"Fire In The Theater..."

I recently checked in on one of my favorite blogs that I try to read each week and was presented with a post that was both disturbing and thought provoking. To capsulate, the author, a young mother with her small child, were traveling in their car when they approached a heavily utilized intersection that was being populated on all sides by a large contingent of Right to Life advocates, the majority of which were holding placards to further emphasize their cause. According to the author, the signs these individuals were displaying contained not only slogans that were designed to be supportive of their cause, but highly graphic, full-colored images of the carnage that is associated with the premature abortion of an unborn fetus. When the traffic light turned red in front of them, the mother was unable to quickly proceed through the intersection and thus avert what turned out to be a very deliberate encounter with the demonstrators, who proceeded to press in even closer to the stopped vehicles to more vigorously emphasize their opposition to abortion in raised voices and by thrusting their signs toward the vehicles' windows. The mother's daughter became visibly upset by the demonstration and the Mom did all she could under the restrained circumstances to shield her child from the highly disturbing images the little one could so easily see from her seat. This mother and child were apparently not the only witnesses to this volatile demonstration, but several other adjacent vehicles also had other small children as occupants and the accompanying adults were doing whatever each could to protect their children from being exposed to this deliberate attempt to sensationalize the carnage of abortion. The question asked by this mother, and a fair one, is when does an expression of righteous opinion, regardless of its moral grounding, exceed the bounds of public decorum and common decency?

Let me state again for the record...I am one hundred present opposed to the cavalier utilization of abortion as a means of expedient birth control. I contend that abortion is morally and ethically inexcusable under any circumstance save when it is employed as a last measure to prevent the death of the mother. My personal jury is still undecided in the cases of rape or incest, but as a means to uphold one's personal right to selfishly direct one's destiny at the expense of terminating a viable pregnancy because it is inconvenient to the lifestyle of the female boarders on criminal.

Having staked out that piece of moral ground, I must also lay claim to my personal adherence to upholding one's right to free speech, regardless of how distasteful or contrary to my personal beliefs the content of that speech may be. However, as with any recognized and honored rights of personal freedom, there must be some self-imposed constraints and limitations in exercising those rights. It is most certainly a prudent thing to do to alert the patrons of a crowded theater that the structure is on fire. But to do so in such a manner as to invoke unrestrained panic would most likely unnecessarily inflict much more catastrophic consequence than would the fire. It should be the quest of every individual to inspire others to at least consider entertaining one's point of view. Conversion by coercion is not conversion. It is intimidation and best and alienation at worst. Were it my goal to persuade another individual to adopt my Christian faith, would I not stand a far better chance of achieving that desired outcome as a worthy example by exemplifying a consistently God honoring lifestyle that desires only to cause no harm to my fellow human beings, than to beat that person senseless over their head with an amplified edition of the King James Bible? Some times just being ethnically and morally right without the need to resort to bombastic justifications and overly righteous certifications is sufficient to create cohesion of like-minded opinion.

I am of the opinion that the author of the post very closely shares my abhorrence of abortion. Furthermore, I think she would join me in applauding and perhaps even encouraging any person, whether singularly or as a group of like-minded individuals, to express their heartfelt conviction that abortion is a crime against humanity, but doing so in a responsible manner. And I am certain that I agree with her that the manner by which this particular collection of zealous demonstrators accosted she and her daughter, and all the other unwitting participants in this spectacle, was entirely unnecessary and totally inappropriate. Their intended message is worthy of being maintained continuously in the public square. Their chosen method of delivering that message, however, was lost to those whom were repelled by abject anger and indignant disgust. There must be maintained a purposeful sense of propriety in dissiminating ideas in the marketplace, otherwise the wrong message is conveyed. These demonstrators, all be they morally grounded in a righteous cause, delivered entirely the wrong message. And for that they should be righteously ashamed.