While cleaning out my email this evening I came across an alert from Google about a news article addressing what was described as an incident of Christian bashing by “masked anarchists” in Jackson, MS at a Unitarian church and a Episcopalian church:
As folk filed into the church, a group of masked anarchists sprang up from nowhere like threatening storm clouds out of the blue. Group members threatened to murder the Christians–all for trying to make their way inside to attend services.
At the normally peaceful Universalist Church, the uttered death threats were followed through with violence when a group of anti-Christian rioters, their faces hidden from view by bandanas andbrandishing six feet of PVC pipe, attacked and threatened to murder thelone occupant of one car.
With the driver held hostage in his vehicle, therioters smashed windows, ultimately destroying the vehicle beforefleeing the scene “like cowards”, in the words of the Rev. Flip Benham,National Director, Operation Save America.
One of the first thoughts I had was “what kind of wingnut attacks a Unitarian?!?”. Then I started looking into things. After tracking down the source of the above article I ended up on the site of Operation Save America which is also known as Operation Rescue.
OSA is currently laying siege to the last reproductive clinic in Mississippi that offers abortion services. NOW and other groups such as the ARA have arrived to counter-protest the OSA. It seems to me that what happened is that there was a clash between the two opposing groups.
So, why not state this? Why try to paint this as an unprovoked attack upon Mom & Pop Smith? Why do Christian protestors do this? Honestly, when it comes to Christians – I’m about to the point that the only way I’m going to believe that anyone has done something bad to them is if they’ve got in on tape with sound and can prove an unbiased third party taped it. Yea, I’m that suspcious about “persecution” of Christians in America.
Why? Looking at the photos I am not convinced the whole story is being told. Where is this building? Is it the UU church? St James? Who’s in the car? Why aren’t they pressing assault charges? Who took the photos? Who’s that not-very ARA looking white woman in them? What about the other adults in the photos?
Futhermore, if you copy the photo of the guy who appears to be swinging the pipe and zoom in you can see that the masked guy behind him has grabbed the other end. Now, what kind of “masked rioter” stops someone from causing damage to the property of someone they supposedly threatened to kill?
And where’s the cops that supposedly watched this alleged attack happen? Why are there no pictures of them standing by doing nothing?
And why has no one in Jackson noticed this attack upon their citizens by a bunch of invaders (pro & anti)? The only thing that’s mentioned about a church elsewhere is that five anti-abortion protesters were arrested at St. James – one of the sites where Christians were allegedly attacked in the news article.
About the only thing these reports seem to get right is Mississippi’s draconian laws about public protests. Thus, I’m having a hard time believing this story. I think it’s possible that there was a clash between protesters – but it just doesn’t seem like it was indeed an attack upon Christians in the sense of religious persecution as the article implies.
Follow-Up
Yep – it was a lie alright. It was not a Christian that was attacked while entering a church. It was a member of Operation Save America involved in a clash with counter-protesters:
But Barbour expressed concern about the Police Department’s handling of an incident Sunday in which abortion rights advocates allegedly jumped on a vehicle being driven by a member of Operation Save America and smashed the windshield.
So, the question becomes – why do anti-choicers feel the need to lie about just about anything and everything they can think of?
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