Three times a week for the past three years, Ralph Zuranski has stood at the corner of Harwood and Central in Bedford, Texas in solitary protest of the Planned Parenthood clinic set in the strip mall behind him. In the two years preceding, Ralph was there six days a week.

On Saturday, he was joined by 188 others, protesting Planned Parenthood’s harvesting and bartering the body parts of the aborted. Ages ranged from senior citizens to the still-to-be-born. If the media expects angry Bible thumpers with steam shooting out their ears and condemnation spewing out of their mouth, those gathered Saturday didn’t get the memo.

One organizer, spotting half-smiles or waves made droopy from the Texas heat, would encourage a “big smile and wave.” Engage the drivers passing by, he’d say. The message of life presented with the joy of the Lord is bound to spark a reaction. “Make ’em commit one way or another.”

Bedford sits in the Mid-Cities area between Dallas and Fort Worth. Churches here are as plentiful as coffee shops in Seattle; the faithful as bountiful as Texas bluebonnets. It’s no wonder that a vast majority of cars driving by honked or waved back.

Still, not everyone supported the cause. A few drivers responded with their middle digit. One woman rounded the corner shouting out how much she loves her uterus. One guy leaned out of a black pick-up screaming “Satan rules.”

No, he doesn’t, brother. But he has been leasing Suite 160.

 

The Twisted Root

Diagonally across the parking lot from the Planned Parenthood clinic at the corner where Harwood and Central meet is a popular burger joint called Twisted Root. With the cheerful warriors curved around the front of the restaurant, it could look like they were protesting Twisted Root, and not Planned Parenthood.

Perhaps in a sense they were. Not the burger joint of course, but the twisted root of human nature that gave rise to abortion in the first place.

Which leads us to the mercy of God.

God Have Mercy

Several we spoke to shared one sentiment: We are engaged in a spiritual battle. And we are to do so with love. We cannot — must not — hate those who seek the diabolical abortion services of Planned Parenthood, nor loathe those who make their living in the trafficking of dead children. As Ralph put it, we must “pray mercy on their souls,” endeavoring in “every way to turn evil into good.”

The videos being released by the Center for Medical Progress exposing Planned Parenthood’s marketing of babies are making those gathered in protest not just nauseous, not just tearful, but also fearful. Fearful that the grace God has shown this nation has lifted and time is running short.

Yes, these neighbors held their spirits and signs high, but they were concerned. Continuing to allow the carnage must at some point incur God’s wrath.

Said Ralph, “God help us if we don’t take a stand.”

The Staffer

A Stream colleague walked from the sidewalk rally to the Planned Parenthood office, which is located in the elbow of the L-shaped strip mall steps from an Irish pub. A woman drove up and approached the door. She appeared to be a staff member checking to ensure the protesters weren’t bothering the facility. Protesters had already been warned that they risked being towed if they even dared park in the large strip mall lot.

The woman, a snippy, grumpy sort of the kind usually outlawed in this neck of Texas, demanded to know what my colleague was doing there taking pictures. “I’m a journalist,” he said.

“Are you taking pictures of the protest?”

“Yes.”

She gave a dismissive wave of her arm toward the protesters, saying of them, “How irritating!”

Her assumption was this journalist was “friendly” to the Planned Parenthood cause. Given the media climate, why would she suspect otherwise? Then again, given the CMP video sting, it’s curious she’d express her true feelings to a stranger.

The Two Signs

Several protesters held posters reading “Close Planned Parenthood.” As it happens, a sign on the door of the Planned Parenthood clinic announced they were indeed closing, effective the 22nd. But before anyone can cheer, the notice went on to say they were opening in a new location, come August 27. It did not say where. Observed a protester named Jill, “Business must be good.”

The door featured another sign: a faded warning that weapons were not allowed on the premises, for the safety of “you and our staff.” For some reason, Planned Parenthood posted no signs warning about scalpels, forceps and digoxin.

 The Prayer

As the event wrapped up, the protesters gathered for a group picture and a prayer. Although folks like Rosary and Jeanine and Karen and Mike and Ralph had been battling together to end abortion for 35 years, it was left to a man named CJ, newly arrived in town, to pray the gathering home.

He had been welcomed. As we had been welcomed.

Perhaps that’s the message of those out on the sidewalks of Bedford on a humid Saturday morning: If we are to live our faith, and honor our Creator, each person is to be loved and cherished and welcomed.

Particularly — and most urgently — those waiting to be welcomed into the world

 

 

To view a multimedia page of this protest, including a slide show and audio clips of three on-the-street interviews with protestors, visit the companion article: On the Scene at One Planned Parenthood Protest (Multimedia).