Meet Rev. Walter Hoye.
He's been criminally charged by the District Attorney in Oakland, California. His crime? He holds a sign outside an abortion clinic that reads, "Jesus Loves You and Your Baby. Let Us Help." Terrible stuff, isn't it? What could drive a man to be so full of such unmitigated hatred? Sarcasm aside, clearly there is nothing about this man or his message that is hateful. And according to the Life Legal Defense Foundation, no clinic patient has filed any complaint with the police regarding Hoye. Still, the D.A. persists. More in a moment on how in Oakland, free speech isn't free.
I was curious to learn more about Mr. Hoye's personal story and why he is an active pro-lifer and I came across this short video on his organization's website.
2.1 pounds. Can you imagine? I was born 10 weeks early but I was a whopping 4 lbs 5 ounces. He held his baby in the palm of his hand and he knew that the tiny life inside a woman is human. He offers his assistance to women entering the clinic because a majority of abortions are performed on black women. The San Francisco Chronicle, no lapdog of the pro-life movement by any stretch of anyone's imagination, reports that according to the Guttmacher Institute (affiliated with Planned Parenthood), black women account for 447,700 of 1.21 million abortions each year in the United States -- 32% of all abortions nationwide -- even though these women make up just 13% of the population. "Black women are nearly four times more likely than white women to have an abortion," said Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research at Guttmacher, a nonprofit research and policy organization. "The numbers have been like that for awhile."
Hoye says he wants "to create opportunities for dialogue on issues concerning life, and abortion is the leading cause of death in the African American community. We have always taught abstinence," he continues. "That is Christianity 101. But when people decide to have sex outside of marriage, we want to do other things like post-abortion counseling, anger management, day care and recovery programs." Does any of this sound hateful to you?
In Oakland, free speech isn't free. There is a pattern at play. Awhile back, I had the opportunity to be part of the Blackstone Legal Fellowship sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund. And one of the things I worked on was an amicus brief in support of Christian public employees in Oakland who wanted to create and promote a group for like-minded public employees to discuss issues concerning family values and the traditional family. But after one employee complained, the group's flyers were torn down from the bulletin boards and the group was barred from using the email system. However, the city fully supported and promoted gay and lesbian groups and their efforts to promote their beliefs and activities through -- you guessed it -- bulletin boards and the city's email system.
This affects you. It's easy to write off these events as endemic to the Left Coast. But what happens in California does NOT stay in California. What happens there is a harbinger of things to come and they're coming soon, to a public corner near you. And did you know where Planned Parenthood gets its millions of dollars to provide abortions and abortion-related services? From your wallet. That's right; the organization receives millions each year in your tax dollars, even though its pervasive racism and disregard for human life are incontestable.
There is a war going on and one battlefield is in the womb. But the primary battlefield is in the heart and mind of every human being. Courageous leaders like Walter Hoye -- I'll call them Psalm 40 leaders -- recognize this war for what it is and are driven by a compassionate love for fellow man so powerful that they cannot be silent in the face of atrocity. As the psalm says, they "do not conceal [God's] constant love and truth from the great assembly." We must stand by these brave men and women, with our prayers if not also with our persons. There is no time to lose, because for some, time is running out.
By the way, I don't know why the picture is showing up so large. If an admin knows how to make it smaller, please feel free to do so. Thanks much!
I pray God protects this man from these babykilling pro-aborts. As the saying goes, if they will murder helpless unborn babies, there is nothing else they will not do.
Rev. Spitz,
I clicked on your hyperlinked name above and read through your site.
My heart grieves when I consider the millions of unborn babies murdered each year. Sometimes, my grief gives way to bitterness and bitterness to anger. But though I support all peaceful efforts to confront abortion, I cannot support the killing of abortionists (as you support on your website). If we carry the concept to the limits of its logic, we would support the vigilante-style killing of ALL murderers not executed under our legal system. Is that your position?
Please know that I am not trying to attack you; I just want to understand. Thanks.
More on Mr. Hoye at: http://www.lifenews.com/state3708.html
Rev. Spitz, I concur with what ddtkw has written. I cannot and never have supported violence for violence. None of us who blog here do, and we don't support a site (or the publicity of such a site) that proposes or supports such violence. Remember, fomenting hatred isn't sanctioned on this blog, from either side of this issue, and as such the link to your website has been deleted.
I also intensely abhor calling prochoicers "pro-aborts" though I know some of us who co-blog here do this. It is a belittling label, much the same as when they call us "anti-choice". It diminishes the person to use such labels.
The After Abortion blog founder said it best here:
"Please don't use the labels "anti-choice" or "pro-abort". Please don't label individuals.
"Please use your creative energy to find ways to state your opinion that respect the dignity of others.
"...recognize that nearly everyone who reads comments on blogs has the horse-sense to recognize when someone is offending against charity, being provocative, or engaging in verbal behavior that is damaging and destructive."
Labeling people an unnecessarily derogative term is damaging, to all.
And as for Rev. Spitz's site, supporting the killing of abortion doctors is nothing if not destructive.
And I sincerely, humbly wish that all our co-bloggers would remove the anger that is evident when anyone uses the term "pro-abort." It riles up anyone who disagrees with the pro-life issues, and that doesn't necessarily help, in my humble opinion.
Rev. Spitz,
The pictures on your site really are extremely graphic and nauseating, a tactic which I completely understand — How can we be moved to action if we do not comprehend the horrors of abortion? — but cannot condone.
May I humbly suggest a somewhat different approach? Fr. Pavone of Priests for Life has a website that also portrays the graphic reality of abortion. But rather than have the pics on the front of his homepage, he has a special multimedia page with a disclaimer so people know what they’re getting when they click on the links.
Just my two cents’ worth of unsolicited input. :o) Take care and God bless.
I am predicting new anti-abortion terror because of the election. I am also predicting that this time pro-choice counterterrorists will respond in kind, by mounting equally violent attacks against right-to-lifers.
Because of his public support for terror, "Reverend" Donald Spitz will be a natural target.
Something seems odd about the Hoye case. It's too weak - the DA would have to be a complete idiot legally to prosecute a case he can't win, even as a political stunt, and as described it's a clear-cut victory for Hoye. I suspect there might be something we do not know, an event that prompted this. Maybe there was a confrontation with a patient or a counter-protestor, or perhaps he accidentially stepped over the property boundry and thus gave the justification for a charge of trespass, or got a bit carried away and harassed an employee. Or he might just have annoyed someone with political influence. We'll find out soon enough.
It seems like Rev Hoye receives more attention for his cause by being arrested than obeying the easily followed laws. That being the case, it seems like he's better off being arrested than not.
There is no such thing as unborn human rights "terror". Terrorism defined: the deliberate and unnecessary killing of human beings to achieve a political objective. I do not know of any instances of supporters of unborn human rights activists killing to achieve a POLITICAL objective. In extremely rare circumstances pro-life activists have killed criminal abortionists, but their objective was to try to save the lives of human beings threatened with violence and NOT to achieve any POLITICAL objective.
The criminal abortionist industry has inflicted a ruthless and horrific reign of terror on helpless innocent human beings in the unborn stage of their lives. Your movement has destroyed approximately 1,000,000,000 (one billion) human beings around the world in the last twenty years.
The true killers and criminals are virtually entirely those who destroy other human beings for a living or pay to have their own children killed.
If you are opposed to violence, stop supporting the worst violence there ever was.
SURICOU: you have been banned twice in the past 2 years. This latest comment will be allowed to stand as it does not violate our commenting guidelines, but be reminded that you began your most recent series of comments this same innocuous way and then deteriorated again to unacceptable levels. If your commenting again begins to repeat that pattern, all your subsequent comments will be permanently banned no matter how civil they might start out to be, since you will have proven twice that you cannot be trusted to abide by our guidelines. We just don't have time to "babysit" anyone, especially anyone who is expected to be a grown-up.