Why Life Always Is neither Pro-Life nor Effective

Life Always, a “pro-life” group based in Texas, has created a lot of controversy recently from the billboards that is has put up in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The first billboards to go up in Chicago read “Every 21 minutes our next future leader is aborted” and have a picture of President Obama. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, shortly after the billboards went up a group of community stakeholders covered up two of the signs with banners that read “Abort Racism” and “In 21 minutes this sign should be gone.” Undeterred, Life Always seems to be continuing in their plans to put up 30 such billboards around Chicago’s South Side. There are at least six in my neighborhood already.

Photo credit: Heather Charles, Chicago Tribune / April 4, 2011

I’ll admit, abortion is a fuzzy and conflicting ethical issue for me. I’ve written before regarding my thoughts on the matter: Pro-Life: Call It Like It Is and A Further Thought on Being Pro-Life. Abortion makes me squeamish. I’m not wild about the idea. Then again, the people who I’ve known who have had an abortion weren’t wild about the idea, either. Contrary to the way that some pro-life extremists paint it, I doubt any woman who gets an abortion does so flippantly; I doubt anyone considers abortion the ideal choice. I’m also squeamish that any legislation that is passed regarding abortion comes from a political body comprised of 83% men. In case you were wondering, men don’t have abortions.

But enough rambling; to the heart of the matter. Life Always is not pro-life. What they are is anti-abortion. There’s a distinct difference. Let’s break down the etymology of the name “pro-life.” The prefix “pro” comes from the Latin “pro,” which means “for.” The root “life” comes from the English word “life” which means “life.” Being pro-life also means you’re anti-death. Texas, the home state of Life Always, has executed more people than any other state… by 400%. Yet instead of focusing on state-sponsored murder in their own state, the group from Texas is putting up billboards in Illinois. Life Always wants people to choose life… as long as those lives are babies and not adults. Sure, plenty of the people who are executed in Texas did bad things, but can one really be “for life” and approve of killing people. Can you really call yourself “Life Always” and remain silent to the murder being committed in your own back yard? (I could go on about the vast racial inequalities of Death Row and the entire prison-industrial complex, but alas… we’ll save that for another post).

This is the real reason that the ad campaign by Life Always is ineffective. They don’t actually care about the lives of the people who see the billboards. If they actually cared, they would have engaged the community in a meaningful way. Instead, they chose to lob condemning, guilt-laden messages onto billboards 1000 miles away, where they’re safe and sound from having to actually relate to the mothers who live in these communities.

Life Always cares about life? What do they know about the life of a child in Woodlawn, Englewood or Washington Park? Nothing, clearly. The women of my community comprise the backbone; without their leadership our community would crumble. Yet Life Always chose to target them with their messages of condemnation. Has anyone from Life Always made the choice to raise a kid in a neighborhood like Woodlawn? Doubtful. Otherwise, they’d understand–for example–that a mother of four might be hesitant to bring another boy into the world when, in her community, 80% of the men have a criminal record, kids join gangs and get shot, and men are more likely to go to prison than college.

It’s abundantly clear that Life Always is completely oblivious to the real message that they’re sending. That message is this: We don’t care about you or your situation.

If Life Always actually cares about babies on the South Side of Chicago, perhaps a better way to demonstrate that is to help our community instead putting up condemning billboards. Find a pregnant, single mom who is thinking about an abortion and adopt her kid. Or take her shopping and buy groceries for her every once in a while. Or volunteer to play child support. Or mentor a kid. Or start a scholarship fund. Hell, I don’t care what they do. Just do something helpful and productive, something that lets us know they actually value our life.

Go ahead, Life Always. Put up as many billboards as you like. Nobody is listening.

Where the Spirit Leads (Theodicy Follows)

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age, apostolic anointing, barnum & bailey's, bible, christ, christian, Christianity, church, demon of poverty, economic, economic justice, empire, exorcise, god, greed, his way church, jesus, jesus christ, juggernaut, political, poverty, poverty demon, prophetic, race, regime, Religion, rob de luca, rob deluca, signs and wonders, society, superficial, supernatural, theology

This video was posted over at Scotteriology. Aside from being one of the most absurd, incredible, ridiculous things I’ve seen in a long time (and if you want more, check out this video where the pastor is throwing “Spirit bombs” from a “Spirit pool”), what this man is doing makes me irate. His Way Church is headed by Rob de Luca who “operates in a strong apostolic anointing with supernatural signs and wonders.” While his signs and wonders fall far short of Barnum & Bailey’s, the power of group dynamics is a spectacle that is both sickening and fascinating.

Here is a clear, concise example of a church which has completely lost touch with the spirit of Jesus’ message (not to mention reality). Yes, Jesus’ message and the entire Bible are chocked full of radical teachings about poverty and excessive wealth. Economic justice is one of the major prophetic threads that weaves throughout the stories in the Bible. However, let’s reexamine the context in which this pastor is operating. Young, white people seem to make up the largest demographic in the church. Everyone on the video–regardless or age or race–is dressed in somewhat trendy clothing. My superficial evaluation is few of the church members are struggling under the intense economic injustice that I see on a regular basis in my neighborhood. Yet his ignorance is forgivable to me. The apparent hypocrisy is a little harder for me to stomach. I would estimate that there is easily $25-30,ooo worth of equipment for music, sound and lighting behind him. The church doesn’t–thank God–appear to have a massive congregation either, certainly not enough that such an expensive sound-light-music rig could be easily purchased. If you’re going to preach a radical message of economic justice, don’t do it through a sound system that’s worth more than the annual salary of someone living at the poverty line.

However, I want to move beyond mere appearances and the hypocrisy of the church and examine the sewage of theology that’s being spewed here. Gesturing forcefully towards the sheeple of his congregation the pastor chants, “Prosper! Prosper! Become a millionaire! Prosper!” He claims to be casting out demons of poverty.

Even if the Demon of Poverty is exorcised, it will undoubtedly return soon, as the demon who sent it–Greed–is still abundantly present in our society. The real problem I have with this theology is that it absolves any who subscribe to it from any and all responsibility in seeking economic justice. “There is no need for me to change how I live. Their poverty is caused by a demon.” Jesus brought a radical message that got him killed by the political and economic juggernauts of the day. The drivel offered by this power is not only complicit with the regime of empire, it actually furthers their cause.

Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”

Eminem: Normalizing Violence Towards Women

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crucified, culture, eminem, feminism, feminist, feminists, love the way you lie, lyrics, misogynist, normalize, radio, rihanna, society, subconscious, violence, women

Eminem’s Love the Way You Lie has been playing on the radio every 10 or 15 minutes the past few weeks. I won’t deny that the guy’s got talent. The way the song toggles between Eminem and Rihanna makes a catchy tune. However, I find one portion of the song frightening. Here’s boiled down excerpt.

You ever love somebody so much you could barely breathe when you with ’em …. You swore you’d never hit ’em …. Now you’re in each other’s face spewing venom in your words when you spit ’em.

It seems to me that the underlying assumption here is that hitting women is inevitable. Eminem projects that romance follows a predictable cycle. Boy meets Girl. Boy falls in love with Girl. Boy feels different about Girl than any girl before. Boy decides not to make the same mistakes with Girl. Boy gets tired of Girl. Boy hits Girl. Girl leaves Boy. Repeat.

What is particularly disturbing about this excerpt is the way that Eminem discusses violence in a relationship: “[Have] you ever … ?” The rhetorical nature of this question conveys that this experience is common. It’s one that everyone can relate to. In fact, if you haven’t had this experience, there’s something wrong with you. You don’t quite fit within the norms of society. You can’t relate to Eminem’s experience, therefore you cannot relate to the rest of society. Eminem normalizes violence towards women.

Not only that, but the way he portrays the cycle of a romantic relationship makes violence seem inevitable. Not only is it normal to hit a woman, it’s ultimately inevitable. Guys (I hesitate to say men) are fated to hit women. If they can’t help it, they are off the hook for their actions.

Guys who commit violence towards women now have two excuses. It’s normal to hit a woman. Guys don’t have a choice in the matter.

Eminem normalizes violence towards women. This is no surprise. Anyone with minimal cursory knowledge of Eminem is aware of this. Many a good feminists have already crucified him (and rightfully so). My point is not to raise awareness that Eminem is a misogynist, but to sensitize our filters to the messages that we receive each day. Love the Way You Lie has an attractive, catchy sound which easily gets stuck in one’s head. Unfortunately, the lyrics that accompany it may also work their way into one’s subconscious.

Two years of Amanti

This March is the second anniversary of the official launch of the blog (although it existed before, in a purely experimental format). So after two years of blogging, I’ve successfully bored hundreds of people to tears, cultivated about 3 regular readers, provoked a few fights, and had perhaps one worthwhile discussion. Tongue and cheek aside, I do appreciate those take the time to read what I say. I appreciate even more those who give feedback, challenging me think critically about what I’m saying and explain myself. So for Amanti’s second birthday, I’ll recap a couple of my favorite and most popular posts and conversations (for anyone who is brain-melting-ly bored at work and has nothing better to do than explore the intimate depths of my psyche).

An open letter to President Edwards at Anderson University
Very recent, yet very popular, this open letter touches on AU’s history with the Civil Rights movement and entreats the leadership of AU to act with integrity and pursue justice for our sisters and brothers in the LGBTQ community.

Redefining Orthodoxy: Interpreting Scripture
This post and subsequent conversation helped me clearly articulate my method of interpreting scripture, which was no easy task. The conversation was very intellectually stimulating, and I feel it accurately represents my understanding of the role of scripture.

Pro-life: Call it like it is
This is one of my favorite “stir-the-pot” posts. Also, see the follow-up post, A further thought on being pro-life. I explain my take on being “pro-life,” expanding the discussion beyond abortion, and calling out what I perceive as a double standard held by may who call themselves “pro-life.”

Creamy pumpkin curry soup recipe
I’m not highly skilled in most of forms of artistic expression (painting, drawing, music, dance, etc.) Culinary arts is where I excel. I love creating intricate, gourmet meals. This is my favorite recipe I’ve posted.

Trick or Tract: HalloWTF?

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bible, catholocism, chick, chick tracts, christ, christian, CHristian tracts, god, halloween, jesus, jesus christ, king james version, kjv, masonry, new international version, niv, Religion, spirituality, statement of faith, tract, tracts, trick or tract, trick or treat, wtf

Scotteriology had a post on How to Ruin Halloween. It was so ridiculous, I thought I’d keep it going.

Chick tracts describes how to make Halloween a soul-winning event. You may remember Chick from the best tract ever. May God save you from hellish boredom if you’ve ever been handed one of Chick’s tracts by a badly-dressed, over-enthusiastic street preacher. They’re hard to avoid on Michigan Ave. The Statement of Faith on Chick’s website opens by declaring that the KJV is the only source of absolute Truth. Their theology degenerates from there (as if that weren’t low enough) to decry such heretical institutions as: Catholicism, Masonry, the odious NIV.

I digress. Back to soul-winning on Halloween. Chick.com says, “Let’s be honest. How many of us have hidden in the back of the house, with the porch light off, hoping the kids will leave us alone? We don’t like Halloween and its occultic history, and we don’t celebrate it. So we hide our light, instead of letting it shine. Is that what Jesus called us to do?” Apparently real Christians don’t go trick-or-treating. I forgot. So, how do they suggest we let our light shine, instead of hiding it? Check it out:

Let Trick-or-Treaters pick from a tray stocked with different Chick tracts.

Pass out Chick tracts at Haunted Houses.

Put a Chick tract under windshield wipers at adult Halloween parties.

Leave tracts in the candy section of stores.

Set up a table and give Trick-or-Treaters Chick tracts as they pass by your church.

Go house to house saying, “Trick or Tract,” then hand the person a Chick tract.

Share Halloween tracts at school.

Leave Chick tracts at Costume shops.

Hit the streets, shouting, “Free comic books!” You’ll be swarmed with requests.

Won’t be home? Leave a box of Chick tracts at your front door with instructions.

Give some of your tracts to your Christian friends to get them involved.

Organize a church-wide Chick tract distribution project.

Hand out tracts at places where they sell Halloween pumpkins.

I would just like to highlight number 6 on that list, “Go house to house saying, ‘Trick or Tract,’ then hand the person a Chick tract.” Disclaimer: if you say “Trick or Tract” to me at the door this year, I will throw a bowl of rotty oatmeal on your face.

Or how about number 9, “Hit the streets, shouting, ‘Free comic books!’ You’ll be swarmed with requests,” … until everyone realizes your passing out Chick tracts, at which point you will likely be pushed into a stagnant body of water, stripped naked and dropped miles from home, or mercilessly pummeled.  All of these are appropriate responses to the situation.

Please, kids. Stick to candy. It may rot your teeth, but it won’t rot your mind.