"I'm a pastor" - helpful words or not?

OK - here's the deal.

I'm outside of the abortion clinic (or, frankly, on my regular forays to the jail) and knowing I don't have much time to talk (ten seconds, max) while the ladies are heading for the door I use a regular pitch hoping against hope that something makes them pause: "Ma'am, I am a pastor. We at the church will do anything - ANYTHING - to help you through this. But please love your baby today."

If they pause, you get a few more lines. Upon departing you get to say something a little bit different depending on whether they are pre- or post- 24 hour waiting period (the law in our state).

I have thought this thought many times but given the headline in our paper today, I am rethinking yet again. Should I change my pitch, particularly my identity.

The identity: "Ma'am, I am a pastor..."

Headline this morning: "Priests...among 4 accused of raping young boys."

Oh, sure, the news was from Philadelphia, but still. The clergy in the last several years have hurt themselves in the headlines - priestly pedophilia, prosperity gospel, pastoral adultery, the disingenuity and money grubbing of television evangelists.

Gallup a few years ago said this:

"There was a time when members of the clergy were usually the most respected members of their community ....Currently, a slim majority of the public rates the honesty and ethical standards of the clergy as 'very high' or 'high,' but one person in three considers them only average, and one in ten thinks they are 'low' or 'very low.'"

Low, very low - this is what I think from time to time when I announce myself as a pastor. I am esteemed lowly, very low, in many people's minds.

Back to the abortion clinic. Our most recent in-state abortionist has apparently now gone blind and is no longer performing the procedure. Prior to his apparent dismissal, he had a felony charge that hit the mark. Before we decided to approach this doctor with love at the clinic we used another tack - we used to try and frustrate him by yelling at him as he got our of his car concerning his felony and his butcherous ways.

One day we were yelling such things and he, brandishing the latest pedophilia charges against the priesthood, came rushing towards waving the newspaper. How could we, people of God, point a finger at him in his unrighteousness? He was laughing.

Pastors. Do they laugh at us? Trust us anymore? Appreciate us...or roll their eyes at our vocation?

It is stuff you think about when you lie in bed and see Sunday approaching.