The Shouting of the Lambs

Their name suggests an order of nuns, perhaps, or a sect of Christian pacifists. But the Lambs of Christ, in the words of one pro-choice leader, are "wolves in sheep's clothing." Although not so widely known as Operation Rescue, the Lambs may well be the most zealous and aggressive of the pro-life organizations that seek to shut down "killing centers" (abortion clinics) by intimidating protests that result in arrests and jail sentences for the protesters.

In communities across the U.S., from Asheville, N.C., to Fargo, N. Dak., the nomadic Lambs of Christ have focused attention on themselves and their targets with now familiar tactics. Whenever possible, they will enter an abortion clinic, or at least blockade it. Using heavy Kryptonite bicycle locks, they chain themselves to concrete blocks or automobile steering wheels and then go limp, making it difficult for police to remove them. When arrested, they usually refuse to give their names -- and they are more than willing to do jail time since that puts a financial burden on local law-enforcement systems. The Lambs will stake out the neighborhood where a clinic doctor lives, informing one and all that the practitioner is a "babykiller." They have offered money and shelter to pregnant women, asking that they forswear abortion.

Formally known as Victim Souls of the Unborn Christ-Child, the Lambs were founded in 1988 by the Rev. Norman Weslin, a Roman Catholic priest who retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of lieutenant colonel. His guiding principle ^ is the "mystical theology of the victim soul," meaning that Christ has often acted through seemingly insignificant persons or groups, like the Lambs. The Lambs' membership, mostly Roman Catholic, is divided into three groups: about 30 full-time activists, who travel around the country from clinic to clinic and jail to jail; 250 part-timers, who go on active duty with the Lambs for limited periods; and about 3,000 other "victim souls," who pray for the cause and sometimes offer bed, board and financial support for front-line pickets.

Weslin, whose prison nickname is "Father Baby Doe," insists that his organization be truly pacific. "We're everything a lamb connotes," he says. "Weak, humble, docile, silent, obedient. We pray for those persecuting us." The Lambs' passive-resistance strategy, he adds, has an explicit goal: "We buy time for unborn children. The longer it takes to cut us out of our locks, the longer the killing machines are off."

Some activist Lambs prefer to be called by code names by outsiders and often use a paramilitary lingo of "spiritual battle" and "satanic strongholds." One of them, a 34-year-old art school graduate known as "Maid Marian," says the organization is "like a family." But Ann Baker, head of a New Jersey- based pro-choice information and research group, contends that normal families do not practice what she calls "harassment and intimidation." Both advocates and enemies agree that the Lambs are dead serious about their cause. As long as abortion in the U.S. is legal, they will be a determined force that pro-choice advocates need to reckon with.