The Crazies Down the Street

A couple months ago, a Planned Parent opened up in our neighborhood. We all know that PP are a bunch of Satan-loving-baby-killers, so as soon as the new location was announced, the holy started protesting. First, they argued that a strip mall was an unsafe and dangerous place for a medical business. Ironically, there's a plastic surgery center down the street in a strip mall. I don't have any first-hand experience with abortion procedures, but I'm guessing they're a lot less dangerous than a boob job.

When that didn't fly, they argued that the close proximity to a daycare was inappropriate. They said, "What do I tell my child when he asks me what an abortion clinic is?" From the street, you can see one tasteful sign that simply says, "Planned Parenthood." They decided to forego the giant "GET YOUR ABORTION HERE" sign with the flashing red arrow pointing to the front door. Unless you tell your kid it's an abortion clinic, it looks like any other place of business from the outside. Which, it is.

And when the attempts to block the clinic from opening failed, they resorted to picketing. And when the picketers wore out, the only thing left to do was hold 24/7 prayer vigils from the sidewalk outside. And that is where they still are to this day. At any hour, on any day, you drive by and there is at least one person standing on the sidewalk, facing the building, praying. Sometimes it's just one old guy (and he's started to bring a chair along with him.) I understand why these people are praying, but I don't understand why they're doing it from the sidewalk. Most of the time, the clinic is closed and there is no one near the place, except for the folks praying. So, they're obviously not praying for the people working or patronizing the clinic - Because they're not there! The only people who see them are people who live in the neighborhood. Are they preying for the building to burn down? Praying for congress to repeal PP's funding? (Oh wait…) If so, why can't they do that from home or from church? Does distance from the thing you're praying for effect the strength of the prayer? Probably not.

I have no issue with the act of prayer and people who pray. But I have issue with the crazies who stand out in the rain at midnight on a Saturday and pray at an empty building. It's just crazy. I have a feeling these are the same people who walk around our neighborhood and slip Christian literature under peoples' doormats. Matt answered once when they came to the door and the guys asked where we worshiped at. We said we didn't have a church and he told us that we were going to spend an eternity in hell together unless we found God. I would have kindly told him to get the fuck off my property if he wasn't soliciting Jesus with his five year old grandson by his side. This is why I have a problem with the PP prayers. They're out there because they think that people who walk in those doors are sinners and terrible people who are committing terrible acts against God and need to be saved. When really, they're just people who need affordable medical access and from time to time, need access to an unfortunate, yet entirely legal, surgical procedure. They're exercising they're rights to assemble, protest, and be judgmental.