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Stirring emotions: How radical Christians cause damage

by: Ken Walker

Infamous comedienne and talk show host Rosie O’Donnell stirred anger in the Christian community in October with her remark, "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like the United States."

Evangelicals were particularly upset, according to a survey by pollster George Barna, who said twice as many of them were aware of the verbal assault as the average American. Nearly two-thirds of those polled disagreed (either somewhat or strongly) with her assessment.

Christians are quick to react to any parallels drawn between them and radical Islamicists. I generally agree with those upset by such stereotypical comparisons. Yet, an ugly truth lies beneath the surface: there are radicals within the Christian community who threaten non-believers and besmirch our witness.

A contemporary example is the recent campaign in South Dakota to retain the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, passed by that state’s legislature last February. The pro-life side lost the battle by a substantial margin.

In reporting about that vote for a news service, I interviewed Leslee Unruh, campaign manager for "Vote Yes for Life."

Unruh is active in the pro-life cause as founder of South Dakota’s largest crisis pregnancy center and the National Abstinence Clearinghouse. She comes about her opinion on abortion honestly: she had one and knows firsthand the psychological and other damage it caused.

While attributing her campaign’s defeat to several factors, Unruh said one thing that particularly hurt was pro-life radicals from out of state who came in and scared everyone in sight—including her.

Among the tactics she said they used:

* Videotaping reporters from national media outlets and posting clips on a web site.

* Holding prayer vigils outside Unruh’s office that were disruptive to volunteers trying to do their jobs.

* Finding homes where pro-life signs were posted—not pro-choice, mind you—and placing pictures of dead fetuses in their mailboxes. Many people who received such a photo called Unruh to tell her they were frightened and were removing the sign from their yard.

Unruh said she was so scared by these radicals that she wound up hiring a bodyguard and full-time security for the campaign office.

"When you’re running a pro-life campaign the last thing you need is pro-lifers who have a different strategy and won’t respect the people in the state," Unruh said.

"The pro-life community can’t continue to do this," she added. "When someone works as hard as I have for 22 years, the outside pro-lifers coming in and bringing trucks and (bringing) anger and hate—that affects the community. Our campaign was about compassion and love."

She vowed to keep pressing the issue and predicted similar measures would appear in two other states. But Unruh will have a tougher battle persuading the public of pro-lifers’ compassion in light of extremists who are long on arguments and short on love.

The battle over abortion will never be won by screaming at people or threatening them. Abortion could be outlawed tomorrow and it would still go on, just under covert conditions. This struggle is one for minds and hearts that will take much longer, but in the long run be much more effective.

In the meantime, the only thing such angry, harsh rhetoric accomplishes is shooting pro-lifers in the foot and giving critics like O’Donnell support for their views.