Addressing students at Yale University on International Women’s Day, Flip Benham, National Director of Operation Save America (formerly Operation Rescue), claimed that American’s lack of religion was to blame for the attacks against the U.S. and would cause future violence to occur. Benham railed against abortion in his remarks, saying, “If the shedding of blood in the womb does not cease in America, September 11, 2001, will prove only a harbinger of judgments and disasters that are to come.” Benham continued to say that more than abortion, “the battle is about who is Lord and whose laws reign.” A group of Yale University students protested outside of Benham’s speech, and student Leslie Cozzi published a scathing article in the Yale Daily News against Benham and Operation Save America (OSA). Among many examples of OSA’s extremism, Cozzi cited the OSA website that features a picture of the World Trade Center towers after the 9/11 attack as well as the quote: “Because you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed is pursuing you.” An article on the OSA website, according to Cozzi, then claims that abortion, homosexuality, and Islam are “all inspired by the same liar who has come to the earth to rob, kill, and destroy. All three are the beneficiaries of the marvelous liberties and freedom we have in AmericaÉ.All three deny God and the truth of His word. All three have entered into a pact with death.”
Benham and his Operation Save America are not the only ones spouting extremist anti-woman, anti-gay, and anti-Islam rhetoric. Last month, Pat Robertson, former head of the Christian Coalition, said on his 700 Club television program, “Islam is not a peaceful religion that wants to coexist. They want to coexist until they can control, dominate, and then if need be destroy.” Earlier, right-wing televangelist Jerry Falwell had blamed 9/11 on feminists, abortion rights proponents, civil liberties groups, and gays and lesbians. Falwell later apologized for his remarks.
