New Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Last week, Flip Benham's Operation Save America converged in Birmingham to "push what is left of the abortion industry into a deep grave." Writing of an OSA action against Birmingham clinics in 1994, Benham likened his mission to that of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Saints [were] held in the Birmingham jail where Rev. Martin Luther King wrote his letter.  The battle we fight is the same, just a different colored glove. One colored glove:  the humanity and equality of our black brothers and sisters.  Second colored glove:  the humanity and equality of our little brothers and sisters in their mother's wombs.  Both gloves cover the hand of one who has come to rob, kill, and destroy -- the devil!  The battle is the same.

Legitimate members of the clergy on the scene in Alabama this year included the Rev. Dr. Katherine Ragsdale of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, who witnessed a different kind of battle altogether.

Flip Benham's misappropriation of Dr. King's mantle extends even to rewriting his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL

Excerpt taken from Dr. King’s letter to the religious community opposing his actions in Birmingham. One can see that the battle never changes, only the arena. We have added the italics to clarify this truth.

"...I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate (American Church). I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's (pre-born child’s) great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner (abortion industry), but the white moderate (Church), who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro (pre-born child) to wait for a "more convenient season."
:::
I had hoped that the white moderate (Church) would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fan in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate (Church) would understand that the present tension in the South (United States) is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro (pre-born child) passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality.

Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action (Christians at the abortion mill) are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up, but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."

Since Flip Benham obviously approves exposure of his tactics "to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion," let's take a look at how OSA furthered "the flow of social progress" in Alabama.

This what Benham's "substantive and positive peace" felt like to Dr. Ragsdale.

You might have heard about what's going on in Alabama, but the media coverage has been largely biased, if there's any at all, and I want to make sure that our story is told.

Can you imagine going to your doctor's office and navigating through a crowd of 150 protesters screaming at you? Let's mix in the shouts of "baby killer" and other verbal attacks with the amplification of bagpipes playing.

What if the doctor's office had volunteers using umbrellas to shield patients from the mob scene and shouting as they traveled to and from their cars?

That's what was happening outside the New Women All Women Health Clinic, where I arrived last week as a representative for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Operation Save America targeted this clinic and another one in Alabama as part of its ongoing intimidation and violence campaign against a woman's right to choose.

This clinic has been targeted before, both by OSA and by Army of God bomber Eric Rudolph. As noted by the Rev. Ms. Ragsdale, the clinic was rebuilt and continues under the same director today, "but you can imagine the tension that's here when the last time they faced such an onslaught of protests a bomb went off and someone died."

OSA's schedule of activities included events similar to those that took place in Jackson, Mississippi last year — including a mock funeral staged for the nation's most well-traveled and most-memorialized fetus, one that bears no signs of having died any but a natural death.

OSA Saints held an open casket memorial service for a tiny preborn baby girl we named Sarah. We do this in order to put value on her life, to be a voice for those who have no voice. Two empty chairs represented Sarah’s missing mother and father.

Eva Edl told us she knew how it felt to be classified as "just garbage " like Sarah. She was held in Gakovaa concentration camp by the Serbian government following WWII. She urged pro-lifers to "Continue doing what you’re doing. Keep it up! Keep it up!" She said, "So that the Lord will spare this nation."
:::
Pastor Flip Benham assured us that "There is life after death and, though Sarah’s mother and father are not here with her today, there are family members to greet her on the other side."

The preserved fetus, variously christened Sarah, Rebecca or Mercy, depending on the year and the venue, is the property of Benham's longtime ally, Fr. Frank Pavone, who told the press last year during OSA's siege of Jackson that plans were in place to afford it a final, real burial. Apparently, the time is not yet — a cavalier attitude toward Christian burial for a priest who claims that even a fertilized ovum is a person.

Dr. Katherine Ragsdale informs us that the funeral bagpipes were used to harass and disrupt the Birmingham clinic, as well. From experience, I can assure you that performing surgery in the midst of such pandemonium requires a dedicated staff, a determined patient and a doctor with nerves of steel.

There's even a new message the protesters are hurling at women entering the clinic.

They are telling women that "men have hurt them" and that they shouldn't "kill their baby." These shouts are degrading—they insinuate that women have no control over their reasoning. This language puts men at the center of the decision instead of the courageous women who are looking for the healthcare or counseling that is right for them. It raises the tension and fuels the anger.

These shouts go on, even though there is a court injunction and local ordinance against using amplification outside the clinic.

Local law enforcement didn't enforce this noise ordinance Thursday, hence the bagpipes, but I witnessed a bunch of police officers trying to enforce it Friday, while the anti-choice protester screamed back at them about his "free speech" rights. He refused to comply, so they had no choice but to arrest him. Again, he's free to yell all he wants, but the law says no amplification.

This story isn't getting into the mainstream media, so please use your power to inform others about what happened in Alabama.

The story didn't make the mainstream media when Benham's OSA laid siege to Dallas clinics in 2002, either. And like the staff of West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, besieged a week ago, we hoped in vain for assistance from our own police department — whose chief chose that very week to take a vacation.

With Benham's group already encroaching upon the clinic's property, Tuscaloosa police ordered the clinic's director to go inside as OSA approached the entrance. When she refused to retreat from the trespassing "saints," police arrested not them, but her — according to OSA, a "Jezebel" who "rose up against authority."

Operation Save America is often portrayed as law breakers when we are truly law keepers, first God’s Law then the laws of our land. About 200 gentle Christians planned to travel from the OSA Birmingham Event to Tuscaloosa on Wednesday. We learned that the killing center changed their schedule, so we did the same. We took the Gospel of Christ to the gates of hell in Tuscaloosa today, Tuesday, July 17.

When Operation Save America arrived at the clinic, its director began threatening the Christians. The police, in order to avoid an altercation, asked her to calm down. She replied, "I will do what I want." When told she must obey rightful authorities, she stated she would not obey. She was immediately arrested.

Flip Benham is less sanguine about obeying authority when his own authority is challenged. And last Friday, Benham finally got his chance to see the inside of a Birmingham jail — although, according to OSA, his arrest was an outrage.

At New Woman All Woman Abortion Clinic on July 20, 2007, Rev. Flip Benham was arrested allegedly for disorderly conduct. That conduct was reading from the Bible. When the police first approached Rev. Benham, they wanted to see the assembly and noise permits that OSA had been granted for that day. When it was determined OSA did have lawful permits, the police said we could only use the microphone to give direction to our people. Rev. Benham said he was giving direction by reading the Bible. He was then arrested.

This is a clear case of squashing of 1st. amendment rights. The Bible, God’s Word is direction and instruction to those who walk in the light of Jesus Christ, but a stumbling block to those who delight in the evil deeds of darkness. The police were clearly following the direction of those who would kill innocent little boys and girls, rather than following God’s direction, from His Word.

The president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is the Rev. Carlton Veazey. In 1999, he had this to say about Flip Benham's brand of righteousness.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. broke the silence and laid the foundation for a community to stand with dignity against terrorism and inequality.
:::
Over the years, the African American community has honored Dr. King's life by further committing ourselves to standing for freedom. As an African American Baptist minister and President and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, I am dedicated to faithfully preserving a woman's freedom to control her reproductive health. I am committed to protecting a woman's right to choose, a right that is fundamentally lodged in our constitution, affirmed by the Supreme Court, and grounded in faith.
:::
Thirty-one years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther Jr., there are still those who stand in the way of our rights, trying to restrict our choices. But we who have been oppressed must stand steadfast in our opposition to those who attempt to take away our choice. We must remain firm in protecting reproductive freedom.

Anti-choice forces have not won ... in the eyes of the American people. They have not won at the polls, and we must not let them win by terrorizing women and reproductive health workers with hateful speech and violent actions. We will no longer tolerate them violating a woman's right to choose and we will not back down at the threat of their cowardly violence.
:::
As people of faith, we are the real religious right. We must not remain silent when doctors, nurses and clinic staffers are terrorized by bomb threats, acid attacks or the very real threat of death. By taking a public stand against violence and for freedom of choice, this culture of terror will stop.

So much for Flip Benham's letter from a Birmingham jail. As someone who has continued to help provide women with abortion care through more than one OSA crusade, my only regret is that he couldn't have stayed there for a little while longer.

Images
The Rev. Katherine Ragsdale: RH Reality Check.org
The Rev. Carlton Veazey: Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
OSA in Alabama: Operation Save America

•  Thanks to Dr. Ragsdale

  we have an account from Birmingham that bears some relationship to reality -- more than can be said for the OSA version of events.

  by moiv on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 05:00:12 PM PDT

  •  Yowser. You've done it again, moiv. Kudos. n/t

    by Meteor Blades on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 05:10:56 PM PDT

    •  Have to say one thing for the Flipper

      He keeps me in material.

      by moiv on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 05:24:02 PM PDT

•  I drove past some of these assholes

  last week. They were standing in front of a hotel on Highway 31 in Hoover, just south of Birmingham. There were four of them and they were holding signs showing pictures of aborted fetuses to the passing traffic.

  There was a TV camera crew interviewing them.

  Four people. That's it.

  by quaoar on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 05:14:44 PM PDT

  •  They spread out

    over the city in assigned teams, so that they can be all over the place. Three in one place, five in another. Each team is composed of newbies wih a veteran minder to keep them out of trouble, so that no one gets arrested until the final day, a strategy that keeps a decent-sized presence on the street.

    In 2002, we didn't see more than half a dozen or so at a time until the last day, when the entire mob converged on us. The police made us address each one individually and tell them to leave before they'd issue tickets for trespassing. There were a couple of hundred of them, so that process took about two hours.

    by moiv on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 05:22:43 PM PDT

    •  If I had owned that hotel

      I would have turned on the sprinklers.

      by quaoar on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 05:25:49 PM PDT

•  This is an excellent diary--thanks! n/t

  by greatwhitebuffalo on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 05:21:39 PM PDT

•  Thanks for the honest report.

  As much contact as I have had, as an abortion provider for almost 30 years with these delusional religious fundamentalist fanatics screaming at me and threatening my life, and before that a psychiatrist working with other types of severely mentally dysfunctional people, I never get used to it and feel shock and awe anew with each encounter - but I sure am sick and tired of it.  

  Illustrative of the kind of frank insanity I have been besieged by for years is an email I received just today which contained the following "observation" by a "pro-lifer" who possesses a mentality that almost leads me to suspect that she fell deeply asleep in about the 16th century, or before, and just recently awoke - which to me is typical of all religion.

  "When dealing with the likes of Beket, you really aren't even speaking with people. These guys have been completely taken over by demons. Not influenced (like many people who are pro-choice), but actually taken over...so when you are arguing with them, you are arguing with a preternatural being. Picture Screwtape. You're just a game to this guy. He's just a demon passing time...and you are his little toy...they won't respond to logic, or conscience...what they need is an exorcism!"

  Sadly, even tragically, the American people vastly underestimate the threat these nuts present - which I suppose is just to be expected in a country in which 60% of the people await the "Rapture."

  They MUST be vigorously opposed and defeated. not pandered to or capitulated to! Women and teenage girls MUST NOT be thrown under their bus!

  I will continue to fight them until hell freezes over, and then I will fight them on the ice!

  by Beket on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 05:45:04 PM PDT

  •  Dear Dr. Screwtape . . .

    I am awed to be in the virtual presence of a preternatural being. Thanks for passing time in my humble diary, when you have the whole world with which to toy.

    by moiv on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 05:52:24 PM PDT

    •  Wonderful comment moiv

      I like the image of Dr. Screwtape.  I was recently offered an exorcism as well - from a rational looking Catholic lawyer and mother of three adopted teen and pre-teen children.

      It is truly scary to consider what future awaits these kids.  Will they all, or one of them, become a deranged killer like that "good Catholic boy," John Salvi?  Who knows.  They are surely being set up for it by starting so early attending ALmost weekly "Pro-Life" shit with their crazy mother and crazy priest.

      by william f harrison on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:39:36 PM PDT

      •  Until recently, exorcisms in the Catholic

        church almost never happened. You had to exhaust all medical treatment, including psychiatric, and you had to have soem fairly heavy proof ebfore they'd even consider it.  Hence the fact htat one of the few cases pre-John Paul II was the one they based the Exorcist films on.   Under JP II they've gone hog wild with it.  Appointed tons of new exorcists allover the world.  Ratzi has made it even worse.

        The Catholic churhc USED to be fairly rational on the subject--but when you let a charming, handsome 12th century Polish peasant who firmly beelives that demons possess lots of peopel (he even performed onehimself while Pope), become Pope,this is what you get

        by irishwitch on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 08:51:24 PM PDT

    •  Nothing to it, and you are welcome!

      Thanks for passing time in my humble diary, when you have the whole world with which to toy.

      We preternatural demons are not limited by space and time, so it was no scrape off my horns. Now excuse me while I go wrestle with the holy trinity and eat a little of the flesh and drink a little of the blood of Jesus. >>burp!<<</p>

      by Beket on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:41:45 PM PDT

  •  All too familiar to me too

    Having grown up literally on the "other end" of things (specifically, I am a survivor of the very folks promoting the concept of a demon-haunted world in the dominionist movement), I can assure you that what is actively promoted in the dominionist movement is as bad--or in many cases worse--than what you might see directly on the "front lines".

    Many of the folks in a particular subset of dominionism (in fact, the oldest subset if you take its full 100+ year history into account) called the "Joel's Army" movement have been involved in domestic terrorism against clinics almost from the time the US Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade; in the very "Joel's Army" group I escaped from, literature from the "Army of God" was promoted and Eric Rudolph was seen as a sort of folk hero.  

    It would be disturbing enough if these were isolated loons.  Unfortunately, "Joel's Army" theology is in fact officially embraced by the largest neopentecostal denomination on the planet, is becoming increasingly influential in countries outside the US (notably parts of Africa and Australia, where the Family First party and Hillsong Assemblies of God have been trying to brew a dominionist movement in Oz)...and in Guatemala, has been responsible for not one but two genocidal reigns of terror where the country's military had to conduct coups to stop things from getting worse.  These are also the same folks responsible for the "Jesus Camp" depicted in the film of the same name.

    And the mentality...it would not be exaggeration to call it induced mental illness, or more properly purposely induced psychiatric injury.  Much of the hardline dominionist movement has characteristics that indicate much of the movement can be described as a coercive religious movement (in other words, large segments of dominionist movements can be properly described as "Bible-based cults"; this even includes groups involved in the business world like AmWay); the "deliverance ministry" (that promotes the idea that workers at women's clinics are literally demonised or sons of the devil) that is promoted by Operation Save America and the "Joel's Army" movement in fact shares nearly identical characteristics of extreme spiritual, mental and occasional physical abuse with Scientology (in fact, the concepts of "demonisation", "opening doorways for Satan" and "sons of the devil" in "deliverance ministries" map with Scientology's "body thetans", "enturbulation", and "suppressive persons" almost to a T; seriously, you can almost replace "Xenu" with "Satan" and vice versa with much of the core theology).  

    Exit counselors who have worked with voluntary walkaways from dominionist neopentecostal groups into "deliverance ministry" have reported these groups destroying marriages, on occasion ending lives of unfortunate victims of "exorcisms" (along with the more direct domestic terrorism), and ruining lives and sanity (people literally being driven into nervous breakdowns as a result of involuntary exorcism and ending up hospitalised as a result is not uncommon; sadly, mental breaks resulting from "deliverance ministries" that end up dead from suicide as the result of psychiatric injury also is not uncommon, and complex PTSD as a result of involvement in abusive dominionist groups is pretty much par for the course).

    And trust me, it's not just abortion that sends them into a lather.  These are also people who are convinced that merely doing business with a non-dominionist can literally infest them with demons that will "oppress" them, who promote theocratic groups in part because they feel it is their mandate to "name and claim" the entire country because if they don't God will "take away America's blessing" and cause it to be destroyed (and who think women's clinics and tolerance of LGBT people are causing "demonic oppression" of the entire country), literally believe that things like peace signs or even friggin' Cabbage Patch Kids are infested with demons and "open up doorways for Satan", and who also explicitly target mainstream Christian churches for "conversion from within" via "cuckoo church" cell-church groups.  

    These are also the same people who gave and give billions of dollars to televangelists and dominionist churches as "seed faith offerings" to "name and claim their blessings" because the pastor is promoting God as a pyramid scheme--and when the "seed faith offering" fails (as it practically always does), often the failure is blamed on "generational curses"--that one's ancestors upwards of seven generations back inadvertently "opened doorways for Satan to come into your family's life" by the crimes of having one's fortune read at Coney Island or reading horoscopes or being a hippie or having recent non-Christian ancestry (and practically all of Africa other than Ethiopia and practically everyone with even a drop of African-American or Native American ancestry probably falls into this, so it's a nasty, nasty little racket).

    Seriously, many of the people involved in things like Operation Save America are...shall we say...under the definite influence of what is delicately known as "thought reform" nowadays.  The same kinds of thought reform, as an aside, that members of Al Quaida and the Taliban also experienced (yes, Al Quaida and the Taliban are considered coercive religious groups--"Islam-based cults"--by exit counselors).

    by dogemperor on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:38:06 PM PDT

    •  doggie, as always

      this is an outstanding comment (that richly deserves to be a diary all on its own).

      Someone should fund a think tank dedicated to counteracting these people, and get you to run it.

      by moiv on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:46:19 PM PDT

    •  Yes, please write a book!

      This dangerous insanity must be exposed.

      by choice joyce on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:50:45 PM PDT

      •  Working on that, LOL

        Actually, I am in the initial process of getting a proper book on this done and out there--have an author friend who's willing to essentially mentor me through the process, so it's all good there.

        by dogemperor on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:54:51 PM PDT

    •  Wow, dogemperor,

      that is some "comment!"  You should make that into a diary.  I agree with you.  Here on the fringes of northeastern Okla and southern MO and northwest and northcentral AR, we have a few really scary groups.  Mad as haters and hatters, for the most part.

      Years ago, I let them know I was armed and dangerous myself.  And I haven't changed my stance a hell of a lot.  Though I do laugh at them a lot.  

      by william f harrison on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:52:32 PM PDT

      •  *blush*

        When it comes to stuff like this, I tend to go into a bit of verbal diarrhea :D  (Like I said, stuff like this hits close to home for me--I grew up in that crap, and am now doing my best to educate people about dominionism and its threat to democracy--especially dominionism as seen from the inside (where I spent my first 26 formative years).)

        Southern MO--if you ever had anyone hitting the area from Springfield, I'm not gonna be shocked at all (Assemblies of God world HQ is there, big dominionist and now de facto Joel's Army denomination--till the SBC got steeplejacked they were the largest dominionist denomination in the world).

        I probably will post that bit as a diary as an interlude between posts in a series I'm doing now in regards to the dominionist "parallel economy" (pretty much how they isolate themselves from dealing with scumbags like you and I whilst funding the dominionist coffers).  Next post in that will focus on dominionist healthcare :3

        by dogemperor on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 07:00:02 PM PDT

        •  As you probably know,

          the first attempts to kill people in a clinic occured in Sp'field, MO just after Hard Truth came out.  I blame that film for driving a whole passel of "Pro-Lifers" crazy enough to try to committ murder and arson.

          Though a few of them are just mean, cowardly sons of bitchs, like TGDSOBGWB.

          by william f harrison on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 07:16:05 PM PDT

          •  Yup, aware of it

            Very aware of it--let's just say the Assemblies has been unofficially "under the table" giving a wink and a nod to the domestic terrorists and has officially been promoting the concepts of abortion being Teh Evil and clinic workers being possessed by Molech (no, I am not making this up, they actually do promote this in services--they pretty much depict you guys as literal devil worshippers and women's clinics as Satanic temples where you hold Black Mass every Sunday serving fetus stew).

            Hearing just the stuff promoted in Assemblies churches over the years (pretty much as long as I can remember, and I'm well in my mid-thirties) where women's clinics are seen as "areas of Satan's dominion" and OB/GYNs who perform abortions are seen as literal Molech worshippers (and thus as Satanists, as Molech is directly equated with Satan)--it shouldn't be shocking that the occasional group of "God Warriors" will cease to be content with clinic protests and "spiritual mapping" of areas and spraying city blocks with Wesson oil as a form of spiritual territorial pissing--domestic terrorism is, alas, a very logical extension from there. :P

            by dogemperor on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 07:25:03 PM PDT

            •  There's a website that claims

              that a particular women's clinic in FL  uses the fetuses for Black Masses,a nd that all feminists are Wiccan Witches (we live by "do no harm" as a rule, so Black Masses are out--more to the point, how could we worship a creature we don't even believe in?). It's such lunatic frigne on the surface that it's ahrd to take zeriouly--but lots of people DO.  

              IO just wish they'd get that Wiccans aren't Satanists.   We're very peaceful, but we do view Deity in both genders and all sexual identities and preferences--and view gay sex as just as sacred as straight sex, married or not. But that would requie themt o reas soemthign by a non-Christian and also to hink--soemthign they avoid doing.

              Laura Mallory is MY personal cause.  I jaba t her every time I get a chance. Even my fundy MiL thinks she's nuts.

              by irishwitch on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 08:47:55 PM PDT

          •  As an aside...

            ...I also know of domestic terrorist stuff being promoted in the Assemblies far before "Hard Truth" was released; in the very group I walked away from, there were claims (back in the early 80's, being literally promoted in Sunday school to elementary school children of all things) that aborted fetuses were being bought from women's clinics to be rendered into facial cream containing "placenta", Army of God manuals were floating around and abortion clinic bombers were being praised for "taking action against Satan's strongholds" (they were very careful never to tell anyone directly to blow shit up) and the movie "The Silent Scream" (which claims to depict an abortion of a 3rd trimester infant via ultrasound) was a regular feature well into the early to mid 1980s.

            So like I said again, what you see on the front lines ain't half as bad as what's promoted internally in the dominionist community when they think nobody is watching.

            by dogemperor on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 07:32:46 PM PDT

            •  I used to have a ton of Ass of god

              patients.  In fact, saw one yesterday. But ddon;t see as many now.  Maybe this is why.  It used to tickle me that they always wrote "ass of god." omder church preference.  Funny.  

              by william f harrison on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 07:54:55 PM PDT

            •  Yes, I had experience with these folks

              in the 1980s.  I went to their churchs and listened to their sermons.  And I confronted them whenever they showed up at my office.  And we whipped their asses in my town.  Unlike beket, these bullying fools don't frighten me.  Maybe I am just a nut, but I have dealt with them for too many years to run scared.  So far, it has worked for me.  And when it doesn't work anymore, at least I will have not spent the last 25 years walking woth my head down and cowering.  Fuck them.  wfh

              by william f harrison on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 08:06:14 PM PDT

    •  Whew!

      Dogemperor, you have sharply reminded me (i.e., knocked a chunk out of my denial and repression of things I already knew or guessed at) of just how awesome the threat posed by these flesh-and-blood "demons" is. The pessimism I feel about successfully combating this scourge ijn this age of WMD's, etc., is almost unbearable - thus my own retreat into denial and repression just to get through each day.

      Your mention of Amway struck a chord in me. About 25 years ago I allowed myself to be sucked into Amway. It didn't last long, because I soon discovered how weird an organization it was - and it was as you described - a gigantic pyramid scheme based upon buying and selling within the organization with a strong ultraright-wing fundamentalist Christian and superpatriotic glue that united those who stuck with it.

      I personally hosted a fledgling group calling itself "Fundamentalists Anonymous" for a seminar in Dallas about 20 years ago. It was devoted to combating religious extremism and aiding people in breaking away from that insanity. I don't know what became of their efforts - lost touch with them many years ago. We sorely need more such efforts, but it would be a very hazardous undertaking. These people are deadly serious! (I keep reminding a fellow physician who regards them as "just high school bullies" that they are much more and very dangerous.)

      I eagerly anticipate your book, dogemperor! You seem to be THE ONE to write it!

      by Beket on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 07:32:41 PM PDT

      •  GOOD ON YOU. Seriously.

        Fundamentalists Anonymous is still doing well as a walkaway group and has in fact spawned other walkaway groups (I myself am a regular of the forums at Ex-Pentecostals, another walkaway group; I first got involved in walkaway groups back when Institute for First American Studies ran the Walk Away forums, and I help out on a Livejournal walkaway forum (and help out with a major Livejournal community fighting dominionism).)

        Seriously, it's been through the efforts of people who create survivor communities that we know we aren't alone.  (Even as recently as seven or eight years ago, most exit counseling groups didn't quite grasp that "Bible-based groups" could go abusive, much less groups as large as the Assemblies of God.  As recently as two or three years ago, there was practically no info even from exit-counseling groups re multigenerational walkaways (people who were raised in abusive groups and later escaped)--now exit counseling conferences have specialised tracks for multigen walkaways, and a specific child welfare group called Safe Passage Foundation exists to protect multigen walkaways (of note, the group was founded by a multigen walkaway from an abusive "Bible-based" group--so often, this is how stuff starts).

        I figure if I can educate people, maybe we'll all learn enough to save our country yet :3

        by dogemperor on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 07:39:26 PM PDT

    •  Laura Mallory, my local nemesis,

      who wants Harry Potter removed fromt he shelves, is a dominionist.  All you have to do is look at he website (hisvoicetoday.com) and read the articles "proving" that HP book will  turn you into a raving Satanist.

      by irishwitch on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 08:41:29 PM PDT

  •  I am a Wiccan.

    That thinking has NOTHING to do with my religion, thank Goddess.

    by irishwitch on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 08:39:54 PM PDT

•  Words don't describe how disgusting

  it is that this hateful, cruel, and despicable asshole has the gall to don the mantle of a hero like MLK. Talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing! Comparing the civil rights struggle of African-Americans to his own fight to oppress women has gotta be the ultimate ass-backwards hypocrisy. (Remember John Lennon's "Woman is the nigger of the world.")

  by choice joyce on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:17:57 PM PDT

•  Thanks, Moiv

  It sounds like the Flipper didn't get exactly what he was hoping for, though he has made trouble for Gloria, the clinic manager.  Having experienced real police protection in my home town of Fayetteville AR for many years, I find it truly difficlut to believe the amazing level of incompetence and illegality displayed by the B'ham police dept.  

  But I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised, given Dr. King's and the Alabama black communitie's experiences with Alabama police forces for years.  

  Why should women and their freedom marchers expect better?

  by william f harrison on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:28:01 PM PDT

  •  My husband's aunt ws married to

    the man who ran the Birmingham jail during those civil rights  demo years.  He was an all-round asshole.  He was verbally abusive to her, disowned their son when he came out as gay, never spoke to him again. She got her revenge. He'd been buried on her family's farm--but she had him disinterred and reburied in Birmingham, ostensibly so she could visit his grave more often.

    In a mostly black cemetery.

    I hope the families of those he abused in that jail take delight in dancing and pissing on his grave--and I hope Aunt R. decides to be buried on the family farm.

    Those protesters should have been warned, then arrested the moment they set foot on clinic property.

    by irishwitch on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 08:38:38 PM PDT

•  Thanks MOIV!!

  I knew that you'd chronicle this abomination appropriately.

  It's disconcerting to know that these jerks get away with so much.  

  The Birmingham police refused to arrest anyone...until Flipper went over the line on Friday.  But, there were many other instances that warranted arrest.

  For my pictures of the original Birmingham bombing, go here:

  Birmingham Bombing

  And, if you look closely at the picture of Gloria being arrested in Tuscaloosa, you can see the picketers behind her trespassing on her property.  Who do they arrest?  The owner of the property, not the trespassers.  She's contesting this in court.

  All I know is that Janet Reno's DOJ would have followed the law and not let any of this happen.

  by annrose on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 07:00:33 PM PDT

•  This says it ALL"

  They are telling women that "men have hurt them" and that they shouldn't "kill their baby." These shouts are degrading—they insinuate that women have no control over their reasoning. This language puts men at the center of the decision...

  It isn't about women's right to control their bodies and their fertility--it's about MEN'S right to control women in everything they do.  These men would be members of the Taliban or followers of the right-wing extremist mullahs in Iran if they were Muslims instead of Christians.  Fundamentalists of any stripe are dangerous.  Our version are Christians.

  by irishwitch on Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 08:34:38 PM PDT

•  thank you

  This is an excellent description of something too often hidden away.

  These anti choice terrorists stand out side the clinic in my community and scream and shriek and name call.

  I cannot believe this is something our nation considers acceptable. Free speech yes, screaming and shrieking over microphones, megaphones... huge bloody pictures. They call staff and patients horrible names.. whore slut murderer.

  When will we have had enough?!

  by Granco on Wed Jul 25, 2007 at 05:31:59 AM PDT