Operation Save America holds anti-abortion protest inside a synagogue of Satan

[RavenSky]

First up from the God Machine this week is a story out of New Orleans, where opponents of abortion rights decided to hold an impromptu protest in an unusual place: inside a church, during church services, while the congregation was in the middle of a moment of silence.

Flip Benham’s group Operation Save America disrupted the services of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans on Sunday while the congregation was honoring a member who had died. The organization framed their action as simply an effort to “present the truth of the Gospel in this synagogue of Satan” as part of their efforts “to defeat the culture of death.”

Apparently, hundreds of activists who oppose abortion rights gathered in New Orleans this week to hold a series of protests, but Operation Save America members took it upon themselves to interrupt this church’s worship service, telling members of the congregation they don’t have the “true faith,” presumably because Unitarian Universalist churches are pro-choice...

In this case, members of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans, no longer able to hold a moment of silence to honor a congregant who recently died, sang while the anti-abortion activists disrupted their services.

The Rev. Deanna Vandiver, the UU speaker during Sunday’s service, later argued, “No one should invade the sanctuary of another’s faith to terrorize people as they worship.”

It would appear Operation Save America disagrees.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/week-god-72614

...members showed up inside the First Unitarian Universalist Church at Claiborne and Jefferson. The disturbance took place as the congregation was holding a moment of silence for a member of the church who had died the week before, said the Rev. Deanna Vandiver.

“Into that sacred silence, a voice began to speak, and it began to speak about ‘abominations,’ ” Vandiver said. The protesters were shouting that the church was not a true faith, she said. “Literally in our most tender and vulnerable space, religious terrorism began.”

The congregation was stunned at first, unsure what was happening, Vandiver said. She then invited the protesters to stay if they could join or observe the worship service respectfully, and if not, to take their protest outside the building. The congregation began to sing, and church leaders then began to lead the most vocal protesters outside, though a few chose to stay quietly through the remainder of the service.

In an account on their website, Operation Save America trumpeted the act as a victory for their mission in a “synagogue of Satan:”

http://uptownmessenger.com/2014/07/...g-abortion-protest-group-for-service-to-city/

 

[credoconsolans]

It's scary that they're getting so aggressive and so self-righteous. And in a major cosmopolitan city no less. I expect to see this in small town America, not in NOLA.

I hope the cops were called to arrest them for trespassing?

 

[RandomCoolzip]

I am a Unitarian Universalist and have heard a bit about this incident. My understanding is that the officiating minister told the protestors that if they could not join respectfully in the service, they would have to leave. Apparently several were escorted out by lay officers of the church, not by police.

The incident reminds UUs of another, back in 2007 I think it was, where a gunman invaded a worship service at one of our churches in Tennessee and murdered several people before he was restrained. His car was full of hate literature singling out UUs for our liberal views on religion, human rights, and same-sex marriage.

It is quite distressing that you can be interrupted during worship by people violating your sanctuary. We would never do that to the people who did it to us, even now. Often it is the most ignorant people who feel such a sense of certainty about their beliefs that they think it's OK to confront others. I'm sure the protestors in this case did not know their collective ass from a hole in the ground about Unitarian Universalism.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Well, other than that us UUs worship Satan. They got that right despite the constant insistence that we not tell anybody about it. This is exactly why we instituted the whole "don't tell people that we worship Satan" policy. We told you all that this would happen if you couldn't keep your mouths shut.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Since it counts as private property, kick them out. If they really want to save America they should respect others' private property.

 

[bilby]

Since it counts as private property, kick them out. If they really want to save America they should respect others' private property.

Just kick them out? I thought that if someone invades private property in the US it was mandatory to shoot them dead. That the congregation did not do this clearly indicates that they are not Real Americans^TM

 

[Keith&Co.]

Does LA have a 'stand your holy ground' law?

 

[prideandfall]

i find it very interesting and a little odd, the kind of mouth-covering shock and horror with which people are treating the idea of a church being protested, and the mentality that a protest of a church service just isn't even an option - like, it's beyond the pale to even do it *at all*.
and yet, IMO getting an abortion is a far more personal, private, and vulnerable activity and nobody bats an eyelash at a clinic being protested, they just talk about how tasteful the protest should be.

that so many people think that a group having a mass hallucination that they're talking to an invisible sky fairy is more venerated than a woman's medical choices is blows me away.

 

[credoconsolans]

i find it very interesting and a little odd, the kind of mouth-covering shock and horror with which people are treating the idea of a church being protested, and the mentality that a protest of a church service just isn't even an option - like, it's beyond the pale to even do it *at all*.
and yet, IMO getting an abortion is a far more personal, private, and vulnerable activity and nobody bats an eyelash at a clinic being protested, they just talk about how tasteful the protest should be.

that so many people think that a group having a mass hallucination that they're talking to an invisible sky fairy is more venerated than a woman's medical choices is blows me away.

The difference is the abortion protesters are outside the clinic. These maniacs went INSIDE the church. You'd see the same sort of reaction if abortion protesters went inside the clinic.

 

[RavenSky]

i find it very interesting and a little odd, the kind of mouth-covering shock and horror with which people are treating the idea of a church being protested, and the mentality that a protest of a church service just isn't even an option - like, it's beyond the pale to even do it *at all*.
and yet, IMO getting an abortion is a far more personal, private, and vulnerable activity and nobody bats an eyelash at a clinic being protested, they just talk about how tasteful the protest should be.

that so many people think that a group having a mass hallucination that they're talking to an invisible sky fairy is more venerated than a woman's medical choices is blows me away.

Personally, I'd like to see mandatory federal buffer zones keeping the protestors far away from the clinics too.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Just give them a free speech zone a few blocks away