Mr. Terry, There Is A Right Way To Go About Engaging In Pro-Life Activism...

...and then there is your way. (source: WSBT.com)

The sad thing is, when I first learned that someone had been arrested at the Notre Dame campus in relation to the Obama scandal, I immediately knew who it was.

Given the propaganda war waged by pro-abortionists to mask the reality of abortion and the relatively short attention span of the general public, I believe in the occasional stark reminder of what abortion does to the unborn. However, such displays should always be accompanied by a corresponding message and should be infrequent enough as to not desensitize the target audience. When such displays becomes the norm rather than the exception, it is a sign that a penchant for sensationalism has taken precedence over promoting a culture of life in the one that engages in the displaying.

Additionally, getting arrested on a regular basis just to get your name in the news - which appears to be Randall Terry's favorite past-time - tends to have the effect of drawing attention to the crusader rather than to the crusade. I can no longer tell whether or not that is Mr. Terry's intention.

As a final point, while I adamantly believe that the conduct of Fr. Jenkins and the Notre Dame administration during this entire Obama affair has been a source of deep shame for the entire Catholic Church, the university does have the right to instruct individuals not to set foot on university premises, especially when such individuals have a track record as notorious as Randall Terry's. (source: JillStanek.com)

Randall Terry's goal of ending legalized abortion is a noble one, and one shared by all self-respecting pro-lifers. And if ever anyone had a valid reason for having a personal vendetta against the pro-abortion movement, it is Terry. This 2006 National Catholic Register article, on the occasion of Terry's conversion to Catholicism, details his past pro-life work, and how attorneys for NOW, the ACLU, and Planned Parenthood set about to ruin him financially out of sheer spite. I cannot say what scars past brushes with the culture of death have left on Randall Terry's heart. They do not, however, justify his oftentimes disrespectful and theatrical antics; and I can only pray that he eventually comes to the realization that the ends do not necessarily justify the means.