*****I heard after the last blog, I should have given the tissue needed warning. This one is the hot topic warning. If you have abortion issues, skip todays blog.****
I don't get excited about too much, but driving my car down the road today there was a large group of people I really considered running over...okay, maybe not really, but they got me stirred up.
I realize that being a very large protest, that was their general ambition, to stir things up, but they probably weren't looking for the mental conversation that I had with myself. I'm betting they were looking for some affirmation that they were right.
The protest in itself was impressive. There were a couple hundred people lining a pretty busy road. They all had signs. In fact, there was not a single person that didn't hold a sign.
Most of them read, "Abortion kills children". A few said something about Jesus forgives or God heals or some such similar thing. There were a handful of Adoption is the Answer signs.
I had the great good luck to drive this 2-3 mile stretch of road twice, once on the way out of town and once on the way back in. Being that it's about an hour round trip for me, I had some time to think about all this.
One of my thoughts was that if I didn't have a whole car full of kids, I'd love to stop the car and talk to some of these wonderful people.
Why?
Cause I have a couple of questions that went along these lines.
Wow! This is impressive. You have a couple hundred people out here. How many babies did you save in the hours you've been standing out here freezing your butts off and causing a traffic disruption? You know, cause there were a few people that just felt the need to keep jumping out into the road. How many pregnant women pulled over and asked for help? And how did you help them?
You know, all those signs must of cost a pretty penny to get printed. I mean, you know, probably a couple hundred dollars, maybe enough to pay for a prenatal doctor visit or pay a tiny bit of the adoption cost, you know, seeing as how you're suggesting adoption as the answer.
I'm just curious, again, because a fair amount of those beautiful signs suggest that adoption is the answer, how many of you lovely protesters have adopted kids that were going to be aborted?
There was another really interesting thing I noticed about the protesters. It was their age. The majority of these protesters were easily in their 50's and beyond. I only saw a handful of people in their 30's or 40's. Thankfully, at least in my mind, there were only a dozen or so kids (under 12) standing out there with signs.
I have a couple of thoughts about this, of course! About the little kids, I'm wondering how these parents exactly explained abortion to their kids. Now over here, we're pretty dang forward about teaching our kids the facts of life. I have no plan of being preempted by the playground or the public school to teach about sex. I want my kids to know the facts early on so there is no confusion or shock about how things work and I want them to very clearly know my expectations of how they are to behave regarding sex in their lives. That said, as we drove past all this drama, one of my older boys said, "Hey Mom, what are all those people protesting?" Yeah, somehow, even my oldest kids have not been taught about this "option". Somehow it hasn't seemed like a necessary bit of information at this point in their lives. Just saying.
It really got me wondering what a 4 year old or a 2 year old out on the side of the road thinks their holding up a sign about.
The next thing I really started thinking about was the fact that the majority of these protesting folks were the over 50 crowd. It is interesting on a couple of fronts. First, you're well past the age of abortion, at least the ladies. The men, well, if they have girl friends that want abortions at their ages, it just justifies why I loath things like Viagra commercials.
Anyway.
I started thinking who is this message targeted at.
Well, it would by my generation and those younger than me, so hang on here just a second. This message is targeted at their own kids and grand kids! Isn't there a better way to communicate this information?
And really? Isn't it pretty commonly known that the abortion kills? I mean, let's not sugar coat it. When it comes right down to it, no matter when you think a life begins, you're killing something that either is a child or has the potential to become a child. But this is the US. I'm thinking it's pretty well known that that's what an abortion is and does. Do we really need a couple hundred people holding signs on the side of the road pointing this out?
Um, yeah.
So abortion was legalized when I was 2, so really the first generations of people to take "advantage" of this, if you will, were the Baby Boomers and the Hippie Love generation. I get it, that now, later, looking back at their lives, they may be rethinking some of the life choices they made. I get that they want to give some better advice to the younger generations, but again, these are your kids and grand kids that you're wanting to influence. Maybe just try talking to them honestly. That usually goes a long way.
Of course, then again, maybe that's what happened in your own life. You had or didn't have those honest conversations about sex. Maybe you chose to rebel and do it anyway. Who knows.
I guess it just peaked my interest that this particular age group would be the ones out there protesting.
I mean, I just figure most of us in the US get it. Abortion is not a great choice. Even when you think it's the answer and the best choice, you pretty much have to live under a rock to think it's not going to haunt you for the rest of your life. I mean, really? Again, skip the candy coating, it's pretty well known that there is a pretty high chance of some sort of negative after effects at one point or another in your life after an abortion. In my experience working with college and high school kids in the last 10 years, I'd say they're pretty clued in about this too.
So what was the real point of all those people standing out there, freezing their butts off on a cold Wisconsin afternoon?
I couldn't quite pin it down until I drove past the last few people and caught the utter smugness on their faces.
The sound track running through my head was to the tune of "You Give Love a Bad Name". Listen with me, You give Christ a Bad rep.
You know. That was a place, a moment in time, when I thought how is it possible that we all call ourselves Christians and yet can be so different?
It really wasn't about saving lives at all. It was about conviction and pride. Look at me, I'm so righteous and you're so sinful. I can't wait to stand here and show everyone how perfect I am and how evil you are.
I can't shake that smug face looking back at me through the windshield.
