Street preachers a bit more subdued

A smaller and more subdued group of street preachers yelled slogans and brandished signs in downtown Salt Lake City Saturday as LDS Church members brushed past them on the way to the church's 174th Semiannual General Conference.

Street preachers and protesters have become staples at the April and October conferences held by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There have been a few arrests and clashes in the past, but this year things seemed quieter.

That was attributed by some street preachers to a pending federal lawsuit. The suit alleges the city's "buffer zones" for protesters — which keep them off the block of Main Street sold to the church by the city — violate the protesters' First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and speech.

"There are too many legalities up there," said Ruben Israel, gesturing toward the church-owned block of Main Street from a North Temple sidewalk across the intersection, "so we're here."

Israel owns a construction company in Los Angeles and is a non-denominational Christian. He comes to Utah twice a year for the conferences and also in June for the Gay Pride Parade to preach that eternal salvation comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.

But at the same time LDS faithful were gathering, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Bobby Welch, just happened to arrive in town Saturday night at the First Baptist Church of West Valley City on a 50-state tour. Street protesters took their signs from Temple Square to West Valley City to protest Welch as well.

"We don't just go after Mormons," Israel said outside the Baptist church holding his sign, "we're an equal-opportunity rebuker."

Protesters told Utah baptists that they should have been outside Temple Square protesting. Israel said he is upset that Welsh and the Southern Baptist Convention have chosen to befriend the LDS Church, whom he believes are not Christian. "Pretty soon we're all going to be one big church," Israel said.

Congregation members were advised by local Rev. Jim Harding to give them no notice. When asked to comment about the protesters, Welch said they were in no way associated with the Southern Baptist Convention and would not interfere with local Southern Baptists' plans to do "god's work."

"We believe you don't need a pope or a Joseph Smith, you can have a relationship with God," Israel said while protesting downtown, adding that the word "Protestant" evolved from the word "protest."

"That's what we're doing, in the spirit of Martin Luther," Israel said.

Another street preacher from Los Angeles, Dean Christian, said he does not think confronting conferencegoers will result in immediate changes, but it might cause Mormons to reconsider their beliefs.