Operation Rescue, a group that bills itself as "the leading pro-life Christian activist organization in the nation," and that recently made headlines by buying George Tiller's clinic after his brutal murder, is running a campaign they call 40 days for life. Their campaign seems to involve a lot of standing around Planned Parenthood clinics and aggressively praying at people, plus presumably brandishing those oh-so-convincing photographs of aborted fetuses. If you have any spare time or money, Bitch Ph.D. has a few suggestions about how to use them to help your local clinic deal with this "Christian" menace. I've linked above to OR's page for their LA women's "health" protest location (remember John McCain and his women's health scare quotes? That was a high point in American electoral politics. Please note that my use of them here is ironic.), Family Planning Associates near Wilshire and Vermont. FPA could probably use some escorts for women attempting to use their services during the 40 days.
On the topic of scare quotes, I'm developing an affection for the term "Christian." It's my new go-to word for people who pretend that their Christianity justifies violence, bigotry, and complete intentional ignorance of the world around them. It serves to distinguish "Christians" like Operation Rescue from Christians like the Evangelical Lutheran Church. This distinction is helping me get over my leftover Prop 8 instinctive nausea every time I hear the word Christian (as in, "Do you support the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples?" "I'm a Christian!"). I've also debated about broadening the distinction by hyphenating the word: Christ-ian. I like to think this punctuation emphasizes the fact that supposedly these people are followers of Christ, one of the most accepting, loving, forgiving people the world has ever (possibly) known. "Christian" versus Christ-ian, to me, neatly encapsulates the difference between people-who-make-me-want-to-vomit and people-who-make-me-tear-up-in-a-good-way.
As an atheist with no stake in how people personally relate to Jesus, I may be somewhat out of line in labeling Christians as "Christian" or Christ-ian, but to me it's about how you treat people in this world, not what you believe about a potential other world. And since this is just my personal blog read by about 2 people, I feel pretty safe in my sweeping generalizations.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I dunno, I think that given how most "Christians" feel entitled to make everybody else's personal relationships with anyone their business, saddling them with a set of quotation marks is not only a-ok, it's also the least we can do.
Thanks for posting this - I'm pretty sure Planned Parenthood LA and Hollywood NOW will be organizing counter-actions, so if/when I hear something from them I'll pass on the word. (Also, PPLA is always a good place to send your dollars: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/los-angeles/)
I am a person! I read your blog! Readers>=2.
Happy Ramendan, by the way. May the blessings of His Noodley Appendages be upon thee.
Post a Comment