Here is a news story about some people I’m acquainted with going to a local high school to protest abortion. The tactic this group has chosen is to display graphic signs of what abortion really is. I know some people disagree with this type of advocacy but, the more I think about it, the more I realize how necessary it is. Frankly, it works. High school teens are encouraged to engage in sexual activity (evidenced by permissive sex education) and then, when (oops!) the condom fails, they’re permitted to get abortions without parental consent or notification (actually, they’re allowed as young as age 12, in California). Before they make that decision, teens really should be informed about what abortion is and what it means for their baby. Yes, it’s gruesome and disgusting. They need to know that. There is nothing “nice” or civilized about abortion. They need to be educated about its horrors so they can make an informed choice. If even just a few decent people are “shocked” enough by what they see then, thank God, it just might influence them to make the right decision.
Some people, like the mom in this story, don’t like anything displayed in public that is disgusting or bloody, presumably because it doesn’t jive with their delicate, carefree lifestyle. (It’s typically easier to ignore an atrocity than deal with it.) But since abortion is a constant reality for modern teenagers – and it doesn’t appear that it will “go away” anytime soon – it’s important for teens to be informed and told the truth. It doesn’t do anyone a good service to candy-coat reality. If we permit children to make adult decisions about sex and unwanted pregnancies, we need to treat them like adults when giving them information, too.
I’ve heard that the holocaust wasn’t strongly opposed in the United States until actual pictures were shown of the Nazi prison camps. It took a massive graphic-image campaign to educate people about the real horrors and inhumanity of the holocaust. Images will do what words often can’t. Abortion is a modern-day holocaust. Let the people see the pictures so they can know the truth. Maybe that’s the only way to build momentum to someday stop the killings.
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8 comments:
You pose an interesting point, one I'm sure many folks, Christians in particular, have conflicted over. I personally don't find the use of graphic images to be justified. When I had my small paralegal contracting gig going I worked with an attorney and we were representing a street preacher who frequently would employ these tactics. One of his favorites was to dress like the Grim Reaper and hold a sign of a decapitated baby's head in forceps with the caption "Why should God bless America"? Provocative, yes. Absolutely true, yes. The right thing to do - hmmm. I think that the Bible pretty clearly teaches us to speak the truth in love, so then I suppose the question becomes, "is it loving to show the graphic truth no matter how shocking?" Why do we not protest sexual predators, murder, rape or anything else with similarly graphic images? Are those vicitms any less innocent? Or is it just the abhorrent nature of abortion to the Christian ideal as compared to other crimes that causes us to find it a platform on which to transcend our normal cautions (and even indifference)? I think this is a volatile issue that warrants a case-by-case analysis and cannot be addressed with a broad-stroke ideal. Jesus of course used harsh and shocking methods at certain times but most often He did not. Not having the wisdom of God's Son I would definitely think twice before employing any methods of "righteous anger" towards other people. But that's just my opinion on a subject in which "opinions" have swallowed the moral absolute.
Dan
Dan,
You mention speaking truth in “love” – sometimes tough love is the best way to love someone. And sometimes “truth” is not pretty.
I think the rape/murder analogy is incomplete because, last time I checked, those things are illegal. There’s no injustice in the law concerning the crimes of rape and murder. What is so outrageous, however, is that our laws permit, encourage (and often require the taxpayers to fund!) the slaughtering of unborn children. People need to SEE what our laws permit, what is legal, what their elected representatives are allowing.
You mentioned something about “anger” – the people I know who hold these signs are not angry people but, rather, peace-loving individuals. They stay within the limits of the law and simply exercise their rights to freedom of speech on campus grounds. (By the way, I’m not the type of person who advocates breaking the law to demonstrate.)
When you merely speak (write, etc.) against the horrors of abortion, you can be easily ignored. When you SHOW the horrors of abortions, it’s much more difficult to be ignored. I think the fact that so many people are upset, disgusted, and outraged by these graphic posters is proof that the persons who peacefully display them are not only being effective, they’re doing something right. (You can find out more information on the effectiveness of these signs through Greg Cunningham’s GAP project: http://www.cbrinfo.org/gap.html.)
Still standing by my earlier statements,
Amy
When you read what the Bible says about those who put their babies through the fire...seems these photos are ok, if they help stem the tidal wave of the sexual and abortive sins of this nation. The time for the church and home to take care of things is long past, in general. (Too negligent for far too long). The innocent always suffer along with the guilty...stop and think what may happen to this country because of our gross sins?? Seems we need a few Jeremiahs in our streets...we need to repent FOR OUR NATION...and I think we do not do enough of it. We will pay for her sins! Count on it! Those kids in that high school are awfully brave and should be applauded! It made up my mind as a young woman when I first saw a little miscarried 13 week baby in a jar at a display at an indoor fair! I had no thoughts one way or another until then! (And being I am 52...in my day we were not encouraged by teachers to have illicite sex). We do need some who will try to provide the TRUTH to the many kids out there absolutely bombarded with false information! BECAUSE of the lies, that the baby is just a lump of tissue, requires graphic proof...otherwise the kids will not believe what they cannot see. Do keep standing on this one Amy!!
And by the way, is this not another encouragement for homeschooling? So your child will know the truth??? Seems so to me.
Elizabeth
I still think that prudence in choosing the venue and audience is very important here. How exposing a 5 year old to images of a mutilated baby helps to educate a sinful nation somehow escapes me. Given the child's age and maturity it might be one thing but I think by and large I would not want to expose small children to graphic images no matter how just the cause. I wasn't advocating a strictly written or verbal compaign against abortion, I simply think that caution is in order. Your point about the legality of abortion v. rape, murder etc. is one I hadn't thought of. If you handed out literature to adults with pictures or tried to target primarily adult venues I personally would find that more palatable then in front of a gradeschool. But I suppose you have to balance that idea with the fact that most schools these days show quite graphic things to children in the name of education... interesting to think about.
Dan: It's high school. The pictures are not being shown to five-year-olds. They are being shown to "kids" who are treated like adults on the abortion issue (emancipated).
In Dan's defense--what about the parent picking their high schooler up with their 5-year old in the back seat?
Having said that, I am torn. I think in a country where most high schoolers are paying money to see graphic violence at the movie theatre, that we shouldn't be too concerned about their sensibilities.
However, just because most are seeing this, doesn't mean all. Aren't these particular demonstrations better off taking place at abortion mills? That seems more appropriate to me. That is the correct target audience.
And while the group that Amy knows may not be acting in anger or with a lack of love, many are. I think a lot of abortion demonstrators forget they are dealing with people sometimes, real people, stuck in what seems to them insurmountable situations that they don't know how to deal with.
While I have participated in an Operation Rescue protest (as prayer support--where curses were cast upon us, a priest was physically assaulted in front of me, and we were squeezed together by ActUp demonstrators until we could nearly breathe), I have become convinced that the best way is through CPC's--free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds and a loving listening ear, that can provide suggestions for another way to desperate women uncertain of what to do.
I have a dear friend who has had an abortion and I myself came two days from being aborted before God intervened through unexpected encounters with loving individuals who offered solutions and care. I once went on a protest (a different one than the Op Rescue) and a friend of mine started screaming at the the women entering the clinic "babykillers." I told him I couldn't be there with him if he couldn't realize that these women didn't all know what they were doing and that they were so emotionally clouded that they probably weren't going to from our protest. Somehow we have to recognize in this wretched problem that there are two people that God loves--Mother and Child. And as with Terri Schiavo, I believe the Child is the better-off after abortion; he is with Jesus and it is the Mother who lives with the guilt and loss for the rest of her life. We have to get a little better at loving everyone involved. -rlr
Rachelle,
I totally agree with you - we need to reach out to moms considering abortions because, obviously, they're going through a very rough, emotional time. In fact, I have a friend who started a ministry to moms in unwanted pregnancies called "Love Them Both," and I really admire his efforts in this regard. I also applaud the CPCs (or I think their called something else nowadays, maybe PRCs??) and the valiant work they do.
With regard to taking the signs to the abortion mills only, the reason I would disagree with that is because I think most of the battles being fought right now on the abortion front are taking place on high school and middle school campuses (and also college campuses). Based on my work in public policy, I've seen first hand what Planned Parenthood does in the public school system. They consistently (and successfully) wage their information-campaigns to teenagers in public school - only THEIR campaigns are inaccurate, misleading, and sugar-coat the issues, making abortion seem like a "reasonable choice."
If PP is so ardently fighting in the public schools, I applaud Truth Campaigns that go there as well. Students deserve to have both sides of the story – they deserve to SEE the truth.
Greg Cunningham (I gave his website in my first comment on this post) takes his message campaigns to many different venues - including mega churches, grocery and retail stores (specifically those who fund PP), colleges and universities, public beaches and parks, etc., etc. And astoundingly, considering the pro-lifers’ track record of successes (or lack thereof), he is being effective to change people's minds on abortions.
If you haven't noticed, since Roe v. Wade, the pro-life community has been LOSING the fight. Thank God that people like Cunningham have the insight to know how to truly make a difference ... let the people SEE the truth.
And I realize that some young children may be exposed to some signs - although they are not the target audience. Children are also exposed to x-rated porn videos being played in other cars in the roadways in this day and age (I testified on a bill that would have banned this but it failed in committee). If the child's eyes can't be shielded from it by his parent, and he's even mature enough to ASK questions about it, then I guess it would present a golden learning opportunity on the terrible, outrageous, unjust state of our legal system. Some kids grow up in war zones and are exposed to horrific evils at an early age – I’m not advocating intentionally throwing children into violent situations. But … if a child is exposed to this kind of stuff, I think making the most of it is better than the alternative of losing the abortion debate by, again, candy-coating what it really is.
-Amy
Anonymous: My comments have been directed at protesting abortion on a whole - not with any specific regard to the article Amy posted. With respect to the article I think that a highschool is probably a place where graphic pictures SHOULD be shown. Without having any real data or statistics to back this up, it would seem that teenagers are probably one of the foremost social groups that wind up facing whether or not to have an abortion. My comments go more to folks like the fellow that we represented, the grim reaper guy in the main square down town. I think we can probably all agree at the end of the day that abortion is an abomination. If anyone were ever in doubt I'd suggest they Google post-abortion images and see what they still think...
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