FāVS News News and Commentary about Religion and Ethics in Eastern Washington and North Idaho
On Oct. 24, dozens of anti-abortion Christians are planning to gather outside the new Planned Parenthood building on Indiana to dedicate a church plant that will operate on the sidewalks in front of the center, according to numerous posts circulating on social media.
According to the posts, members from various Spokane churches have signed up to regularly minister to those seeking Planned Parenthood services, and the sponsoring church is Covenant Church Spokane.
The October event, which will be at 5:45 p.m. (Oct. 24), is based on Church Arise: Operation Save Spokane, which took place in August and was part of a national movement. There, about 60-70 protestors picketed the facility and handed out anti-LGBT literature, according to the Spokesman-Review.
The August event and upcoming October event are organized by the Abolitionist Society of Eastern Washington, which aims to abolish abortion.
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
Honestly, it’d be fine so long as they could be trusted to observe the difference between ‘ministry’ and harassment. Experience indicates that they cannot.