Protesting, Obstructing, and Stalking; There is a difference

 

  There are many social issues that divide people along ideological lines; labor vs. management, industry vs. environmentalists, resource consumption vs. conservation. Confrontations between opposing opinions and purposes take many forms. Approached logically, in person, in legislative bodies, or in courts of law, compromises can sometimes be reached, but logical debate requires an unemotional exchange of information which isn't always possible. Confrontations over social issues can take the form of peaceful protests, obstruction, intimidation, stalking and violence.
Laws do not effectively differentiate between various forms of ideological conflicts in a free societies for fear of trampling on a citizens right to free speech, but in more despotic forms of government protests are dealt with swiftly and sometimes with deadly force.
   Free speech is an essential element of our democracy and guaranteed by our constitution but there are limits. Slander is not allowed. Creating panic without due cause is not allowed. Likewise certain activities used as a means to voice an objection or opinion are not allowed. One cannot jamb up a revolving door to a department store because they sell perfume tested on animals, or drop stink bombs onto a construction site because homes are being displaced.
   But striking workers can recruit surrogates to parade up and down sidewalks with ready made signs protesting low wages or safety issues, war protestors can infiltrate funerals for fallen soldiers, religious protestors can interfere in gay right activities or block access to abortion clinics and neo Nazis can parade with anti-Semite signs and banners and, as long as these activities are infrequent and of short duration they are tolerated.
    But there is one ongoing protest that has lasted for decades and is an every day occurrence carried out by the same few individuals who claim their right to free speech excludes restriction because their message is from God, and they are therefore free to continually harass, intimidate, threaten and sometimes harm or even kill with impunity. Their message is an emotional distortion of the reality they protest against and they justify their actions through assumed religious truths and pseudo science. Clergy, politicians and lawmakers cower and try to avoid their virulent activities because this small group has succeeded in drawing the line between what they believe and any modified or alternate view so narrowly that any non committal or reasonable stance identifies the moderate as outside the community of a true believer and therefore a non Christian.
   These same militant few are often treated with kid gloves by police and  prosecutors because they revel in any attempt to control their activities as a chance to proclaim themselves and their obstructionist cause as being the victim of state interference in religion. Any other continuing protest activity lasting decades and involving stalking, personal threats, invasions of privacy, bombings and killings by a small group of militant evangelists would have labeled them terrorists and been dealt with swiftly, but these few radicals have intimidated our leaders and infiltrated government agencies, not to serve the people but to serve  a single obstructionist cause. They succeed because their voices are loud and threatening, not because they understand or are compassionate. They persist because they have used their single issue to divide our society into believers and non believers and because of this created a state of avoidance. Ignore them and they will never go away. They have even corrupted our language. Before their decades long campaign of intimidation the word 'choice' had a good connotation. It was at the core of our democracy and morality. Now the word has been turned into a single evil option that cannot be used without their agenda ringing in our ears.
     I would urge every one partially seduced by their rhetoric to go unannounced to one of their protests and pretend you are violating their barrier, or just stand aside and observe. These people are infiltrating your government and slowly usurping your rights, not just as it pertains to their cause but many more. The intensity of one's beliefs does not make them any more or less true and this type of militant evangelism is potentially as dangerous as any radical religion.
    I would ask those that enforce the law to apply it equally to these obstructionists. A thirty year reign of intimidation and stalking is not a peaceful protest. I would urge the rational clergy to disclaim these religious intimidators and allow others with different beliefs to exist in peace. If you ignore them you condone their approach and will eventually draw their militancy into your churches. We have had enough religious wars and the deeper you draw the line in the sand between those who pray and those who don't, the less likely anyone seeking the refuge you offer from reality will cross the line.