So, just back from another annual March for the Babies in Melbourne. Wow, what a day. Well done to the 3000 or so brave and committed troopers who came out to stand up for life. They are superstars. And not so well done to the 80 or so manic protestors who did everything they could to make the march a living hell for everyone.
Indeed, we knew things would be ugly since they have been posting online their intentions to disrupt and shut down the event. And we also knew firsthand as they showed their love and tolerance to the Youth for Life dinner the night before.
As the dinner was in progress, six screaming pro-aborts burst into the event, yelling and waving their banners around, complete with coat hangers wrapped around their heads. They came to bring the event to an end, and were intent on causing maximum damage.
It was handled very well however by the American speaker Bryan Kemper. He welcomed them, cleared a table for them, and ordered them a meal and some wine! So the uninvited guests stayed there for perhaps 15-20 minutes listening to the pro-life speakers!
But they soon tired of that and left with more angry and boisterous protests, with Bryan praying for them. So we see that now they will even break into private functions like Nazi storm troopers, seeking to crush anything they do not agree with. The tolerance and acceptance just oozed out of these guys.
As one gal there reported: “As they left they were yelling ‘Right to choose! Right to choose!’ One of the beautiful ladies yelled back ‘Choose what?? Finish your sentence’. One girl came back in tears saying ‘You have no right! You have no right!’ A group of very hurting girls!”
So that paved the way for today. When I got to Parliament House where the march was to finish up at, there were perhaps 80 screaming, enraged protestors there. They were even tearing down our signs and seeking to steal our valuable audio-visual equipment, cameras, etc.
I joined the marchers at a nearby park and we began our colourful and joyous march through the streets of Melbourne’s CBD. However we did not get very far. The motley crew of protestors decided to block our path after we had gone a few blocks, and the police seemed unable or unwilling to do anything about it.
So there we sat singing songs and waving our placards as the handful of anarchists screamed obscenities, shouted abuse and made a ferocious racket. Some of them started fights so the police intervened on occasion. But we of course had our parade permit – I assume the pro-death camp did not. But freedom and democratic rights seem to mean nothing to these folks.
We were all in this hot sun-baked street for at least an hour with no resolution in sight, so one great pro-life gal from rural Victoria started spending hundreds of dollars buying cases of water to give to the pro-life marchers. I helped her carry these and pass them around.
I then said, “Can I take a case over to the protestors? We can hand them out and tell them Jesus loves them.” So she kindly gave me a case of 24 bottles. I grabbed a few other guys and said, “Come on, let’s bless these guys and tell them God cares for them.”
I grabbed a pro-life balloon and waded right into the seething, screaming crowd which was blocking our way. At first they were glad to get the water, but as soon as they realised we were from the pro-life side, their faces exploded into a demonic rage and they screamed, “We don’t want your f…ing water”.
They abused us, screamed at us, shoved us, ripped up our signs and popped our balloons, and dumped the water all over us. Well, it was a warm day, so our baptism actually was not too bad. But the fury, hatred and ugliness of these folks was utterly amazing to experience firsthand, at close quarters.
Eventually we decided to march in a different direction, so we finally arrived at Parliament House. Of course the screaming banshees hectored us all the way, and then stood on the steps just by the speakers, making their horrible racket, beating on drums, and screaming in furious rage.
Bernie Finn and the others gave their brief talks, we sang a few songs and hymns, and the rally ended around 2 ½ hours after it began. So I survived to tell about it. It was certainly an experience. But of course it was utterly typical of how the other side operates.
They have all their signs protesting intolerance and bigotry, little realising that they are the most intolerant and bigoted group on the planet. And of course they were all the usual suspects: the rent-a-crowd mob. So you had students, the socialist, green left gang, and so on.
But one organising group told us of all the groups involved in this march of rage and hate. The usual culprits were invited, eg:
Campaign for Women’s Reproductive Rights (Melbourne)
National Union of Students Queer Department
RUSU Womyn’s Department
MSA (Monash Student Association) Women’s Department
Socialist Alternative
Freedom Socialist Party
Radical Women
Socialist Alliance
Melbourne Feminist Action
Keep Left Poetry
SlutWalk Melbourne
Solidarity
Renegade Activists Action Force (RAAF)
Australian Sex Party
We also saw all their loving signs there today as well, like “Abbott should have been aborted” and “Bernie Finn keep your hands off our ovaries”. Of course most of their signs and chants I cannot repeat here – they were just too foul and obscene in the extreme.
One article discussing the aims of the protestors said this: “The rally is demanding free, safe and unrestricted abortion on demand for all women across Australia; full reproductive freedoms for all women; free contraception.” So let me offer a bit of translation here: ‘We demand the right to freely and legally kill our own children.’
They want to be able to murder their own offspring, and have taxpayers foot the bill! And safe? Not very safe for the babies of course. And women are harmed greatly from abortions: physically, emotionally and psychologically. Indeed, that is part of the explanation for the utter rage, hatred and viciousness of these protestors.
Many have had abortions themselves and they are really hurting because of it, and seeking to take out all this on anyone who dares to tell them that they have taken the lives of their own babies. Many are the walking wounded, and instead of getting help which so many pro-lifers offer, they get even more bitter, angry and resentful.
And the second factor that we must recognise about this horrific rage and hate is surely this: this is coming straight out of the pits of hell. There is no other way to explain the vitriol, obscenities, and utter hatred. These people are simply giving vent to demonic rage.
That is why I and so many others spent so much of this weekend in prayer and spiritual warfare. Such people cannot be reasoned with. You cannot offer them facts and evidence. You cannot discuss things rationally with them. You must pray that the spiritual bondage is broken, and the very devils of hell are repulsed.
Sure, we need to offer logical arguments and facts about life, and provide creative alternatives to abortion, including counselling for all the post-abortion trauma which is out there. But we must also engage in heavy duty spiritual warfare, because at the end of the day this is a major spiritual battle.
Scripture states this quote plainly: “All those who hate me [God] love death” (Proverbs 8:36). Jesus said that Satan comes to kill, to steal and to destroy (John 10:10). So this is a battle that must be fought on all levels, but without the spiritual level fully taken into account, we will not win.
Having said that, the good news is, we are winning. As today’s speakers made clear, around much of the Western world, pro-life wins are being notched up, and the pro-death camp is losing one round after another. That is why we march. That is why we take all the hate and abuse.
It is because babies are worth it. Life is worth it. So if you get screamed at, spat upon, shoved around, and have water sprayed all over you, well that is the least of it. If it results in a few more babies being rescued, and a few more angry protestors seeing the light, then it has all been worthwhile.
So well done again to the 3000 or so who came. There really should have been 30,000 showing up today. But God richly bless those who did come, and those who prayed. I will see you next year!
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/55094
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/11/march-for-babies-melbourne
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