Gay Patriot makes the interesting comment that they feel more comfortable being gay at a Tea Party gathering than being conservative at a gay community gathering.

In another post they ask:

So, why, I wonder, can’t White House officials, Democratic Congressman and Senators and left-of-center opinion-makers show the same respect for the Tea Party movement? To be sure, many do, but they appear drowned out by a narrow-minded multitude.*

We’ve got reports of Democratic officials in one state bending over backwards to deploy Tea Party Crashers.*   And we’ve got one guy boasting of his efforts to do the same.  Should they succeed, I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that some in the MSM will report the left-wingers’ masquerade as genuine tea party hatred.** (emphasis added)

*What was that about defining by extremes?

**You find that difficult to believe? Let me tell you a story.

For 3 years was president of the “pro-life” group Cornell Coalition for Life. There was no “pro-choice” group until 1988. They kicked off with a big Rally for Choice on the arts quad with speakers and a band. Fair enough. People should be free to advocate for what they think is just and against what they think is unjust.

I organized a counter-march. 20 against 200. Just carry “pro-life” signs and walk quietly around the quad. We ran into another group carrying signs against abortion and women who seek abortions. The signs were inflammatory and offensive. I recognized some of these people as active in far left causes. One brave woman from our group confronted them. They said they were taking a stand for women’s reproductive freedom. Oh.

Later that year we put up fliers for a “pro-life” presentation. The next day they were gone and replaced by fake fliers that were similar in design. “Life” was replaced by “Obey”. Nazi salutes were added.

Just as the presentation began these fake “pro-life” activists burst into the room singing patriotic songs and carrying American flags. Announced they were from the Coalition for Life. I said no you’re not. They made some offensive and inflammatory remarks against abortion and finally left.

In my 1989 Cornell yearbook is a picture of the Rally for Choice. There is a picture of these fake “pro-life” activists with their offensive signs. Beneath the picture is a caption. “Members of the Coalition for Life stage protest”.

Update 04/20/2010: Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney spent time at a Tea Party rally and found that even though he disagrees with Tea Party activists on 95% of the issues they are not angry racist violent people.

Eight week fetus(? or embryo?)

For four years I was a hardcore anti-abortion activist.

There. Said it. Now you know.

President of Cornell (University) Coalition for Life for 3 years. March for Life? Been there done that got separated from my group and searched the city for hours until I found them again. Articles. Debates. Meetings.I still have a cassette of anti-abortion songs and speeches by Randall Terry in my garage.

Once I hit graduate school I pulled out. My views on the issue did not change so much as I was sick of it and became convinced that spiritual transformation was more important than politics. Also realized I had been zealous and self-righteous and often obnoxious about the issue. Friendships were poisoned because of differing convictions. You can be right in all the wrong ways.

So please understand I am no longer actively against (elective) abortion. One thing I do still care about is how people think. And I see a lot of truly dreadful arguments and rhetoric in defense of abortion rights. Part of me wants to say to (most) people who favor elective abortion, “You may be correct and perhaps abortion at any stage of pregnancy should not be restricted. But your arguments stink. Big time”.

Please keep that in mind as I refer to a remarkable piece by Gary Graham at Big Hollywood. The whole piece is well worth reading – from a man who used to be strongly “pro-choice”* and has paid for at least a few abortions that he knows of. This is the part that got my attention because it has always struck me as a self-contradictory refrain one often hears after someone says “I am not pro-abortion. I am pro-choice“.*

I’ve heard from liberals the following quote: “We want abortion to be legal…but rare.” And I ask, Why rare? What’s wrong with abortion, that you think it should be a rare occurrence? I’ve had moles removed from my skin. Doctors don’t tell us that a mole removal should be rare. So what’s with this ‘rare’ business? Or is it a tacit agreement that abortion…is plain wrong?

Read the whole thing here. You do not have to register.

If abortion is not the unjust destruction of a preborn human being then who cares whether it is rare or common?

Let me add this one while we are at it.

Why would anyone want to be against elective abortion? Life would be so much easier and less complicated. Bad time to have a child? (*cough still in seminary and three of us scraping by on about $20K per year? cough*) Abort it. Severe defects/abnormalities? Abort it. Product of a terrible and abusive relationship? Abort it. Human-Cylon hybrid? Abort it. And no I am not being flippant or sarcastic. I am being completely serious. (Except for the human-Cylon bit.) I think any normal rational human being would want abortion to be a good thing or at the very least ethically-morally neutral and certainly legally available. It is not in anyone’s self-interest to be against elective abortion. (Read that last sentence again. Thanks.)

The only reason to be against elective abortion is if there are compelling *compelling* reasons why it is morally-ethically problematic. Why it might be the unjust destruction of a preborn human being.

And if it is not that… then why does it need to be “legal but rare / rare but legal”? Just do it. No regrets.

*Postscript: Notice the language I use. I try to avoid “pro-life/pro-choice” because neither label is fair or accurate. (Are people who favor legal abortion by implication “anti-life”? Really? They favor genocide and mass executions? Are people against abortion by implication “anti-choice”? Really? They think no woman has the right to choose Diet over regular Coke? Whether to wear pants or a skirt?) If I use them I use them in quotation marks only because they are sometimes the prefered terminology. (In other words – I think the expression is inaccurate but if you like it I will sometimes use it to keep you happy. But not without quotes.) Several years ago someone came up with more descriptive neutral language: “abortion opponents” and “abortion rights advocates”. Clumsy but both accurate and fair.

UPDATE 02/03/2009: Just figured out that Gary Graham is the actor who played Vulcan Ambassador Soval on “Star Trek: Enterprise”. (Hard to tell from the photograph.) Dang!