Would Jesus yell at high school kids?

Would Jesus yell at high school kids?

By Mark McCormick
Wichita Eagle

An open letter to Operation Save America: I saw The Eagle's report of your Thursday protests at West High School and at Wichita State University. A photo of a tense confrontation involving a WSU student and one of your members caused me concern.

I wasn't there, and neither were most Eagle readers. But I did receive an e-mail from a concerned parent who dropped her ninth-grade daughter off at West High that morning.

She wasn't pleased, and neither was I.

Police said you were well within your rights to protest at both places. They said you were merely exercising your First Amendment rights, rights I fully and ferociously support.

I also appreciate your passion and your zeal, though it is misguided.

But when your spokeswoman, Donna Lippoldt, said the demonstrators were there to return God to the nation's schools, what God were you speaking of?

Would Jesus holler at high school students? Upset teachers? Cause enough of a disturbance to unsettle the tots in the school's day care? Litter the school grounds with fliers?

"The students were reporting that they felt harassed and threatened," school district spokeswoman Susan Arensman said in Friday's Eagle.

This kind of behavior is precisely why people say they don't want your version of God in schools. For the eternal life of me, I don't recognize the God you're talking about.

I respect your beliefs, but those of us who also believe in God cringe at your tactics. I have a difficult time imagining Jesus shoving photos of bloody, mutilated fetuses into the faces of cornered teens.

I say cornered, because that concerned mother I told you about sent me this e-mail about the conversation she had with her 14-year-old daughter:

"My daughter... said the flyer's were horrible, with the graphic photos of aborted fetus's. The photos really disturbed her. She also told me that several of the larger boys at school helped to hold back these people, as they kind of ganged up on one of the school buses and were making the students coming out of the bus door take these handouts. The students were throwing them back at them or throwing them down."

I'm guessing your members flexed on these kids to affirm your membership's piety.

OK. OK. We understand that you want people to know you're Christians. I think we could figure that out before you shouted a little louder when the Pledge of Allegiance reached the phrase "under God." But you can't be proud of this behavior.

Was this demonstration really about conversion -- or coercion? About holding up the light to guide young people to Jesus or about a selfish demonstration of your righteousness?

I thought Jesus loved and forgave liberally. He inspired followers; he didn't frighten them into believing.

I can live with the WSU campus protests, but you should leave the high school kids alone. How does it advance your cause to yell at my e-mailer's 14-year-daughter?

Your version of Jesus sort of reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw this week that said, "Whom Would Jesus Bomb?" a takeoff of the popular Christian phrase "What Would Jesus Do?" An aggressive God. A mean God.

What do I think Jesus would do at the sight of teenagers being targeted by a protest?

I think he'd weep.

Posted on Sat, Oct. 08, 2005