Pro-choice - Whisky Tango Foxtrot?

[neadods]

diannelamerc found this first: an LA Times article about a new Catholic political action group specifically formed to fight abortion.

Y'know, the classiest counterprotest (I should say, the only classy counterprotest) to the Women's Lives march last year was the line of Catholic officials in full regalia standing silently outside their church along the route. They didn't demean themselves by shouting soundbites, they didn't blaspheme by saying that Jesus was doing X, Y, or Z, they just stood there as a visual reminder that the church Does Not Approve.

Well, they're being classy no longer. The order will have a decidedly political bent, and will be active rather than contemplative, Pavone said. Its priests will be trained to conduct voter-registration drives, use the media to get out their antiabortion message and lobby lawmakers to restrict abortion rights. They also will learn to lead demonstrations outside offices where abortions and family-planning services are provided.

Yes, priests. According to the article, this is a male only group. Because we all know that men have such a deep natual understanding of the ramifications of an unwanted pregnancy. That's why they're uniquely suited to provide what they describe as counseling services to women who are "tempted to abort their child".

Can y'all pray a damaged fetus healthy? An unhealthy mother healthy? Provide childcare? Restart an interrupted high school/college education? How about providing parenting education? Can you even provide funding to pay for this child that must be born at all costs (that you won't be personally bearing?) What about security, can you at least give that, considering that the Washington Post recently had a huge series of articles about how the leading cause of death for pregnant women was murder by unwilling fathers? Planning on talking to the men at all, are you, or just those sinful, sinful women who think their lives should be about more than the contents of their uterus?

'Cause if the answer is "no" then crawl back under your croziers, boys, you've got nothing worth doing. Jesus didn't say "suffer the children to come unto me by spitting on their mamas."

Comments

Re: Hey Hey!, Ho Ho!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The crozier's the shepherd's staff - admittedly not the best thing to crawl under, but it sounded right at the time.

Does this means that shouting soundbites at a protest is not classy, or is that only for priests?

Speaking as someone who's done it even... at best, it doesn't really help anything except add to noise levels. Are marchers who shout any more passionate than others? And then you get into the actual content of some chants, which is the real determination of "eh, okay" or "utterly classless" which is a very IMO sort of situation.

Considering that most of the counterprotest chants at the march were either "WHORE! SLUT! WHORE!" or "Murderer, murderer, murderer," a dignified silence was far more... dignified. Certainly they were the only counterprotesters I ended the day with any respect for.

Re: Hey Hey!, Ho Ho!

[kefiraahava.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I felt the same way. I had no quarrel--except theologically and on the level of "hands off my body/my choice"--with the priests at the march. They stood there quietly, in clericals, and didn't engage in the counterprotest chants mentioned above.

They also did not wave signs like the one I saw of "Thousands Dead in The Twin Towers -- Millions Dead from Abortion."