Imagine my delight when I ran into a fellow with a smaller banner with the same wording at the Bughouse Square Debates a few weeks later. Having no shame, and a 'satiable curiosity, I went right over and asked the fellow about it. He asserted without hesitation that the government of this country was a virtual hostage to "Christian elements." He cited as proof of this the continued opposition to "marriage equality," the "assault on the sovereignty of women's bodies," and the fact that Obama had recently appointed Joshua DuBois, associate pastor of a Massachusetts Pentecostal church, to head the President’s Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Well, a Christian heading the office of Faith-Based something-or-other — surely that's inappropriate!
Almost certain that the din in the back-ground was not the traffic on Clark Street, but the approach of jack-booted legions of clean-living Pat Boone types coming to take away my sacred right to free love and sedition, I asked the fellow, "How do you figure that Christians are imposing their morality on us; seems like you secular fellows have been getting your own way on the abortion issue since 1973."
"Well — abortion is a right!"
"Even late-term abortion? Even if a majority of Americans oppose it?"
"You can't tell a woman what to do with her body!"
"So then, you don't trust the democratic process to sort this out?"
'When you're taking away people's rights; that's just mob rule!"
"Okay — what about that guy in Wisconsin that had his pharmacist license suspended because he wouldn't dispense birth-control. Do you think the state has a right to coerce people to do things that violate their religious beliefs?
"He wasn't doing his job. Dispensing contraception is part of being a pharmacist!"
"So, you're anti-democratic on abortion, and you favor coercing people to violate their conscience ..."
"Yeah ..."
"But the threat to this country is Christian fascism?"
"That's right!"
2 comments:
You tell 'em, Dutch!
Wow, that sign gets around. Although it wasn't there the day you stopped by, it did make an appearance a couple of other times during our Face the Truth Tour last month, including — surprise, surprise — Evanston.
With its hideous design and mixed messages, my co-worker Eric Scheidler couldn't resist making a video featuring it, which he titled "Public Protest 101: How NOT to make a protest sign".
I believe that those signs are mass produced by The World Can't Wait a front organization for the Revolutionary Communist Party, a Maoist group that is prone to adventurism.
BTW, here's a nice article on the counter-protest to the Christian Fascist invasion of Evanston.
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