Operation Save America

I am so conflicted about this organization. I get so indignant when I read about the things they are doing -- their actions are totally and hideously inappropriate to me. They violate every aspect of respect, consideration, compassion and tolerance. They were the ones shouting at Ven. Rajan Zedji as mentioned in Rori's post, and they also are engaged in many similar campaigns.

Take this one for example: the "God is Going Back to School" campaign. OSA went to Harding High School in Bridgeport, CT on Friday Sept. 22, 2006. In their article on this action, they talk about how they passed out literature, Holy Bibles, wristbands and other tracts, and how "Each student had to go in through these front doors. We had access to about two thousand kids in forty-five minutes time."

The way this sounds, it seems like the only reason anyone listened to them or payed attention was because they HAD to; students weren't necessarily interested in their message, but because they had to go to school, they were forced to pass through the OSA crowd. Of course, they only mention the kids who love them and praise their efforts, and not the ones that tell them where to go, if you know what I mean.

I remember going to school in Rochester, NY, and having to walk through swarms of people holding up posters with huge images of aborted babies yelling slogans at us. Then at the end of the day, having to get on the RTS buses to go home, we had to do the same thing all over again.

As a future educator, though, what disturbs me most is what they say at the top of this webpage: "We are never more effective than when we take the battle to the very gates of hell -- the public school." I wonder, is it because public schools don't teach students to be intolerant of other religions, or to go out and heckle those who think and pray differently? Is that why they are the "gates of hell"? Or is it because public schools don't teach that "Jesus is the standard"? I hope to teach in these public schools, because I believe in them, and because I am largely a product of public schooling. The only sentiments of cynicism I might have toward public schools would come out of the last year and a half of research I've done on the No Child Left Behind Act.

I was talking to my roommate last night, and he wrote off OSA as fanatical lunatics, and I must admit, it's easy to do that. And while I couldn't disagree more with these people, I have to still accept that they are doing what they believe in. This is why I am conflicted. I want to write them off, too...and so badly, because they make me so furious. But they are entitled to say and do what they will, as long as it does not impinge on the rights of others. (To this extent, their ruthless action in Washington D.C. on the 12th is reeeeeally pushing it.) And as a part of RFP-USA, I am obliged to respect their religious sentiments, so long as they remain peaceful, even if I personally think they are totally betraying the tolerant teachings of Jesus Christ.

Argh.