Sidewalk counseling is different from any other kind of personal or psychological counseling, if it is even counseling at all. Consider several of the attributes of counseling:
People sometimes choose to go to counseling if they become depressed or nervous, or if they want to stop smoking, or for any number of other personal reasons. And the person is free to stop receiving counseling whenever they wish. There is a small amount of required counseling, for instance when a judge makes alcohol abuse counseling a condition of a court order. Or when a school gives a student a choice between punishment and going to see a guidance counselor. With these few exceptions, we all have a right to decline counseling that we do not want.
Counselors are not permitted to go out and capture clients. Nor are they permitted to browbeat or bully people into becoming their clients. Genuine counseling sessions are not impromptu or "by surprise".
Counseling is a private exchange between the counselor and the person being counseled. They agree in advance as to the time and place of the counseling session. Counselors are not permitted to expose their clients to public shame or ridicule.
Counselors spend a good deal of time listening.
As a rule, the counselor is not permitted to demand "You'll do what I say, and you'll do it as long as I say it."
They must follow legal rules and the ethical practices of their professional organizations. If they believe themselves to be on a Mission from God, they are well advised to keep quiet about it.
. . . are on a Mission from God, and will refer you to chapter and verse to prove it. Women sidewalk counselors often make a point of telling what sluts they were, and how many abortions they had, before getting saved. Male sidewalk counselors will dart around holding 4 by 6-foot posters of fetal remains, like a bunch of gruesome rodeo clowns, doing their best to herd the quarry away from The Gates of Hell.
A Hurting Mom is any woman of child-bearing age who's on the public sidewalk at the wrong place and the wrong time. Deep down she knows she owes God's People an explanation. If she bursts into tears, that's because the Holy Spirit has convicted her, and not like those proaborts say, because a bunch of strangers have run up to her, shouting slogans and waving signs. And if she's not going for an abortion, maybe she'll change her sluttish ways anyhow, and thank those dear sidewalk counselors.
