Anti-Choicers Appropriate Western Wall

[GeoBQn]

Anti-Choice activists want to include a replica of the Western Wall in their plans for a new "national pro-life monument and center" in Wichita, KS.

The proposed replica is part of a monumental “International Pro-Life Memorial and National Life Center†being planned by evangelical activists in Wichita’s anti-abortion community. The envisioned shrine is meant to promote and solidify Wichita’s reputation as the city in America that is most hostile to abortion, say the activists. The project planners have decided that the most vivid way to invoke the scale of the abortion tragedy, as they see it, is to reference Jewish suffering — embodied in their minds by the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The “Wailing Wall,†as the activists refer to it, and the accompanying center, will be fronted by 60 crosses, each one representing 1 million aborted fetuses.

“[The Western Wall] is a place that memorializes what happened during the Holocaust,†said Pastor Mark Holick, the spokesman for the anti-abortion project. “Since Roe v. Wade,†he said, referring to the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that struck down state bans on abortion, “60 million baby boys and girls have been murdered, and that is a holocaust unprecedented in the history of mankind.â€

http://forward.com/articles/159240/repl ... in-kansas/

Now that I've stopped vomiting, a couple of points:

1. The name "Wailing Wall" has not been favored since 1967.

2. If the Western Wall is a Holocuast memorial, how do they explain the other thousands of years that it existed before the Holocaust?

[Kitty]

Yeah, here's the problem with comparing abortion to the Holocaust.

1: fetuses are not being killed just for being fetuses, like Jews, Roma, homosexuals, etc. were being killed for being Jews, Roma, homosexuals, etc. Abortion happens so the mother can delay having children, or avoid it altogether if she so wishes. Women are more than walking uteruses, something pro-lifers refuse to believe.

2: You're assuming all Jews are pro-life.

3: You're comparing a surgical procedure to gassing, being lined up and shot into ditches, being forced on death marches, being burnt alive in crematoria, dying of rampant disease in the barracks, or being worked to death. The fetus feels no pain. It has no thoughts at any point. It does not suffer. The victims of concentration camps, on the other hand, did have thoughts and could feel pain.

4: Abortion is not an unprecedented holocaust. Before Roe v. Wade women were having abortions anyway, using herbs or knitting needles and risking their own lives.

Also, something rubs me the wrong way in using 1 cross to represent 1 million lives. They would NOT do that for actual living people, so even they recognize that the lives of fetuses are worth less than the lives of living people. If they used one cross for all the "victims" fine, but you either recognize them ALL as one group, or individually. 60 crosses for 60 million "lives" is tacky.

[2xx1xy1JD]

What the fuckity fuck?

The only good thing about this is that whatever structure they are planning on building will be thousands of miles away and bear almost no resemblance to the actual Western Wall. These goofs seem to know nothing about the actual geography or history of it. It has nothing to do with the Holocaust - although part of me fears that if they figured that out, they would just build a replica of Auschwitz instead.

Plus, if they wanted to make it look like more than a random wall, they'd need to stick a replica of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque just above it. I'm sure that would go over well.

Is there a logical fallacy called "false appeal to someone else's genocide"? If your argument that "X is bad" doesn't manage to be persuasive, calling it a Holocaust doesn't help.

[2xx1xy1JD]

On a more serious note, this can be seen as more than just a laughably clueless effort by anti-choice forces.

The small Jewish community in Wichita is largely pro-choice...and frankly scared.

From the second page of the Forward article:

In Wichita, the abortion debate has largely broken down on religious lines, with most of the city’s evangelical churches acting as activist centers for the rights of the unborn. But the town’s two synagogues have stayed quiet on the topic, though individual Jews in Wichita have been active in the abortion rights movement.

Davis, the Reform rabbi, said that the Jewish community was loath to draw attention to itself on an issue known to drive some Wichita activists to harass opponents or — in the case of Tiller’s murderer, Scott Roeder — kill them. Several years ago, Davis conducted pastoral work at Tiller’s clinic for Jewish families seeking late-term abortions. But though Davis was open about his views on abortion, he never asked his congregation to follow suit.

“I think that some people are concerned about the Jewish community publicly taking a controversial political stand, especially in a place like Wichita, Kansas, where if you do such a thing you get targeted,†he said.

Cynthia Stein, the president at Ahavath-Achim, echoed this view.

“Someone walked into a church on a Sunday morning and shot George Tiller,†she said. “So am I afraid? A little bit. When you are a community of under 1,000 people in a very conservative community of 350,000 people, are you a little concerned sometimes? Yes.â€

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/159240/repl ... z20uGoJd6K

[Conuly]

Unfuckingbelievable.

[artschooldropout]

Just when you thought Evangelicals' crass cultural appropriation of Judaism, our history,our symbols and our traditions could not possibly get more offensive...

[Three and Done]

Yeah, here's the problem with comparing abortion to the Holocaust.

1: fetuses are not being killed just for being fetuses, like Jews, Roma, homosexuals, etc. were being killed for being Jews, Roma, homosexuals, etc. Abortion happens so the mother can delay having children, or avoid it altogether if she so wishes. Women are more than walking uteruses, something pro-lifers refuse to believe.

2: You're assuming all Jews are pro-life.

3: You're comparing a surgical procedure to gassing, being lined up and shot into ditches, being forced on death marches, being burnt alive in crematoria, dying of rampant disease in the barracks, or being worked to death. The fetus feels no pain. It has no thoughts at any point. It does not suffer. The victims of concentration camps, on the other hand, did have thoughts and could feel pain.

4: Abortion is not an unprecedented holocaust. Before Roe v. Wade women were having abortions anyway, using herbs or knitting needles and risking their own lives.

Also, something rubs me the wrong way in using 1 cross to represent 1 million lives. They would NOT do that for actual living people, so even they recognize that the lives of fetuses are worth less than the lives of living people. If they used one cross for all the "victims" fine, but you either recognize them ALL as one group, or individually. 60 crosses for 60 million "lives" is tacky.

Very well said, Kitty.

I can't help but notice how these anti-choicers always seem to forget (or perhaps they just don't know, thanks to their SOTDRT educashun) is that the worst genocide in known history was perpetrated in China, by Chairman Mao. Estimated deaths range as high as 80 million people.

On the other hand, the cynic in me knows that comparing abortion to the Holocaust packs far more of an emotional punch amonst the majority of the population than comparing it to Chinese genocide. More "bang for your buck" so to speak.