MIDDLE FINGER

Standing in the rain outside an abortion clinic this afternoon with my two youngest children, praying.  People drove by, reading the signs we held that said "Abortion Hurts Women" and "Abortion Mata Ninos" (Abortion kills children). 

Protestors with signs.

We were praying for our country, for the lives of children ended by abortion, for the mothers who had killed their children, for those in the clinic behind us who committed abortions, for those whose lives are haunted by abortion, for the lives of those who may yet choose not to kill their children.

Mostly people drove by, glancing up at us and then looking ahead.  Sometimes people would honk their horns and wave.  Sometimes they raised their "thumbs-up," for encouragement. 

Sometimes they would blare the horn and lean out the window, thrusting their middle fingers in the air.  One car full rolled down their windows, drove slowly by, and yelled "kill them all!" 

As we prayed I could not help thinking how appropriate it was that people so opposed to life and so in favor of killing children would curse us by saying "f*** you!"  The middle finger thrust at another human being is to wish upon them that they be forcibly raped.  It is an explicit perversion of sex, turning it from the most profound act of love into an evil expression of the dominance of a powerful person over a weaker one.

So like abortion.

Lord forgive them, they know not what they do.