If Only He Were Driving an Atheist Bus…

LeRoy Matthews led people in prayer on Tuesday night. And now, he’s in trouble,

The reason? He led the prayer while driving a Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority bus… And he wouldn’t let passengers out until the prayer was over.

In the complaint, the passenger told MARTA officials the bus was traveling northbound when it stopped at the corner of Northlake Parkway and Lavista Road.

As the passenger, whose name was not released, approached the front of the bus, Matthews stood from his seat and asked everyone to hold hands for a brief word of prayer.

Maybe Matthews and Angela Shiel should form some sort of Christian bus driver union…

It’ll be tough for Matthews to spin his way out of this one and who knows if he’ll learn his lesson in the five days during which he’s suspended. It’s bad enough that he’s wasting his own time by praying, but he has no right to waste the time of others or, even worse, not give them the option of getting off the bus.

(Thanks to Ashes for the link!)

The Other Tom

He HELLD HIS PASSENGERS CAPTIVE AGAINST THEIR WILL while demanding they pray? Why aren’t criminal kidnapping charges being filed against this man?
Matto the Hun

I’m with The Other Tom… I’d have called the cops.

Then again I might have also punched the son of a bitch in the face.
Matto the Hun

Perhaps I should say that I’d like to punch him in the face but in reality I wouldn’t.

That would only make me look like the bad guy.

Though I wouldn’t give a damn I someone else did it.
muggle

This would have got ugly real fast if I were on that bus. I’d have called the cops and the bus company on my cell and got into it with him. I wouldn’t have got physical unless he did but I sure as hell would have gotten loud.
1minion

I’m slightly amused by the website and its link to “A guide to nuts” below the story. Sadly they mean real healthy nuts, not unhealthy religious nuts. Darn.
Heidi

Oh, there would have been words… Go ahead, buddy. Hit a girl and see where it gets you. Because there’s no other way you’re going to stop me getting off the prayer bus. FFS.
wackadoodle

He HELLD HIS PASSENGERS CAPTIVE AGAINST THEIR WILL while demanding they pray? Why aren’t criminal kidnapping charges being filed against this man?

He’s a christian, so he’ll get a slap on a wrist and people defending him because “he was just thinking of their salvation…”.

Meanwhile if a scientologist pulled this same stunt he’d be in jail and every single person would agree he’s an idiot for trying to get the bus to buy his thetan nonsense.
MYDJCROW

Things would have definitely gotten pretty violent if the bus driver had seriously refused to let me off the bus.

That’s just asking for it.
Pseudonym

OK, let me preface this by agreeing that this guy should have been sacked.

But… what in in the name of His Noodly Appendage is an “Atheist Bus”?
Jonas

I think if I were trapped in this situation, I’d :
1. Insist on praying to the Flying Spagetti Monster
1a. To be safe, pray to the Invisible Pink Uniciorn

1b. Pray to Allah, Zeus, Athena Thor, RA — No wait correction: suggest I can just shoot RA with gun, because that’s ‘What Jack Oneill would do?’

2. Ask why, Should I pray you are not DUI, or DWI ?
3. Be sure to get his name, operator license time & bus number, so I could report him.
Erisian

I’m a polytheist who worships the gods of strife and discord and my parents are Catholics who rarely, if ever, go to church. Even my mom went “HUH? Why did he (the bus driver) do that?” when I told her about this.

You can bet if I had been on that bus, I would have antagonised him to no end. But then, I *am* a priestess of strife 😉

Hehehe! When he’s finished his forced prayer group, I would have begun an invocation of Eris and her children. And if he objected to it, I would then call him on his hypocrisy!
Richard Wade

He’s probably 30 years younger than me, but I know if he had tried to keep me from leaving, my foot would be in his chest and his ass would be sticking through the windshield.
Paul Lundgren

As Richard Dawkins is fond of saying, there are no Christian buses, only the buses of Christian parents.

Seriously, does this guy have a history of religious delusion, or is this a recent convert trying to impress people with his piety?
Lost Left Coaster

I live in Washington, DC, and a bus driver here was recently charged with kidnapping for refusing to let a particular passenger (with whom he had had a disagreement, no religion involved) disembark when he wanted to. He was also, I’m pretty sure, fired, which is the least of what they should do to this bus driver, who held all of his passengers hostage.
Joffan

It wasn’t just “Thankyou Jesus for bringing us safe to this stop” – it was four to five minutes of supernatural babbling. I would have had the emergency exit window open after thirty seconds, and the engine cut-off (if any) would have been my next stop.
martymankins

Why do the ultra religious feel like they have to do this? are they so laden with fear of the non-believers that their wackness will be taken away from them?

These actions only prove what idiots these people are.

Maybe he can start his own bus company that only allows Christians on board.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil

I would have gotten off the bus, even if I had to beat this idiot into a bloody bag of broken bones. When you prevent anyone from freely moving from where they are to where they want to go, that’s kidnapping and you are legally permitted to resist any criminal act.

I would have insisted that charges be filed and I would have demanded the county prosecutor’s office press those charges. If they declined, I would have escalated the issue as far as it took to see real justice done.
Phillip Vector

Bus companies are more powerful then you may realize. I once got run over by one (seriously) and *I* had to pay *THEM* for the window I broke as I was getting run over.

No, I didn’t get any kind of settlement or anything. Once the lawyers I talked to found out it was the local bus company (Tri-Met), they backed off and wouldn’t touch the case.

Bus companies have power because the city needs them to transport people. So it’s unlikely that any suit brought against them would ever get a verdict in the persons favor.