From: chrisl@stpaul.gov (Chris A Lyman)
Subject: The Best of Enemies - John Dee
Organization: City of Saint Paul Public Works
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 19:54:17 GMT

The following is an excerpt from the article, "The Best of Enemies," by Katy
Reckdahl.  It was published in the 11/18 issue of Twin Cities Reader and is
reprinted without permission.  The article explores the relationships that
have sprung up between members of opposing sides at the Robbinsdale Clinic
abortion protest.  It also includes thumb-nail sketches of some of the
principal participants.  This is one:

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In 1988, "Father" John Dee, director of Ministry OK, began parking his camper,
a battered '70s-vintage Krager Koach, in front of abortion clinics and
operating a "counseling center" from it.  He has recently upgraded to a 1984
Winnebago, but the sign outside still reads, "Free Abortion Options
Counseling Service."

Dee and his Winnebago pull up to the Robbinsdale clinic every Thursday and
almost every Saturday.  His priest garb almost always draws taunts from the
pro-choice side regarding his dubious status in the Catholic church.  The
Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis does not recognize Dee as a
practicing priest since he married a nun in 1972.

But Dee, 54, cautions that his history can be too easily misconstrued.  "Take
my definitions of love, don't build on a sensational, 'Oh, here's a married
priest that is considered to be excommunicated.'  That would be a total
falsity.  I broke some penal laws of the church, I break penal laws of the
state, but I will not break a moral law - if I can help it."

Dee was recently sentenced to a six-month jail term for violating the 12-
person limit at the Robbinsdale clinic.  He will start serving his term on
the day after Thanksgiving.

As a war protester in the 60's and the 70's, Dee broke other laws, traveling
as far as Vietnam to chain himself to the gates of the American embassy in
Saigon.  He protested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago,
but complains that he wasn't heard, "while Abbie Hoffman - with his vulgar
language - was."  Dee makes it very clear that Abbie Hoffman's lifestyle led
the radical to where he is today: Dead.

After they married, Dee and his wife Lu, travelled the country.  She sang
and played piano; he accompanied her on the guitar.  "I played mostly folk
music - 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone?.'  I'm back in that era."  He
would also go into bars and coffee shops, set up a movie machine and two
slide projectors, and proceed to do a religious program and a two-hour
antiwar program.

The Roe v. Wade decision had just made abortion legal when Dee found out
that Lu was pregnant.  Dee was having fun on the road and didn't want any
children - but abortion violated one of his most basic moral laws.  Because
abortions were a legal temptation at the time, he considers his daughter 
"an abortion survivor."

"You need to teach the moral law that adultery is wrong - fornication is
wrong," he says.  "I learned this myself.  Even the aroma of the act of
intercourse outside of marriage is different than in."

Unlike many pro-life fundamentalists, Dee is not opposed to all artificial
birth control.  He reserves his ire, and his conspiracy theories, for
certain providers of abortions.  "If Planned Parenthood, run by the feminists,
would have their way, they would allow any type of reason for birth control
of any type, especially abortion," he says.  "Certainly they would turn the
scales around, and try to perform abortions so that 80% would be female
babies and only 20% males."

Dee says that he often tries to engage the pro-choice people in conversation,
but they don't always cooperate.  "The moment I start talking about life and
the principles of life, they start chanting these little high-school chants -
some of them are very blasphemous," he says.  "And now because one of the
guards has testified against me in court [for violating the restraining
order], it's making our relationship a little strained."

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I think that it's helpful for participants in the abortion debate to be able
to see members of the opposing side as people, so if there is interest, I
will be posting more of these sketches.

-- 
Chris Lyman  /  email: chrisl@pwcs.stpaul.gov  / standard disclaimers
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's
character, give him power."  -- Abraham Lincoln