{"id":39557,"date":"2017-11-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/city-council-candidate-dresses-as-clown-scares-voters\/"},"modified":"2017-11-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-06T00:00:00","slug":"city-council-candidate-dresses-as-clown-scares-voters","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/city-council-candidate-dresses-as-clown-scares-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council Candidate Dresses as Clown, Scares Voters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pat Payaso is currently running for an open seat on Boston&#39;s city council&mdash;and he recently got an idea for a creative way to campaign.<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;Payaso&quot; translates to &quot;clown&quot; in Spanish; according to a report in <em class=\"citation\">TIME<\/em>, Payaso &quot;donned a rainbow wig, a red nose, and clown makeup in recent campaign photos and videos on social media.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>But then he actually showed up at a polling place with the clown costume, and people were a little scared: &quot;Police tell The Boston Herald that Pat Payaso&#39;s presence near a polling location at Roxbury Community College made some people nervous &hellip; and they called the authorities.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Later, an officer stopped Payaso and &quot;realized he wasn&#39;t a threat.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Potential Preaching Angles: Payaso wasn&#39;t<\/em> trying <em>to terrify anyone (at least, we hope not)&mdash;he just wanted to spread the word about his campaign and garner some interest from potential voters. But the way he did it ended up being far from fun. Now think about the ways you try to share the gospel and the good news about your faith: Are you making friends, family, or coworkers feel comfortable and safe as you tell them why you believe what you believe? Or might they feel confused or judged?<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3458,3477,3599,3672,3897,3977,4048,4096,4476,4546,4579,4749,5025,5283,5284,5292],"tax_ctp_topics":[395],"class_list":["post-39557","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-authenticity","tax_ctp_tags-behavior","tax_ctp_tags-christlikeness","tax_ctp_tags-confusion","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-fear-of-death","tax_ctp_tags-gentleness","tax_ctp_tags-great-commission","tax_ctp_tags-mission","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-outreach","tax_ctp_tags-pursuing-sinners","tax_ctp_tags-soul-winning","tax_ctp_tags-witness","tax_ctp_tags-witnessing","tax_ctp_tags-words"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>City Council Candidate Dresses as Clown, Scares Voters - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/city-council-candidate-dresses-as-clown-scares-voters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"City Council Candidate Dresses as Clown, Scares Voters - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pat Payaso is currently running for an open seat on Boston&#039;s city council&mdash;and he recently got an idea for a creative way to campaign. &quot;Payaso&quot; translates to &quot;clown&quot; in Spanish; according to a report in TIME, Payaso &quot;donned a rainbow wig, a red nose, and clown makeup in recent campaign photos and videos on social Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/city-council-candidate-dresses-as-clown-scares-voters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/city-council-candidate-dresses-as-clown-scares-voters\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/city-council-candidate-dresses-as-clown-scares-voters\/\",\"name\":\"City Council Candidate Dresses as Clown, Scares Voters - 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