Campus pro-lifers

I wish I had my laptop with me, because typing on my phone is a hassle. But I’m still on campus so whatever.

For the third time this semester the pro-life crowd is back. After being tossed out for those huge graphic displays (someone made a complaint that the warnings were too small and the signs were too big) they’re back with sidewalk poster board signs. And they have clear warnings about the graphic nature of their boards.

Unrelated, someone has smeared trump campaign slogans all over the campus without a permit. I checked, because I wanted to do another candidate when I saw those and found out. So it’s a wonderful day for campus visual assault.

Mum not going to say these groups are inherently anti-woman, though the logical outcomes of their policy ideas are, because they don’t think of themselves that way. I’m not going to put too much emphasis on the fact that everyone of them here today is male, because I don’t think that it’s a representative sample of their group of you judge from national trends. I don’t like straw men and I don’t like unfairness.

A relevant factor here is that I have had an abortion. A number of years ago, I got a sinus infection and had to take penicillin to clear it up, rendering the pill ineffective. I got pregnant. I was broke, living on $8/hour while attending college as a returning student. My boyfriend (now my husband) was in no position to have kids, and we weren’t sure about how our relationship would progress. So I made the hardest decision I have ever made and had a medical abortion. I took two pills and miscarried. Looking back I am so glad I did. It was expensive, and I didn’t eat much for a couple weeks to get the cash, but it was the best option I had.

So knowing this take what I have to say in context.

I don’t agree with these people. I have fundamental disagreements not just about if it should be legal but what it even is. I disagree with their definitions of rights, and of how to distribute them. I disagree on the value of life and of human life in particular. But that doesn’t bother me too much. They are allowed to be wrong, everybody is from time to time. I know I’m wrong about some things.

They don’t think their position through. They don’t understand the implications. They often don’t understand the medical facts. I have spoken with them in length. They aren’t bad people, they think what they are doing is right. But too often they see the issue as black and white, without nuance.

So what is my issue with them?

They lie.

This is the one thing that will set me off (other than blatant racism, which they were guilty of in their last display as well). On their last go round here I took the time to fact check their posters. And the number of blatant falsehoods on it was startling. They claimed links to cancer (there isn’t), to infertility (there isn’t) and to depression (no clear link exists). They claimed use of government money for it (there isn’t), and that it was a eugenics operation against black people (seriously?!?).

This was after I talked to one of the women there (not here today) who, upon discovering I didn’t believe in God, commenced to lecturing me on how I had to find Jesus.

So I went to their board they had set up for public comments. I put links to all the sources that showed they were lying. They wrote in big letters:

IX: THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS.

I don’t mind dissenting opinions. If I’m wrong, I want to know. And I believe a university should be open to all ideas. I even support the right of these people to lie to others.

But to them, fuck you lying liars and the lies you tell.

Why God’s not Dead 2 offends me

Last Friday the movie God’s Not Dead 2 was released. The plot synopsis is essentially a teacher who mentions Jesus in a history lecture and summarily gets sued for it by an overly litigious family. And as with the previous installment, there is all the straw-manning of atheists that you would expect. All the atheists are evil, all the Christians are sweet and kind people.

There are plenty of atheists who have argued why such caricatures are not helpful.  But that isn’t what offended me. It is a part of the problem, but where the previous movie was just as obnoxious in that area it didn’t bother me as much.

When I was in high school there was an English teacher who was a devout southern baptist. This wasn’t uncommon, most teachers in that area were. It was Tennessee after all. But if you were in this teacher’s class, you needed to parrot her religious ideas. She required that students at least pay lip service to her particular brand of faith. I was spared her, but my younger brother was not as lucky.  My parents, ten years after the fact, recall that there was some issues with her.

Everyone knew about her conduct in the class. All the students knew. All the parents knew. All the administrators knew. But nothing was done. Again, Tennessee, there was no will to stop that kind of behaviour. Enough parents supported her conduct, and those that didn’t simply kept their heads down to avoid conflict. I was of a minority faith at the time (Catholic) and I was relentlessly bullied for it. I even had an incident with another student that I reported to a teacher, only to be told that I was “over reacting” and perhaps I was just being too sensitive.

So in that environment, you can be certain that this teacher was very free to say anything she wanted to in her class without fear of reprisal.

To be fair, the movie is set in Arkansas, which is SLIGHTLY better than Tennessee. But I can’t imagine it is  so much different to be aggressively atheistic. And testimony I have heard from those who do live in that state imply that the trends I saw in TN (and now in OK and TX) are not too far from the norm in AR.

Point being that the scene posited in the movie is so far outside what I, and many others, have experienced in public schools. It is normal for christian teachers to use their positions of authority to push their religion, and for kids of minority religions to be shunned if they speak up. The movie’s portrayal minimizes or dismisses our experiences in order to push a bogus persecution narrative.

In addition there is the idea that secular students are pushing to take any mention of religion out of class altogether. This is simply false. I have, and continue to, push for adding biblical literature to English classes. A working knowledge of the bible and of Christianity is absolutely necessary to full understanding of English. And whether or not god is real, religion has had a real impact on world history.

It is perfectly legitimate to talk about Martin Luther King’s religion and his faith when talking about his non-violent form of protest. Whether or not Jesus was a real person, King believed he was. And King interpreted his teachings to promote non-violence. To say this is perfectly legitimate and perfectly legal. NO one is going to sue anyone for this, and the ACLU is certainly got better things to do.

But wait, isn’t it based on real life court cases?

I took a look at that, hard to do since I refuse to pay money to see this tripe. So I went to the ADF section of the movie website. And no surprise but the cases are far from what they would represent. The cases are far from clear cut, and while some of them the school did overstep (barely, but they did), some of the cases are more baseless. In others the schools acted rightly and the Christians in question simply flipped out.

NEVER has the ACLU sued a teacher for mentioning Jesus in a relevant topic. NEVER.They have made an issue of teachers proselytizing, but that is a far cry from what was happening in this scenario.

I am offended because this flies in the face of everything I know about law. I am offended because this minimizes the experience of myself and of others of minority faith groups in southern public schools. I am offended by the lies being told to foster a perpetual sense of false victimhood in the people who watch this.

A year ago or so my SSA group was invited to see the first movie. It ended badly. After the movie we voiced our thoughts on it, and why we did not find it compelling. One of our members talked about why some of us might be upset with it. We were then subject to a sermon by the inviting group about how evil we were. How we were persecuting the poor Christians. Our one group of less than twenty members. In a school with countless faith groups with membership in the thousands.

But still I wouldn’t shut this down. I am offended, yes. I would prefer the lies stop. But I have been careful to say that I am offended, not that it is offensive. I don’t think that shutting down speech for any reason is ever appropriate. Let them spread their filth. Let them lie. But let more speech follow.

If they are going to put out this garbage, then they should expect to receive more bile in return.