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PDF versionAnti-abortion `Pro-Life Freedom Ride' turned away from King's tomb
Jul. 27, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-- Invoking the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. and the civil rights movement, anti-abortion clergy members and their
supporters on Saturday (July 24) embarked on a “Pro-Life Freedom Ride” but were
turned away from King's tomb in Atlanta.
The group, organized by New York-based Priests For Life, held a prayer vigil
at a Planned Parenthood clinic before making the three-hour drive to Atlanta,
where they had planned to hold a service at King's tomb.
King's niece, Alveda King, directs African-American outreach for Priests for
Life, and said she has “no doubt that if they were alive, my uncle Martin and my
father A.D. would be with us on these Freedom Rides for the unborn.”
The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, told a
kick-off rally here that the group plans to fight for “equal protection for our
youngest brothers and sisters.”
The anti-abortion movement, Pavone said, is a natural extension of the civil
rights crusade King championed until his death in 1968 as they seek “nonviolence
against the unborn.”
Pavone said they reach out to women contemplating abortion or who have had
an abortion. “We are a movement that reaches out to those who are oppressed.
Come to us, we will help you,” Pavone said.
“It's not a matter of freedom of choice. It's a matter of people who feel
they have no freedom and no choice.”
When the bus-led caravan of about 50 cars arrived in Atlanta on Saturday,
they were turned away from King's tomb, organizers said, and instead prayed
outside the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached.
God Bless Father Pavone, Ms
God Bless Father Pavone, Ms King, and their work on behalf of the voiceless.
"....on behalf of the
"....on behalf of the voiceless." Who are the voiceless? I know a lot of voiceless people walking the streets of this city, or locked away in some institution, or having the "wrong" gender. There are multitudes of voiceless persons in African, Asian and South American countries. I could go on. Or must I conclude that the pro-life outrage is rather selective. And cheap/easy too: caring for and speaking up for a voiceless man or woman in the street demands a heck of a lot more and usually has far-reaching consequences as compared to taking part in a pro-life rally. Why is it that these pro-life types only appear to get excited when the unborn are mentioned?
I choose to support the
I choose to support the pro-life movement; that, by no means, should be interpreted that I do not support the marginalized (disenfranchised, maybe?) you list. I don't need to show my 'outrage' in any of these causes, but I certainly am compelled to look beyond my nation's borders as well as within - the voiceless are EVERYWHERE.
As a Catholic, I have been taught social justice and hospitality, and I have a long way to go before I'm satisfied with my own efforts. However, think of catholic, with a lower case 'c.' What does that mean?? It means universal - as in the voiceless being everywhere and having a sense of humanity to help how I can. We can all be 'catholic,' but gotta choose to do so. I guess I'm assuming that God gave us free will to make such choices.
Don't scold the pro-life supporters - and certainly don't cast that net without meaningful metrics. I'm not sure how I'd measure stewardship/social justice/hospitality and perhaps you have found a way. I am quite confident that many of the pro-life are very much active in other efforts - such as through volunteering or other donation (time, talent, treasure).
I feel very strongly that providing clean water and teaching people to read can go a long long way for a person, as well as the society. Still think I don't see the voiceless??
Too bad, Anonymous, that I
Too bad, Anonymous, that I don't meet more pro-life supporters like you. The ones I usually meet are spiteful, fanatic, very judgmental, using a rhetoric bordering on being hateful, using the issue as a political weapon, very narrow-minded and obsessed with the single issue of abortion, in short: people I don't care to be around. Moreover, they are wasting their time and energy by turning people off. Over the years, I have wanted to talk compassionately and intelligently about abortion because I can't see it as a simple and black-or-white issue; nor can I regard every woman who had an abortion simply as a "baby-murderer", etc. It is very hard to talk about this issue because of the often knee-jerk "pro-life" rhetoric that has grown up around it; I believe that we need a different language to talk about this issue. Anyway, I don't think I would have much of a problem talking with you, Anonymous, about what "pro-life" really ought to mean.
your comment implies that
your comment implies that abortion would have been a better option for these so called "voiceless". As an adopted child, and as a Social Worker who has worked with the homeless and mentally ill for the last 16 years, your tone is patently offensive. The problem with people like you, and the people on the extreme of the pro-life side is that too often people with an agenda presume to speak for the "voiceless" rather than with the "voiceless". As John Perkins and Shane Claiborne discuss in their wonderful book "Follow Me to Freedom" they are not voiceless...but they are unheard and unlistened to. condescending claims of speaking for...caring for..while leveling blanket criticisms of people working to end abortion...blanket assumptions are generally false, and generally damaging. It is no less harmful to assume all pro life people are "middle class white folks who have no clue about the suffering of the "voiceless" than it is to assume all homeless people are "lazy, ignorant drug addicts". Also,are you suggesting that the King family has not paid their dues? That the King family has not spoken up for your "voiceless"? Were they not part of your "voiceless"?
Who turned them away, and did
Who turned them away, and did that person or group see the incredible irony in that decision?
IJWTS wow! Why can't I think
IJWTS wow! Why can't I think of tihngs like that?
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