I have a problem with people who wave signs outside of Planned Parenthood.  In my hometown, there is a group of people who meet regularly in front of the Planned Parenthood building.  I’ve seen them congregating on the sidewalk, holding crosses and praying together, their cars covered in anti-abortion bumper stickers.

In the first place, not everyone who goes to Planned Parenthood is seeking an abortion.  They have a variety of health services such as diabetes screening, flu vaccinations and smoking cessation programs and they provide these services to people at a low cost, a very worthy and loving gesture to those who need medical care.

Can you imagine how you might feel if you were a young woman with no insurance, seeking medical care and you had to wade through a large group of staring people just to see a doctor?  You would feel judged.  You would think that the protesters thought you were going to have an abortion when really you just needed a flu shot.  I know because I’ve gone to Planned Parenthood for medical care myself when I had no insurance and I’m eternally grateful that there were no protesters out front that day.  I would have skipped my annual checkup and risked my own well-being rather than be judged by all those people.  I would have resented their looks and even their prayers.

I agree with their desire to prevent abortions but I don’t agree with the way they go about it.  God doesn’t communicate with picket signs.  God has relationships with people.  He demonstrates His love through interaction on an ongoing basis not in a brief drive by.  How does waving a sign at someone reflect God’s love for them?  It doesn’t and the problem with standing out in front of Planned Parenthood claiming to represent God is that you may be communicating something that’s untrue of God. 

If we want to live out what we believe then we have to be willing to love women whether they have an abortion or not.  That in no way means that I’m ok with abortion itself or that I think God is ok with it.  I’m not and I don’t think He is either.  A child that God loves dies every time there is an abortion.  But God loves the mother too.  I’m still called to reflect God’s love of her no matter how I feel about the choice she makes.  I don’t want to represent God as a God who passes judgment in a glance and then writes a person off.  The God I know loves us in spite of our sins and I never want to be guilty of suggesting that He’s anything else.

How has the way others represent God affected your view of Him?