What would Jesus do, you ask, if he were alive and well on Earth today? He'd rent an airplane and terrorize Cleveland with pictures of aborted fetuses. After all, it's much cheaper than feeding the homeless people down below. (source)
The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform plans to fly a billboard-sized picture of an aborted fetus over Cleveland starting on Monday. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of
this story is the fact that they are comparing the anti-abortion movement to the civil rights movement.
The Plain Dealer
explains.
The California-based group, which has an office in Columbus, is best known for displaying on college campuses giant photos of mutilated bodies of genocide victims or lynchings next to photos of aborted fetuses.
They did this at Miami University when I was an undergraduate there. Needless to say, the images were among the most horrific I've ever seen. I really have to wonder about tactics like this. The group claims that they have "market research" indicating that people who see these images are less likely to support abortion. I suspect that it may be true to an extent, but only for the small percentage of the population that have never actually taken the time to think about the issue. If a photograph will sway your opinion that easily, your opinion probably wasn't based on critical thought or logic in the first place.
On the other hand, if that sort of thing works, perhaps we should start flying around DC with images of mutilated and devastated children in Iraq and Lebanon. Will people that see those pictures be less likely to condone the conflicts that made them possible? Again, it may tug at the heart and cause you to take a closer look, but I don't think tactics like this actually change minds on such important issues. If you've got the stomach for it, and want to see the types of pictures they use, click here.