by Ben Johnson
MADISON, WI, May 23, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the most recent example of the perpetual vilification, exclusion, and dehumanization of all people whose views of abortion are doubleplus ungood, NARAL and left-wing politicians prevented a Christian pro-life advocate from telling teenagers not to commit suicide. (Give them points for consistency, at least.)
Tim Metcalfe, the organizer of the annual Brat Fest in Madison, Wisconsin, attended a Christian music festival called LiFest last summer to pick up technical tips, but he came away spiritually renewed. This year, he decided to add an extra stage presenting Christian music and speakers to the annual community event.
If this outrage were not enough in the famously secular progressive town, the nationally renowned motivational speaker he invited – Bob Lenz would have spoken on the Lifest stage at 5:30 p.m. Saturday – works with a pro-life group.
Bob Lenz, non-person
Cue the war-on-women rhetoric.
Madison Alderwomyn Lisa Subeck refused to act as a Brat Fest celebrity cashier, representing the first time in recorded history that a liberal refused to take someone else's money. She said she would not share a venue with someone so uncouth as a pro-life activist. “Bob Lenz not only speaks out about his personal beliefs” – the horrors! – “but as a leader in the Save the Storks bus tour program, he participates directly in the interference of access to women's health care.”
Dane County Supvisor Carousel Andrea Bayrd piled on. Carousel's objection revolved around Save the Storks volunteers, who allegedly “target vulnerable women, pretty much harass them and taunt them and mislead them...and target women with lies and distortion.” (Did she mention target them?)
What is it that Save the Storks actually does? Founder and President Joe Baker told LifeSiteNews.com they train their volunteers to be “very woman-centered” while performing free ultrasounds and explaining the facts of embryological development in state-of-the-art vans outside abortion facilities.
Subeck said the city just passed an ordinance requiring a buffer zone around abortion facilities. "That's a statement of our values," she said. "The Stork bus that Bob Lenz is associated with does just the opposite." Abortion facilities are “the opposite” of “very woman-centered”; that's rare candor.
Bob Lenz naively saw this as an opportunity to speak with open-minded people, sure he could appeal to their respect for the First Amendment. The Wisconsin State Journal reports Lenz “said he hoped the controversy will cause civil and respectful dialogue.” Heh.
Lenz would soon learn that the Left has no room for respectful disagreement, reasonable exchange of views, or respecting the inherent humanity of its non-adherents. It encourages people to be “open-minded” in societies whose social mores are formed by a Christian or traditional moral worldview. Once a culture has “evolved,” there's no room for other views – or those who hold them. Reactionaries must be killed, exiled, or at least deprived of the right to feed and shelter themselves. Ask the kulaks, or Cambodia's educated class – or less severe contemporary examples, Brendan Eich, and the Benham Brothers.
Subeck said Lenz should be declared a non-person ASAP. Sure, he "wasn’t to talk about [abortion], but he's so associated with the movement, it would have been impossible to separate the two.” See? The personal is political.
Of course, Subeck has affiliations of her own. She's the former executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin. But campaigning for taxpayer-funded abortions of near-newborns is apparently inoffensive in Madison. (Poor Madison.)
In no time, Metcalfe was cowed.
Metcalfe said “after learning that suicide is one of the leading causes of deaths for teenagers,” he invited Lenz “to focus on teens, suicide, and prevention.” But soon “it was brought to my attention” that his “affiliation caused some concerns,” so he “respectfully rescinded the offer.”
He said he was determined to “celebrate the diversity of our community” – as long as that diversity doesn't include dissent about dismemberment.
The national chapter of NARAL applauded the exclusion. In true Animal Farm style, they seem to say, “Sandra Fluke good, Bob Lenz baaaad.”
Here is the kind of dangerous, hateful message Lenz might have given the Badger State's defenseless young people this weekend (The video is about “choices.” Why does anyone still call the other side “pro-choice”?):
Cross-posted at TheRightsWriter.com.
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