Plano Police Officer Steven Sanders, Badge #1439, harasses pro-life activists
As I wrote a couple weeks ago, pro-life activist Todd Bullis recently relocated from California to Texas.
Recall Todd launched “The Church Project” while in California, showing graphic images of aborted babies on Sunday mornings in front of churches professing to be pro-life but bearing no fruit.
To say the least, Todd had interesting experiences at those churches – from being hosed by an off-duty police officer congregant at one church to having signs flipped over by a congregant at another.
Todd plans to continue his project in Plano.
This past Saturday Todd and his son decided to test the waters by holding a little two-person picket on a random high traffic street corner. Todd had run into rudeness when attempting to communicate his future plans in person to the Plano police department, so he decided to check out the lay of the land.
Plano Police Officer Steven Sanders, Badge #1439, responded to a complaint, and as Todd explains in his video, went above and beyond the call of duty to harassment.
Sanders refused to let Todd videotape him, claiming Todd’s camera just might be a gun. But I found a photo of Sanders, right, in a cigar club puff piece.
Sanders went out of his way to make trouble for Todd. For instance, Todd had parked his car in an empty church parking lot, not even knowing it belonged to a church a block away. Sanders said he was going to encourage the church to file trespassing charges.
I’ll let Todd take it from here…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQuhkksDz5Y[/youtube]
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.
Hi everyone, nice to be back in the saddle. I just wanted everyone to know before I did anything in Plano I went to the Police Department and tried to talk with them but they were rude and very short with me. I wanted to explain to them what I planned on doing over the next few years here in Plano. They told me that they would not speak with me and that as long as I did not break any laws I would be just fine. I tried to tell them it was not me I was worried about that it was the officers I was worried about. They would not talk with me and again told me as long as I did not break the law there would not be a problem.
It saddens me that the police department would not even talk with me.
Sounds like the police department needs to know the law and to tell the people who are upset and are calling the police, “Stop calling to report that there is a person who is not breaking the law.”
“I don’t know that that camera’s not a gun.” Whaaat? If an OFFICER OF THE LAW doesn’t know a gun from a camera, then TOURISTS better stay the heck out of Plano, Texas!
I know..the cop was using his “authority” to get smart with Todd. This “officer” does a disservice to the badge. The motto of the police is “To protect and serve” not “To harass and bully”.
I don’t understand why the police need to take their time out here- if you don’t break the law, no conversations are needed. Seems plain and simple.
I’m not surprised to hear about the cop but the church’s reaction to someone trying to do the righteous thing, defending life, is truly appalling. The church needs to wake up and get united.
Is Andrew single?
Todd,
May God bless you and your son.
Trouble just seems to follow this guy everywhere, doesn’t it?
And it’s always someone else’s fault, of course. Even the police in a conservative county of a deep red state are working to suppress the truth about the Culture of Death™.
If you value freedom of religion, you don’t protest at churches, even if you believe they are wrong.
Others may disagree with me, but what if every Catholic Church was picketed on Sundays during mass because nonCatholics thought the coverups were outrageous?
If you think you have the duty and obligation to protest at churches, then you give credibility to Westboro Baptist Church.
I believe that just because someone does something wrong does not mean that you should not do what is right. I have been asked by Catholic priests to please exhort their Church. One told me that his Parish cares very little for the unborn and that when he preaches about abortion he sees people get up and walk out and others get that look like “here we go again” He said that a good exhort is just what they needed.
Then, Todd, if Westboro Baptist Church believes it is right to picket the funerals of soldiers, shouldn’t they do what is right?
Just because a church doesn’t put extended efforts into fighting against abortion does not mean it needs to. Many churches concentrate their ministries on feeding the homeless and others.
Jim. I think you need to give your last comment the “Would I say this if Jesus was standing in the flesh in front of me” test.
I bet you wouldn’t. Not in a million years. In fact, it sounds similar to the attitude the Germans in church had, who ignored what was happening to the Jews at the death camps right outside their doors. ”We just sang a little louder.”
Jim: 54 MILLION Americans dead. The Church allowed it, and we will be judged first for it. Remember, judgement BEGINS at the House of the Lord. That’s truth, and we can’t hold up our feeding programs as a way to divert the laser gaze of Jesus. He sees our deficit. He sees us allowing the murders to continue. He hears our louder singing.
If that police officer threatened any sort of violence or arrest over being filmed, that may be legally actionable. Citizens have a right to film the police, period. IIRC, there was recently a court ruling to that effect, wasn’t there?
Dear Jim
There can be a difference between doing what you think is right and doing what is right. Many People believe what they do is right, does not mean it is right. I am sure there were people just like you that told Jeremiah not to stand at the gates of the church, stop picking on them, who are you to tell us to stop killing our kids. Read Jeremiah 7.
I hate to say it but you’re what is wrong with the church today. For some reason you think that it is ok that the number one cause of death among Americans is abortion and the church is doing a good job being the light and the truth?
Well, the Church in America is failing its kids and women, we are a poor example of Christ and his love. I hope the Church you go to does not preach Christ because there is no way you can be an effective witness while you protect a church that is so indifferent to the killing of our kids. Christians and Catholics have just as many abortions as anyone else. Most Churches have never had one sermon on abortion and many churches are pro-choice. The difference between a pro-life church and a pro-choice church is almost nothing.
If the Church can not stand up for these little kids then the church is not of Christ and we in America have a false sense of who Christ is and what the role of the Church is. If the Church will not stand up and be the conscience of our communities than we know not Christ and His love.
Martin Luther King Jr said it very well when he said we are the conscience of the state. The churches or the religious community should be, I think, the conscience of the state. We’re not just service providers.
Amy1, to “shame” people into doing the supposed right thing because YOU believe it to be the right thing is no different in this case than what Westboro Baptist Church is doing to a higher degree.
In the long run, it may make Todd or you feel better about yourselves but it will also cause the prolife movement to lose ground, as I believe Operation Rescue did. Sure, there were saves with Operation Rescue, but overall, it hurt the prolife movement.
Seriously. Jim. If I wanted to “shame” you I’d go about a different way. I don’t want to shame you, friend. I want you, and the apathetic Church, to wake up before it is too late.
Since when is telling the truth and pointing someone to Jesus “shaming” them?
Did you give your assertion the “Jesus test?” Just curious.
Jim you do not know of what you’re talking about. How can the pro-life movement lose ground??? We kill 4000 kids a day. The Church stands by and does almost nothing. You go to a good man’s house for help – these kids need our help, and if the Church will not help them we can not lose any more ground than that.
It is time for each of us to go to our Church and see what it is doing, speak up and peel the scales off our churches’ eyes and help to soften the hard hearts of our churches towards the unborn.
It sounds to me that Jim cares more about the churches’ image than he does about God’s work. Often time God’s work brings division and persecution even among brothers in the faith.
Jim, I go to the Church because I love the Church and I know God loves his Church and I know God’s Church needs to understand God’s heart towards these poor kids.
I once heard a pastor in California “Reality Church” say that the reason they are not so concerned with abortion is because those kids go to heaven and Reality is about saving the lost who are going to hell.
Is God building his Church on the lives of these poor murdered kids? Is that God’s plan? No it can not be. God calls us to protect the innocent and to take care of those who need our help.
Jim, how can you be so indifferent to this? What would you have me do? Walk for life? Fly kites for Life? I say no, let’s wake up the Church and abolish abortion. If Christians pulled together they could vote abortion into the ugly past.
X-GOP, because police appreciate a heads up thats why. Its courtesy.
It is not against the law to film a police officer and they cannot legally ask you not to film them. John Stossel covered this in an expose.
Todd, keep it up. You’re stepping on toes which is a good thing.
I think people would be shocked if they saw how little their church does to help end abortion. I bet 95% of our churches do nothing to help end abortion. Maybe they help moms, that is good, maybe they do diaper drives, that is good but do they do anything to help end abortion???
I highly HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend reading Innocent Blood by John Ensor. He hits the nail right on the head about bloodguilt & the church’s silence and complicity. When discussing a lynching in Indiana in 1930, he invites the reader to imagine going to his/her pastor that Sunday to talk about it, and the pastor replies “That’s a political issue, I’m about preaching the Gospel”, or rather: “There are some in the congregation who took part in the lynching, and I don’t want to make them feel bad about it.”
I have had the equivalent said to me, almost verbatim, by two pastors at two different churches, but about abortion. Sydney, when you posted the other day on another thread that you’ve had family block you on FB because they don’t want to think badly about family members who’ve been participatory in abortion(s), I thought, “What if we were to substitute the word ‘lynchings’ for ‘abortions’?”
I was floored the other day when following up on and Abortion Index footnote in the Issues4Life email. The conservative estimate of 55 million lives lost to abortion since Jan 22, 1973, is more than all of the inhabitants of the 72 most populated cities in the U.S. We all remember the horror of 9/11, can you imagine a vile act perpetrated on American soil that wiped out the equivalent of that many people? Its name is abortion.
Todd, I’m praying for you as you fight the good fight.
Thanks for the kind words and the prayers.
Someone fell asleep on their Enter key. ;-)
Joan: “And it’s always someone else’s fault, of course.”
And it’s always imagining that unwarranted generalizations suffice as arguments concerning particulars.
Troll.
Jim said: Many churches concentrate their ministries on feeding the homeless and others.
So Jim – which is morally worse – firing somebody or firing into somebody?
In the former, someone is unemployed, in the latter – dead.
Does someone really need to explain to you which is worse?
Elective abortion kills a living innocent human being.
Equating “social injustice” to abortion is nefarious.
There is no comparison.
Todd, I couldn’t agree more. The Church as a whole has also failed to address areas that contribute to abortion — namely the fact that children/teens who grow up with limited parental relationships are far more likely to engage in behavior leading to crisis pregnancies. Yet the Church rarely discusses workaholism, divorce, custody battles, fathers abandoning pregnant mothers, or mothers punishing fathers by denying custody — all of which contribute to crisis pregnancies and abortion — because many pastors fear alienating workaholic, abandoning, or bitterly divorced parents in the pews.
Jim: To the Corinthians, Paul said: “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.”
From an ecclesiological standpoint, the community of Christ properly polices itself. The question would be whether it’s appropriate for someone from a particular church to speak (ostensibly) prophetically to another church.
Whether it’s appropriate is certainly relevant, but whether it’s done is hardly a matter of citing just Westboro. The civil rights movement spoke prophetically to segregated churches. The abolitionist movement did too. Both trafficked in the discourse of faith — as Christians to Christians. And it was effective in subverting evil.
Why should people who might use their voices for injustice (Westboro, let us say, since they’re the bogeyman you cite) cause people concerned about justice to think they shouldn’t engage in outward acts that are superficially similar? Westboro people CRAP too — but I don’t see you saying “well, we can’t be doing THAT, then…”
Consider Simon in Acts 8. Did his illicit intent to ape the Apostles give them pause? “Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this, or more Simons will come along and pretend to be doing what we’re doing, or will do it for the wrong reasons.”
No. We do the right thing. “How do you know it’s right?” Well if it comes to that, how do our legislators know something is right before they enact a law that involves depriving people of their civil liberties by throwing ’em in jail if they disobey the law? And yet public shaming — whatever its risks and one’s risk of being wrong — are at least a free exercise of a civil liberty which in turn does not abridge anyone else’s exercise of their civil rights. And beyond that if it’s done among people professing to be Christians, it’s holding each other accountable for righteousness — which is our loving obligation.
I suspect, Jim, that you simply don’t like conflict, and prefer that people just get along.
Valence.
Relative weight.
When the bloody tide of abortion is no more, then something as innocuous as inducing a modicum of offense might be worth worrying about. Until then, the messenger’s act and the act the messenger condemns could not lie in more stark contrast, and concern about the messenger could easily be mistaken for moral blindness or “why can’t we all just get along”-ism, which is the stupidest demeanor one could possibly adopt as long as the horror persists.
One should not mistake one’s personal comfort as indicating that all is well in the world, when endless slaughter proceeds unabated. That which disrupts one’s mere comfort in the world is not the enemy. That which slaughters the unborn relentlessly and without regret — that’s the enemy. And not just of the unborn. Of those who, hearing the prophetic word of God’s judgment on such, shrug and wish the prophets would just shut up.
Chris, all sins are equal in the eyes of God. remember that?
To Jim and others. This sums up Christianity in a nutshell. The rest is an in interpretation/creation of various agendas of man.
“I am going to create man and woman, whom I know will sin. Then I am going to impregnate a woman with myself as her child, so that I can be born. Once alive, I will kill myself as a sacrifice to myself, to save you from the sin I knew originally you were going to commit.”
Jim: Please cite authority that all sins are “equal in the sight of God.”
Also, state what “equal in the sight of God” means, using other words.
Any sin is a violation of God’s law. As human beings, we sometimes categorize some sins as worse than others, but not in the eyes of God. One of our great difficulties in our service to God is that we often think little “white sins” are not as bad as those “big bad sins.” Our difficulty is that we do not see sin through the eyes of God, but through human eyes.
Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4) or transgression of God’s will, either by omitting to do what God’s law requires or by doing what it forbids. The transgression can occur in thought (1 John 3:15), word (Matthew 5:22), or deed (Romans 1:32).
James 2:10
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
NIV
Romans 3:23-24
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
NIV
1 John 3:4-5
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
NIV
The following passage shows that Jesus died for every sin of all of us. Sin is so terrible that no less than the Son of God could make atonement for sin.
Titus 2:14
14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
NIV
I don’t have time to go on and on about his, but that’s the crux of this.
Jim said: “Chris, all sins are equal in the eyes of God. remember that?”
Actually no – they aren’t equal in terms of punishment, but equal only in terms of Christ’s atonement for them. Haven’t you read:
Luke 10: 13 “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths.
There are degrees of punishment in hell, just as there are more severe immediate consequences for our actions here on earth.
You can argue with me all you want, but your real argument is with Jesus Christ. Take it up with Him.
Also Jim – to really clarify the matter, all sins do not have the same consequences here on earth. Some sins are clearly more damaging/consequential than others.
Again, these are things you already know. Denying or deliberately ignoring that does the work of the father of lies.
PS. You may want to brush up on your apologetics, because none of the verses you provided indicated all sins are equally consequential. In other words, your response did nothing to refute my claim.
I am posting this on a few prolife blogs hoping to get immediate help:
I am not a member of this group, but a fan of the message and they have helped me out before, so it is a dire concern for me that they are in need, now.
HI there, I post with an urgent plea.
The SURVIVORS need immediate help and assistance.
Two of their female members were jailed last night and the bail was posted at 2,000$ EACH.
This is a group that goes in front of abortion clinics and shows the women what their abortions will actually look like–they disprove the lies to us young girls, showing that our tiny embryo is not a blob of cells, but a living human with a body that will come out looking like what it is: a murdered baby.
Please HELP them out–I can only imagine what it is like for these two young christian girls in the Jackson, MI jail.
Please use this opportunity time to help Christ.
http://survivors.la/donate-to-survivors.asp
Our movement is heating up and so is the opposition.
Imagine if these were your girls in jail.
You would be scared for them, but proud, right?
In Christ,
Bobbi @ CityOfAngelsNativeMission.com
If every one who reads this gives five-ten bucks they should be free and onto the next town soon. I think they are touring the country right now. For any one who wishes they could have been there for the 1960’s freedom rides in the South or to help the Jews in 1940’s Germany-Be HERE NOW!
Chris, you can parse anything and so can I. The fact is your interpretation may be different than mine; so be it.
What were the women arrested for?
Jim, you’ve failed to defend your claim. Pretending that it boils down to “parsing” is just an excuse for an incapacity to defend something that’s not true. It’s hard to blame you for that, of course, since defending an untruth is not an easy tasak.
Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
Standing on the sidewalk
http://www.lldf.org/in-the-public-square/pro-life-youth-arrested-on-public-sidewalk-for-engaging-in-peaceful-free-speech-activity/
Todd,
God bless you, brother!!!!!
Todd – Rather than just jump to conclusions, I want to understand this better.
1) How do you decide what churches to target?
2) What is your definition of “doing enough” not be targeted, or do you target every single church in some sort of random order?
Ex-GOP I think we have talked about this before but the way I Pick a church is start with the one I am at. Check with them and see if they are doing anything to help end abortion.
Once I start looking at other churches I normally look for Pro-Life Churches that are close to my home and than move to other churches farther away. I do my best to stay away from Pro-Choice Churches I feel they have already given themselves over to the evil one and can be of no use to the kingdom of God.
So what I look for is a good mans house for help a pro-life church.
If a church has a plan to help end abortion in their city and preach against abortion, active in the pro-life movement in some way I may skip them. It is important that they are active in the pro-life movement.
Before any church is picked to exhort I pray and ask God for his direction.
I know you feel it is wrong to Exhort a church but if the Church feels it can ignore the killing of 4000 kids a day than it is wrong and we need to help the Church take a stand.
Jim wrote:
Chris, all sins are equal in the eyes of God. remember that?
Sorry, friend, but this is simply not true. Not only is it unbiblical, but it flies in the face of common sense.
“If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal.” (1 John 5:16-17, RSV)
And do you seriously assert that intent, circumstances, and the objective gravity of the crime have nothing to do with the severity of a sin? Do you believe that all offenses against the love-relationship with God are equally grave? (Try a mental experiment: how would a slightly surly reply to a loved one compare with punching them in the teeth while calling them a foul name?)
While it is true that, if Christ had not died for us, even the smallest of sins would have damned us to Hell (since the gravity of a sin is directly proportional to the dignity of the one offended: it is more grave to slap one’s mother than it would be to slap a sun-flower, since one’s mother has far greater dignity… and since God has infinite dignity, any sin against him would be of infinite gravity, all other things being equal); but Christ Himself, Who has paid the debt for all sins of all time (whether we appropriate that payment, or not), admits of lesser and greater sins (cf. Matthew 12:31, Luke 12:48, etc.).
Jim wrote:
Chris, you can parse anything and so can I. The fact is your interpretation may be different than mine; so be it.
(?) “So be it?” My dear fellow, the law of non-contradiction requires that, if your “interpretation” conflicts with Chris’s, then at least one of you must be wrong! And since it’s a key point in your argument, I wonder why you seem so indifferent about the matter, all of a sudden. Unless you’re saying to Chris, “I hadn’t thought of that: you may be right,” you’ll need to be a bit more pro-active than that.
Todd -
Never said (or never intended to say) that all exhorts of a church are bad.
Couple of more questions:
– You say that you look for churches in the area – how many times do you go to the church before you protest?
– What is your standard for “doing enough”?
Why are you asking Ex-GOP, you and I have talked about this before, we talked all about this do you remember?
We’ve talked about some aspects of it, but I don’t believe I’ve ever asked how many time you go to a church before you protest it. In regards to your standards of doing enough, I feel like we talked about it before, but I don’t remember what your standards are.
I belonged to the methodist church up until age 19. I was a very insecure teenage girl and accidentally became pregnant while I was in college. The united methodist church leadership basically said it was my moral obligation to have an abortion because there were enough unwanted children in the world and that I would cost society by ending up on welfare. well, I was attending a catholic chapel at the time because that was the only church on campus. the priest convinced me that abortion was murder. I put my trust in God and went through with the pregnancy, although I lost my churches acceptance, my family’s love, and most of my friends for being so inconsiderate to my family and society, I never ended up on welfare, I married, and have been living a middle class life with three more beautiful children. I again had the pressure put on me to abort with my last pregnancy because the baby showed many signs of horrific abnormalities. I refused to abort and gave birth to a completely healthy little girl. I used to be understanding of why abortion needs to remain legal, but after a lifetime of personal hell on this issue, I honestly wish it wasn’t legal. May God bless you, Todd, especially with your bravery toward the United Methodist church. They are a good church, with a very bad stand on this issue.
The united methodist church leadership basically said it was my moral obligation to have an abortion because there were enough unwanted children in the world and that I would cost society by ending up on welfare.
I am glad you didn’t buckle under the pressure to abort your child, Sara. I don’t believe good churches coerce mothers to take their own child’s life.