Randall Terry continued his reckless campaign of self-promotion today following the murder of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas City. While continuing to refer to Tiller as a mass-murderer Terry spoke of the tactics that he believed were necessary for the anti-abortion movement to succeed. At the National Press Club Terry is quoted by the Washington Post as saying:
Terry said abortion opponents “have to be confrontational” and “have to use highly-charged rhetoric” to advance their movement.
“The pro-life movement right now is at a crossroads,” Terry said at a midday news conference at the National Press Club. “We have become steadily politically irrelevant, our leadership is graying, retiring and dying, and many of the new leaders do not have the fortitude and clarity of thought to not flinch in an hour of crisis like this. So the words that I’m going to say today are specifically geared towards shoring up the pro-life movement.”
Terry has become a liability to the Pro-Life movement. His actions and statements convey sentiments that are harming the movement as a whole. He has driven those in the middle of the country who are pivotal to the success of legislative efforts away from mainstream and non-violent pro-life groups because all people see is Terry. These groups have had some measure of success in their lawful and peaceful efforts to enact laws to limit abortion at the state level.
Terry’s comments today show that he is either totally ignorant of the effects of his rhetoric or is desperate to keep himself in the limelight. I do not believe the Mr. Terry is ignorant of anything. He is a shrewd political operator who has kept himself in the limelight for over 20 years. From his actions over the past few months in which he has protested Catholic Bishops in Washington DC and Baltimore being arrested for “leafleting” at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Washington DC. Following this Terry went to Rome interviewed Archbishop Burke and then came back to the US to misuse the footage of Archbishop Burke against his fellow bishops, something for which Burke had to apologize to them. (Catholic News Agency Column at: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column.php?n=717 ) His actions showed a callous disregard of his own Church and make me wonder if Terry believes himself superior to the Bishops of the Catholic Church. I am wondering why he has not been silenced or censured by them for these actions.
Terry’s actions at Notre Dame to attempt to disrupt the graduation speech of President Obama only made Obama look more reasonable to many people than Terry. Since Terry has been the “face” of the pro-life movement his every action, positive or negative affects the movement as a whole. His protests at Notre Dame, where he and others attempted to shout down the President showed a reckless disrespect for the office of the President. There was a time that Christians held the office of the President in respect even if they disagreed with the policies of the man in office. This too, an interruption of the graduation of college students showed a lack of civility that has been his trademark.
Likewise fellow travelers in the anti-abortion movement including past and current leaders of Operation Rescue, the group that Terry founded and then left in 1991 years ago. They and Terry have had a running battle of words which moved into to courts in 2008 when Terry sued them over the rights to the name Operation Rescue. I will not weigh in on the merits of either side, except to note that this seems to be the battle over a name that brings with it real and potential monetary donors.
I do believe that Terry is wrong in stating that the pro-life movement must “be confrontational” and “have to use highly-charged rhetoric” to advance their movement. It is clear to me that the most successful tactics of the pro-life movement have been genuine efforts to provide alternative services to women undergoing unplanned pregnancies. The best of these include actual care for the woman after delivery. The other is the use of the legislative process. While slow this is the legal way to change things in the United States. As an example the actions of William Wilberforce to eliminate slavery in England used the parliamentary process. It took time but slavery was eliminated without the trauma of the Civil War.
It is my belief that the type of protests favored by Terry to include the confrontation and highly charged rhetoric has contributed to the violence that occurred this week. As such he is contributing to the marginalization and “political irrelevancy” of the pro-life movement. In light of his actions I hope that Catholic Bishops will silence him for the good of the movement as a whole. Fellow pro-life activists should distance themselves from him and find alternatives to the strategy of confrontation which do not compromise their beliefs but find a way to be redemptive and forgiving to those that practice abortions.
Unfortunately I think that what happened on Sunday was a watershed. The Rubicon has been crossed. As I said in my post yesterday, it will be the end of the pro-life movement because Terry and people like him will keep pushing until the entire movement is declared a domestic terrorist organization. It is incumbent upon leaders of the pro-life movement to try to correct course now, if they do not it will be too late. Daniel Kupelian or World Net Daily, with whom I seldom find any agreement states the danger quite well and pro-life leaders should take this and quickly change the tactics of their organizations.
“pretty soon some group may decide it can’t take it anymore. Its members might become so enraged that they conclude it’s time to start the next armed revolution. Seeing their nation being raped and envisioning no solution other than violence, they delude themselves that they’re the modern counterparts of America’s revolutionary founders. Making explosives and conspiring in secret – all the while quoting Jefferson to each other about “watering the tree of liberty” from time to time with “the blood of patriots and tyrants” – they murder some federal judges or blow up a government office building in an attempt to fight back. In reality, all they succeed in doing is murdering and maiming a bunch of their fellow Americans (or, as McVeigh did in Oklahoma City, massacring a room full of toddlers in daycare – which he later coldly termed “collateral damage”).
And what would follow? A massive official crackdown on “domestic terrorists” and a severe assault on freedom in America.
Amazing what hatred can accomplish, isn’t it? Exactly the opposite of what was supposedly intended. The “dark side of the force” is very clever.
As the blood-drenched, vengeance-driven French Revolution proved, when “patriots” are full of hate, they’re no better than the corrupt government they’re rebelling against – and maybe worse. Therefore, whether their uprising succeeds or fails, either way they usher in a new “reign of terror.” (See World Net Daily: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=99787 )
Peace, Steve+
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