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What is it about being in an enclosed space, surrounded by people who can’t escape, that makes evangelical Christians even more insufferable than usual?

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.”

@whitneylynn123I just love a captive audience. 😄 About 200 people on that plane got to hear the Gospel! I didn’t get many hecklers on the flight, but I sure did once I started preaching in the airport. It doesn’t bother me at all. That kind of boldness and thick skin only comes from Jesus. I have the truth, the power of God, and time is running out. Jesus is coming back, and people need to hear the Gospel again and again. Many of them will never step foot in a church—you might be the only messenger God sends. Let’s be bold in these last days. 🙏🔥 Whitneylynn.org | Igniteyourlightkidz.com | Spotify #Jesus #Jesuschrist #airplane #sandiego #gospel

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But she’s hardly alone, according to travel reporter Hannah Sampson of the Washington Post:

There have been viral guitar-led worship services in the air, hours-long prayer and song sessions, and quick messages during a flight delay. Where some people see admirable boldness, many recoil at the thought of an unwanted sermon.

“That would be my nightmare,” someone wrote in response to an “open air airplane preaching” video posted on TikTok in June. “Can’t even walk away.”

“The way I would open that emergency exit,” another person wrote. Someone else weighed in: “This is why I drive.”

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.

Can you even imagine sitting in a middle seat, on a delayed plane, near someone who wants to be the flight’s Main Character? You thought crying babies on a plane were annoying? They can’t control themselves. This grown-ass woman decided the one thing everyone needed to hear on a plane was her annoying voice preaching a message most people wouldn’t want to hear off the plane.

Just as if someone does this on a subway, most passengers seem to respond with eye-rolls and silence. Just another crazy passenger. But silence isn’t the same as consent. You have to feel for the people who hoped to take a nap, do some work, or just enjoy the brief respite from the annoying Christians who exist in all the other realms of their lives.

There are ways to push back, though.

While flight attendants may be hesitant to tell an evangelist to be quiet, it’s a lot easier to do it when other passengers make that specific request. They can say the preaching is disturbing, document it on their phones, and complain to the airline later—at some point, the bad publicity for the airline could pressure them to set ground rules about what sort of outbursts are acceptable. They can also, as one Reddit user suggested, blast popular music over the preaching so that the evangelist can’t post this sermon online without running afoul of copyright issues.

Or they can remind the evangelist of Matthew 6:5.

Other Christians have an especially important role here, too. If they believe faith shouldn’t be imposed like this, they should be the loudest people condemning this behavior—in real time if they’re fellow passengers and later if they hear about it.

All of this reeks of Christian privilege. These kinds of stunts would never be tolerated—even for a moment—if the evangelists weren’t Christian.

It’s telling that these Christians believe a captive audience is the best way to spread their message. They’re basically admitting other people wouldn’t listen to them otherwise. The only thing they accomplish with their impromptu sermons is reminding people why they should avoid Christians when they have the option.

(Portions of this article were published earlier)