Every fucking time some other randos start shouting hail Satan too and the preacher eventually moves on.

      Gonna trap me with your insane shit? Well, by all means then, you get to deal with my bottled up insane shit.

    • isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 hours ago

      I would start accusing her of all sorts of horrible things.

      “Nobody is this aggressively preachy unless they’re trying to deflect from something!”

      “What are you trying to hide!”

      “Let’s get the cops to look at your hard drive!”

      “I wonder if you’re in the Epstein files!”

      Normally I don’t casually accuse people of pedophilia. But frankly, among this obnoxious of a Christian, the odds really aren’t that bad.

  • Mwa
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    4 hours ago

    Why not do this in church?

  • Røøk@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    someone put the radical religious fundamentalists endangering others on a plane on the no fly list and charged them with federal crimes right?

  • mcv@lemmy.zip
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    6 hours ago

    Look, I am a Christian, and I don’t want this either. Don’t do this, okay? It’s a shitty thing to do, and I’m pretty sure there’s a commandment against that.

  • Lena@gregtech.eu
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    6 hours ago

    You can walk away from them on a street, but on an airplane, you’re stuck with an annoying preacher for hours

    • Sunflier@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 hours ago

      A literal captive audience. That’s pretty much the point I think: you can’t get away from them. They are forcing themselves on you without your consent. Its somewhat analogous to rape. Nowhere near as disgusting, but its on the same tree.

  • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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    10 hours ago

    A passenger next to them could always ring the call button and say “this (wo)man just grabbed my nutsack.”

  • kreskin@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Airlines can put them on the no fly list and the problem is solved.

    Also from google “the FAA enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy and can propose civil penalties exceeding $40,000 per violation for unruly behavior or refusing to obey crew instructions”

    Airlines which choose not to do this are complicit with the obnoxious preachers.

  • KingPorkChop@lemmy.ca
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    23 hours ago

    There’s unfortunately very little airline staff can do to stop this. While there are rules regarding passengers who are disobedient or belligerent, preaching doesn’t necessarily cross a line. Flight attendants can politely ask them to stop, but I have yet to see any examples of plane preachers getting kicked off flights because they wouldn’t shut up.

    100% if someone got up preaching Islam or Satan, they’d get kicked off and put on the no fly list.

    • hansolo@lemmy.today
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      23 hours ago

      “My fellow passengers, let’s all say a brief prayer to the elemental force of air, which gives us lift.”

      Far more relevant than a shepherd from ancient Judea. WTF does a sheep boy know about airplanes?

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    theres nothing they can do cause shes white and christian.

    Get a muslim imam up there and I bet you they divert the airplane and have a tactical squad ready at the gate.

    • mlg@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      They diverted some AA flight a couple of months ago because some guy’s phone alarm went off in his checked bag lmao.