There were some loud marches through major cities over the weekend, but hardly the wave of riots, vandalism, and sacrilege promised by the group Jane’s Revenge. I think many of us prepared for our churches to be harassed over the weekend, only to come back Monday and see reports of a little graffiti at a crisis pregnancy center and the burning of an unused but historic church in Virginia.
I expected worse. And I suspect that the leak of the drafted Alito opinion stole some of the spontaneous energy from what could have been an explosive moment in public demonstration. The vandalism that did occur after the draft was released was denounced, sometimes grudgingly, but denounced nonetheless. And it caused President Joe Biden to warn on Friday that violence was totally unacceptable. I’m grateful he said it.