Pro-life bad boys goin’ to jail
Last September I wrote about American Right to Life protesters entering Focus on the Family headquarters and refusing to leave. This resulted in their arrest.
FOTF prosecuted, and the guilty verdict was handed down May 8. Sentencing came June 10. According to the Associated Press:
Judge Spencer Gresham sentenced Kenneth Scott to 11 days in jail and Rev. Bob Enyart to 9 days for their role in a Sept. 4 protest against FOTF founder James Dobson’s decision to endorse GOP presidential candidate John McCain.
Gresham also fined Enyart’s brother Brian $100, which he agreed to pay….
[E]ach acted as their own lawyer.
Brian Enyart and Scott came to court wearing red T-shirts that read “Jesus is Judge” on the back. Bob Enyart [pictured left] brought his family along, tying his son’s shoelace before standing to be sentenced.
During the trial, the defendants expressed frustration at not being able to raise anti-abortion issues or what they viewed as Dobson’s “broken pledge” in supporting McCain’s losing campaign against Barack Obama….
Prior to the sentencing, Lisa Anderson, a spokeswoman for Focus on the Family asked the judge to consider the organization’s concern over safety for its employees and visitors.
The judge rejected a request from the city attorney to require the men to pay $400 in restitution to Focus on the Family. Gresham said the security officials who responded to the incident were already on the payroll that day.
Initially, the judge also did not accept prosecutors’ recommendation that Bob Enyart and Scott be jailed because of their previous arrest history. Instead he fined Scott $500 and Enyart $400.
When both men refused to pay, he offered them the option of public service, which they also rejected.
“I refuse to do public service to a system that is killing babies,” Scott said.
Gresham warned all 3 men that he will increase their fines if they re-offend within the next year.
ARTL has engaged in a long-running feud with Dobson, previously protesting his support of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and currently protesting his potential nonopposition to a homosexual on the Supreme Court.
Upon the death of late-term abortionist George Tiller, Bob Enyart was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as stating, “If a Mafia hit man gets killed, people recognize it’s an occupational hazard.”
I have steered clear of making such statements, because good people get killed as “occupational hazard[s],” too, and I don’t want to go there.
[Photo attribution of ARTL protester entering FOTF: Gazette.com]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I’m quite proud of Focus on the Family for their stance on a homosexual judge. No one ought to be denied a nomination because they’re homosexual.
But I’m slightly confused: why were they protesting Focus on the Family?
I think they didn’t feel McCain was PL enough to justify voting for Vannah.
Misguided? Misdirected? Fringe? Wierd?
Wouldn’t their efforts promoting the PL cause be much better utilized in their local church, stirring the believers to physically peaceful yet spiritually violent prayer and activism against abortion providers in their immediate area?
The only way to have changed the results of last year’s election would have been for the Christian Church, including members from each Christian denomination, to vote for McCain.
I don’t see what these two thought there were going to accomplish.
Wasn’t ARTL prominent in the mountain top sign in Denver during the Dem convention? Or am I getting my groups confused???
Yes, Andy, that was ARTL, doing something great in that case.
“Upon the death of late-term abortionist George Tiller, Bob Enyart was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as stating, “If a Mafia hit man gets killed, people recognize it’s an occupational hazard.”
I have steered clear of making such statements, because good people get killed as “occupational hazard[s],” too, and I don’t want to go there.”
Have You steered cleared so that people wouldn’t take your quote out of context and distort it as you have Enyart’s quote?
Had you sought some context you would clearly understand that he wasn’t talking about good people that work dangerous jobs.
He was referring to evil violent people who eventually have a violent end. Those who live by the sword, then eventually die by the sword.
While we do not promote or endorse a gang banger getting killed… if he keeps up that lifestyle long enough we would certainly not be surprised if he met a violent end to his own life.
God gave the government authority and the command to punish evil doers severely, swiftly and certainly. Much as God tells parents not to provoke their children to wrath, when government fails to punish crime, people are provoked to wrath and tempted to seek personal revenge.
This temptation motivates some parents when the man who molests their child goes unpunished. It also motivates some to seek personal revenge against an abortionist who murders innocent kids.
Taking personal vengeance is evil and should be punished… but if the government punished evildoers properly, many fewer people would be tempted to take personal vengeance.
The man who murdered Tiller is fully guilty. The government is also guilty.
Well, Vannah, since the Bible clearly says that homosexuality is wrong (an abomination), we should not support putting homosexuals in positions of authority. Also, Focus on the Family is a pro-family organization – you know, marriage is one man and one woman, with no perversions.
I think the purpose of protesting Focus on the Family is to encourage them to only support candidates that are 100% pro-life, as any pro-family organization should. I may not personally be so invested as to protest Focus – I’ll do my best in other areas – but I admire the depth of conviction and the lengths they have gone to to hold James Dobson to his word. There are many different ways to stand up for the babies – we each need to do our part!
My question is why wouldn’t anyone protest Focus on the Family?
Dobson is a self-appointed Guru of Everything who thinks that people stripping in front of each other in gyms for phys ed is an important part of growing up (as I read in one of his columns 10 years ago).
He says it’s OK for married couples to use artificial contraception.
He also supported _Gonzalez v. Carhart_, a Supreme Court ruling that said that abortion is a fundamental right and all but one form of late-term abortion are legal.
Jennifer,
Are you for living by punishment or exclusion based on all acts called abominations in the Old Testament?
“Are you for living by punishment or exclusion based on all acts called abominations in the Old Testament?”
This is a moot point since homosexual behavior is clearly condemned in the New Testament.
Hi Ed,
Here is a link that will give you a better understanding of why these Christians were at Focus on the Family.
http://artlaction.com/release/20080825/james-dobson-violates-pledge-made-invoking-god
This is a link that will answer your question about John McCain’s pro-choice record:
http://artlaction.com/release/20080825/james-dobson-violates-pledge-made-invoking-god
How far have we fallen when Christian’s will support leaders who are willing to kill even one innocent kid. When George Bush gets to heaven, do you think God will commend him for being pro-life as Jim Dobson has? or do you think he might focus on the 111,801 children that were directly killed with his approval in the name of “exceptions?”
darrelb,
And where exactly would that be?
Romans 1:18-32
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
———-
Emphasis mine
Well, Vannah, since the Bible clearly says that homosexuality is wrong (an abomination), we should not support putting homosexuals in positions of authority.
Posted by: Jennifer at June 15, 2009 4:03 PM
There are lots of things that the bible says are wrong and an abomination. Do you suggest applying all things the bible condemns as a litmus test for those in positions of authority?
I am not interested in the personal lives of government officials, unless they choose to tout their personal life as a sort of identity politics merit badge. I am only interested in the policies they support, their voting record or court rulings, and relevant experience. One’s sexuality, whether considered an abomination or not, does not indicate to me how well or poorly a judge will perform. Now, the judge’s position on homosexual marriage would provide some necessary insight, but I would be interested to know how any potential person of authority felt about that.
Darrellb, I understood his context, and it is true that violent people are more prone to suffer violent ends than nonviolent people.
But good people still die at the hands of murderers, so as I stated in my post, I steer clear of making blanket statements such as Enyart’s.
Ahh, We thought so. It seems you forget to continue or to digest what follows.
Romans 2:1-3
1Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
2But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
3And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Another “blanket statement” goes:
“All who take the sword will perish by the sword”
Jesus-Matthew 26:52
Pain, you make Darrelb’s point
We are not to judge evil, if we are “doing the same thing” (that would be a hypocrite.)
This is ridiculous. John McCain has an excellent pro life voting record, especially when you stack it up against Barry. If McCain was President we certainly wouldn’t have this culture of death since almost everyone Barry has appointed to cabinet or other jobs has been rabidly pro abortion.
Does anyone remember the Matthew25 network? That “Christian” group that said Barry was “pro life” and that he would work to “reduce abortions.”
Now that was something to be offended about.