Catholics should guard their windshields this coming weekend.

Priests for Life held a national conference call on Oct. 27th (posted on their website) where they spoke to volunteers who they had been recruited to flyer Catholic church parking lots with anti-Obama abortion flyers. 

On the call they told activists to connect with various state-level groups
that could provide them with flyers and lit at the local level.

When I first saw this I was stuck with the brazen approach with which they instructed their volunteers.  They jokingly called the initiative “National Get Kicked Out of Church Parking Lot Weekend.”

First they let volunteers know that they could be asked to leave the church parking lot as they left flyers, as it would be considered trespassing. They said that if the parish Priest asks them to leave, they should move to the public sidewalk where the could continue to flyer the parishioners.

Finally, they said in the case that the Pastor continues to ask the volunteers to leave, that they should not be concerned, because by the time law enforcement was to arrive, they would have already distributed the lit they came to deliver.

I was struck by this story for two reasons.  First, it is an important reminder that the religious right continues to deploy real ground troops.  Second, that there is a good reason why many of us, including the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, have stood on principle for years against politicking directly in or around the house of worship.