Saying or Doing: Are Protests Little More Than Lip Service?

• First of all, this is not to offend anyone.  Secondly, this isn’t exactly intended to be a Pro-Life piece, though that is the greatest example I have of seemingly futile shows of civil disobedience.

Earlier today I was on the phone with a gentleman who is a member of several Pro-Life organizations, in this part of the state. Apparently the anniversary of Roe V. Wade is coming soon, and they intend to protest across the street from the Womens’ Clinic, here in Fayetteville. Now, those of you who know me know that I am a very ardent Pro-Lifer who believes that life begins from the moment of conception. So you would probably assume that I’m totally in support of this action, but I’m not. I don’t see the point in it. I don’t see the point of any demonstration where protesters hold up signs with quippy little slogans that ask drivers by to “Honk For Life,” and so on. I don’t see what good it does other than waste time when you could actually be working to help those at whom you’re quite possibly yelling vulgar comments. It certainly does little to promote your cause, I think.

A certain church group up here has spent days on end protesting outside the clinic, and what did it do? Nothing. Women are still going in for abortions. I don’t know their reasons for doing so, I don’t really need to. I do think that we should work harder to provide and promote options other than abortion. We should not condemn these people, but help them with prayer and suppor; spiritual, emotional, physical, monetary, and whatever else. We should let them know that there are real choices other than abortion. I don’t know how many people there are who would love to raise babies but can’t have their own, but I’m fairly certain there are more than you would imagine. Possibly we should make it easier to adopt babies here, in the United States so those families don’t necessarily have to look elsewhere, like China.

I don’t have all the answers, but I would rather actually try to do something rather than just talk about it. A charity close to my heart are the Arkansas Baptist Children’s Homes. I will offer my money and my prayers there any day before I’ll make a show of protest. That’s all protesting really is, you know, a show. I have no use for empty shows, and it’s come to my attention over the past almost twenty-nine years that those who brag the most about things are those who are overcompensating for how things really are. Those who wear their faith or beliefs literally on their sleeves almost constantly often don’t carry that same faith or those beliefs truly in their hearts. How is that different than those who bomb abortion clinics supposedly in the name of Christ or that church whose members hold horrible signs at the funerals of fallen soldiers? I don’t understand that one at all

Beyond those who protest abortion, what good do any protesters do? What good does a group in Fayetteville Arkansas, holding signs against violence and war, do for the people who live in Israel, the Gaza Strip, Iraq, or anywhere else? How do those signs help anyone? Would it not be more prudent to send actual aid to those ravaged places? So you don’t like the President, does holding a sign outside the White House change his decisions? Does chaining yourself to a tree in North America save a tree in the rainforest?

I had a professor in college ask one of my classes, “Why doesn’t your generation protest things more?” I don’t know about everyone else, but I would rather work to change the things I do not like rather than just talk about it, waiting on others to do the changing for me. It just seems useless and fruitless to me. What do you think? Please vote in the poll and leave a comment.

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