This Saturday morning over fifty men, women and children gathered outside of the St. Landry Parish Court House in Opelousas, Louisiana, to celebrate last month’s Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade.
From under the partial shade of a nearby oak, the celebration began with Yvonne Normand leading in a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. Next, Pastor Stuart Amidon of Christ Church Opelousas, standing upon a gray stone wall, spoke of the historical account of Israel in Chapter 8 of the book of Nehemiah. Amidon, the event’s organizer, related that reformation for Israel after exile began when God’s Law was again read and taught. Donning the standard dad uniform of cap and cargo shorts, Amidon noted that the occasion of turning back to God was an occasion to celebrate and, quoting Nehemiah, to “not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is our strength.”
To the crowd, Amidon applying the lesson to the present overturning of Roe, explained, “So what that means is there’s still a lot of work left to be done. Amen church? We’re not finished. We’re trying to rebuild a whole Christian culture that has been gone for generations much like Israel. But in these moments, the Lord tells us, ‘You want to get strong? You want to finish the work? Then, you party.’ That’s what today is. We throw a parade to celebrate the flip of Roe v. Wade.”
After singing Psalm 100 acapella, the gathering entered a variety of vehicles, some with Christian flags flying, and some with trailers, for a parade through town to South City Park for a picnic and games.
Jeff Cook attended the celebration and parade with Rachel, his wife, and their three children. Cook explained his reasons for doing so, “It’s a great thing to celebrate. We’ve been talking to our kids their whole lives about this. To see the overturning of the greatest sin of our land come down, I wanted our kids to see that this is a special moment. To celebrate with our church family made it even better.” After the parade, Cook chuckled at his children’s enthusiastic question, “‘Are we going to do this every year?’ I said, ‘Lord willing, I hope so.’ I think it would be great to see this grow every year.”
