Antiabortion movement moves toward militancy
Operation Save America holds events encouraging more aggressive stance
A meaningful article about the rising tide of antiabortion militancy appeared in the Louisiana Illuminator this weekend.
Kelcie Moseley-Morris, a reproductive rights reporter for News from the States, wrote the article, “Operation Save America anti-abortion event offers mixed messages of calls to violence.”
It detailed protests outside a clinic in Atlanta that Operation Save America held. Flip Benham was one of the featured speakers. It was the 35th anniversary of the Siege of Atlanta, which was when the Democratic National Convention was held in 1988. At that time, antiabortion protestors crawled through the streets with bibles in their hand and harassed countless clinics in the city. During the siege, many on the fringe of the antiabortion movement built a network with other people who were also in jail. Some experts believe those people were behind the terrorism in the 1990s.
Benham said that people would, “reap blood in the streets” because of abortion. But he also decried the violence against Dr. Michael Griffin, who was once on a poster that indicated he was wanted dead or alive. Benham once led Operation Save America, which distributed those flyers.
The current leader of Operation Save America, Jason Storms, stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Another speaker at the event in Atlanta was Raymond Ibrahim, author of “Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam.”
According to Moseley-Morris’s article
Ibrahim urged attendees to fight back instead of “turning the other cheek” as some Christians advocate according to the bible.
He called that cowardice. Quoting Saint Augustin, Ibrahim said, “It is the injustice of the opposing side that lays on the wise man the duty to wage war. So if you’re evil, it’s my duty as a Christian to stop that. Not to say, ‘Oh, well, who am I to judge him? Let him go.’”
When conference attendee, Marcus Schroeder, 19, asked Ibrahim how to physically obstruct things they believe are wrong, Ibrahim’s answer was unclear.
“Well, I think the kind of thinking I’m trying to promote should be spoken at every pulpit, for starters. There’s too many Christians who preach passivity,” Ibrahim said. “You need a more militant mindset, bottom line. …We gotta start being as wise as serpents.”