(no subject)

[camwyn]

Is it just me, or does anyone find LJ's new Love Without Boundaries fundraising virtual gift outright creepy? I know they're trying to convey the sense of vulnerable children being cradled safely in the palm of someone's hand, but I went to a Catholic high school with a decidedly strident anti-abortion* instructor whose idea of educating the students on Why Abortion Was Wrong usually involved extremely graphic color photographs of terminated pregnancies. As in, she kept a stack of anti-abortion pamphlets full of those pictures on the windowsill of the junior year theology classroom, right where you would probably see them if you had to get up to get a tissue to blow your nose. Thanks largely to her, the sight of a child small enough to fit in the palm of someone's hand- no matter how whole- pretty much just rings the bells of DON'T LOOK AT THE PICTURES for me now.

Thanks a lot, Sister Beatrice.

*To her credit, I think she was also anti-death-penalty and anti-euthanasia, among the other elements of Catholic 'seamless garment' theological issues pertaining to the value of all human life. Unfortunately, that got drowned out by all her other issues and insistences.

Comments

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Sister Beatrice must have been related to my religion teacher in high school, Father Stack. He not only showed us graphic slideshows of aborted fetuses, he did so in a class held right before lunch.

The girls at my high school used to call Father Stack's class "the Catholic diet" because you were guaranteed not to eat a bite afterward.

[camwyn]

Sister Beatrice was the only teacher in the school for whom the principal had a standing dispensation- if you had to get up and leave her class for a while for emotional reasons, it wouldn't be held against you. Mind you, that was more intended for the part of class where Sister Beatrice talked about death and the students who had lost family members, but still. I used that dispensation once, during one of her videos. Very, very useful.

(Our principal at the time was Sister Doris Lavinthal. Best Catholic school principal ever.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_geekie_/]

Oh, it made me think of that picture by Anne Geddes(sp?) that looks pretty much identical, save for a background of pink roses. I used to have some of her artwork and calendars. But now that you mention it, I definitely see where you're coming from.

[lilpocketninja.livejournal.com]

Suddenly I am SO GLAD my sister is taught by Catholic college grads instead of actual nuns, because her teachers are a bunch of liberal nuts.

Anti-abortion literature is hella creepy.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

It's not just you.

[e-mily.livejournal.com]

I didn't even have a similar experience and I can't look at those pictures either.

[kyrielle]

I never had that experience and it's STILL creepy. That kid is just too small in that hand and it looks...ugh.

Also, I just read the news post and am giggling: "To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares and read about how they helped save Baby Kang and the Rainbow Twins from fatal illnesses, who are now thriving in nurturing families."

I sure am glad they found nurturing families for those fatal illnesses!

...so is it bad that I want to go find those pamphlets..

[traveller-blues.livejournal.com]

...photoshop in an alien or Cthulhu baby, and say, "Yes, you'll have to keep these babies too..." and then sneak the pamphlets back into their original spot?

-Traveller

Re: ...so is it bad that I want to go find those pamphlets..

[camwyn]

It's an understandable urge. It's just... not an area where I want to tread, if I can help it.

Re: ...so is it bad that I want to go find those pamphlets..

[traveller-blues.livejournal.com]

I'd never actually do it, mind. It's free speech and all. Just that a friend of mine swapped out photos of coyotes with a coyote fursuiter pic in a pamphlet once, and it amused me greatly.

-Trav

Re: ...so is it bad that I want to go find those pamphlets..

[camwyn]

Oh, no, I understand completely. And now I kind of want to see that pamphlet of your friend's.