Picketing the Religious Right - - GREAT READ!

[mkregel]

"The Religious Right have taken the position that verbal and sometimes physical confrontation is an acceptable method of enforcing morals. They picket abortion clinics, often getting physically in the way of women entering and leaving (even where new laws apply to prevent it), and almost always emotionally battering the woman exercising her constitutional right to control her body and her reproductive system. It isn't bad enough that these woman have already gone through long hours of torturous debate and have finally chosen an abortion - probably as a last resort - these picketers must lob their emotional atomic bombs on already tortured women, giving little thought to the devastation caused when a horde of angry protesters focus their attention on one person at a most vulnerable time in a most private issue.

And this does not even take into account those in the Religious Right who believe God wants them to inflict bodily harm on these women, as well as on the workers inside the clinics. Claiming a little-discussed but widely-held belief called "Justifiable Homicide" (this is the belief used by many Christians to support the death penalty for convicted murderers), these extremists of the extreme blow up clinics and shoot women and doctors in their attempts to defend their morals - and they do it in the name of a moral God.

Based on their actions, it is clear that the Religious Right would like us to do the same to them.

While blowing up churches and killing preachers is surely a violation of other morals we hold dear (as well as being downright illegal), it should be perfectly acceptable for us to picket and confront members of Religious Right churches and parachurch organizations as they enter and leave their buildings.

Go to their churches on Sunday Morning. You can find out when services begin by reading the Saturday newspaper. Take big signs with horrible pictures of people who have committed suicide because of the torment caused them by the Religious Right, and wave your signs in their faces. Yell at them. Pick out the nice family with kids in their Sunday best, and get in front of them. Confront these people with the damage their kids will suffer by being raised in such an intolerant institution. Wave your gruesome signs in front of little old ladies, and tell them how their donations are being used to cause such carnage to young women at abortion clinics, and to women who wish to get equal pay for equal work, and to young Gays seeking answers.

And if the Religious Right truly means what they say, then they will thank you for following their example. "

http://elroy.net/ehr/dountoothers.html

Anyone in the Bay Area who's with me on this one....let me know!

[Bandit]

1. I doubt too many here will stoop to that level of confrontation

It would not read well in the local papers. It would do way more damage to our cause than the silence we have to live under.

[William_WaLLace_]

7. Its exactly that attitude

That attitude is what creates weakness amongst DEMs and Progressives.

Your line of thought is EXACTLY whats wrong with people today. You worry to much about how your actions are perceived so you take no action.

The religious right could give a shit, they do whatthey feel compelled to do, and that is what has given them there strength.

Keep doing nothing, its worked well so far.

[mkregel]

8. EXACTLY!!!!

nt

[Speck Tater]

2. I attended a psychic fair once that was being picketed

by fundamentalists. I couldn't believe it! I asked the picketers how they would feel if a group of Pagans picketed their religious services. They seemed utterly shocked by the idea. It seemed as horrifying to them as their own actions seemed to me.

Perhaps picketing a few radical churches would help them to see what they are doing in a different light.

[Bronco69]

3. I attend the largest gay and lesbian church

in the world (Cathedral of Hope) with over 3000 members. About twice a year we have the fundamentalists outside with their signs telling us how we are all going to hell. We get bomb threats all the time, and we've even had our phone lines cut.

[mkregel]

5. Why not picket them back?

Fight fire with fire?

They continue to intimidate, harass and molest anyone who disagrees with them - - we need to stop just taking it.

It's like when you were a kid and you were bullied by someone. If you jsut ignored him, or ran away he would continue to bully you. If you stood up to him, he would leave you alone.

We need to do the same thing. Fundies are bullies, plain and simple.

[Padraig18]

4. I was picketed by some Pentecostals

I run a news stand, and sell newspapers, magazines, cigs, candy, etc. . I also sell 'adult magazines', and a Pentecostal church decided to picket me one day. I let them chant for about 30 minutes, then went outseide and told the preacher that if I lost a dime in business that day, I was going to drive my pickup truck through his living room as soon as I finished counting the day's receipts.

They left. :evilgrin:

[knight_of_the_star]

6. SWEET!!!

I wonder if any of them would be stupid enough to picket a Renaissance Faire? THAT I would LOVE to see happen at the next Faire I'm going to. I DARE them to picket a gathering of Pagans and pagan sympathizers where most of them have swords, axes, knives, dirks, daggers, pikes, halberds, maces, and so on and so forth, not to mention the greatest weapon of all time:

BAGPIPES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:evilgrin:

[dorktv]

9. I am going to take down the names of those people next time

I see them at a protest rally or at least the name of their church and do what they do to us sensible people.

[stanwyck]

10. No more Ms./Mr. Nice Guy

You are 100% correct. We don't need to be obnoxious. We just need to be seen and heard. We've gone along to get along. As a result, too many people don't even know how many of us there are. We've been invisible. The general population believes that "liberals" are just a handful of people hanging out at universities and in Hollywood. Nevermind that Junior lost the popular vote. We've lost the corporate whore media. We're on our own. Being meek and Emily Post mannered will get us nowhere. Yes. Absolutely. Picket them back. Give the "God hates Fags" people some "God hates Bigots" return fire. Let's not be the "good" Germans who did nothing while people were murdered and Germany was destroyed. Let's be the Patriots who built this country. Picket. March. Write. Call. Email. Stand up to the bullies. Call them on their lies. Don't back down. It's too important.