THE EDITOR, Sir:

The recent flap over preaching on buses was a bit revealing. It would seem our fixation with hellfire-and-brimstone religion is well entrenched.

I recall, as a schoolboy during the early 1960s in Montego Bay, a street evangelist who took the Word to all in the city. He did not just occupy a street corner, but delivered sermons anywhere or anytime "two or three were gathered".

Like many evangelists, he took his calling most seriously, with a great deal of fervour and zeal. He became known as 'Bun Up'. I don't believe Bun Up was one to quibble about the number of souls he delivered into the kingdom. His mission was simply to deliver the Word.

His white, long-sleeved shirt clung to his skin, wet with perspiration. Bible in his right hand a kerchief in the other, he would seek to get right up in the faces of his audience. He would pounce on passers-by. Some, embarrassed, would try to turn away, so as to not face him squarely.

Quoting scripture and stabbing the air with his fingers, he would stamp his left foot and declare, "Yu fi bun!" or "Yu mus' bun!" As schoolchildren, we saw this as a spectacle and tried not to snicker.

I later heard that Bun Up took this in-your-face approach into the 'tourist' areas (Hip Strip) and, predictably, commercial interests prevailed.

This may seem heavy-handed to some, but the right of the individual cannot supersede or infringe on the collective rights of others. He is already endowed with the right to ignore or totally disagree with my opinions.

MICHAEL R. CAMPBELL

Hopewell PO, Hanover