Chesapeake minister is a man on a mission

CHESAPEAKE

It's another day, and the Rev. Donald Spitz is protesting alone outside the Hillcrest Clinic in Norfolk, just as he has for years.

Spitz pickets there a few days a week. Then he goes home to Chesapeake, and he continues his protests online. There, he's not alone.

His friends and allies call him a religious man of passion. His detractors insist he remains a dangerous figure in a bloody, underground movement responsible for clinic bombings, killings of abortion doctors, and anthrax threats. Some even call him one of the worst possible names in this day and age: terrorist. He's proud to count as friends people who have been to prison - and one who has been executed - for anti-abortion violence.

But, sitting in his home in rural, southern Chesapeake, Spitz seemed unfazed by the taunts.

"I think it's obvious, I'm not a terrorist," the 60-year-old said. "I'm just old Don doing my thing."

When he puts down his bullhorn and picket signs, he likes to relax at home watching gospel shows on TBN and crime-solver-type programs such as Forensic Files, he said. Sometimes he uses his exercise equipment.

His home, surrounded by tall pines, sits in a peaceful section of the city. Sounds of a mule, dogs and birds from neighboring farms can be heard.

A sign on the narrow, dirt turn-in to his home reads: "Jesus Forgives and Heals." Another reads: "Abortion Kills Children."

Farther down the driveway is a "Beware of Dog" sign.

Spitz has several dogs. His property has birdhouses and ornamental grass. This is where Spitz retreats - when he's not demonstrating.

He tries to picket five times a week, usually by himself and without violence.

"I've been in Hampton Roads over two decades," he said. "I've never hurt a soul."

A report from the Southern Poverty Law Center describes Spitz as "a wild-eyed extremist."

"He obviously applauds murdering people," said Heidi Beirich, director of research and special projects for the center. "He himself has not been engaged in any murders we know of. His ideas are encouraging this behavior. So, yes, he's dangerous."

Vicki Saporta, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation in Washington, D.C., said Spitz "must be praying to a different God than most of us."

"He's an anti-abortion extremist who believes in justifiable homicide and hosts the Army of God Web site, which walks a very fine line in terms of encouraging others to commit acts of violence."

Spitz's friends contend he is driven by a passion for the lives of innocent babies. They call his attackers "anti-Christian leftist organizations."

"They have nothing to fear from him," said John Brockhoeft, who has known Spitz for 10 years. "He has never used any kind of violence. He's a peaceful protester. They don't like him because he sheds light on wickedness."

Brockhoeft was convicted of firebombing a Cincinnati clinic in 1985 and again in 1988 after he was caught in Florida with bomb parts. He served two separate prison sentences totaling nearly seven years.

Another friend, Paul Hill, was the first person to be put to death in the United States for murdering an abortion provider.

Spitz was Hill's spiritual adviser in 2003 when he was executed in Florida. Nine years earlier, Hill shot a 69-year-old doctor and his unarmed escort outside a Pensacola clinic.

Such violence still remains justifiable to Spitz, who figures unborn babies scheduled to be aborted that day were saved by the assassination of one doctor.

"Paul Hill was my best friend," Spitz said. "To me, he's a hero. I know it's controversial but that abortionist was going to kill 32 unborn children and Paul stopped him."

Spitz also is close to Eric Rudolph, the anti-abortion extremist who carried out a series of bombings in the South. After a five-year manhunt, Rudolph was captured and convicted in deadly bombings at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and a Birmingham abortion clinic.

He is serving life in prison but still gets his message across through Spitz's Army of God Web site.

Spitz is a first-generation American who moved with his wife to Hampton Roads from Queens, N.Y., more than two decades ago. He has no children and declines to talk about how he supports himself and his cause.

His strict Roman Catholic upbringing as a child started him on his path, he said. With a military father, Spitz moved across the country often. He joined the Navy at 18 and served for two years during the Vietnam conflict.

In New York, Spitz ran a street evangelism ministry on Times Square. He's an ordained minister without a congregation and founder of Pro-Life Virginia. He also operates the Army of God Web site. At the top of the page are two pictures of aborted fetuses, and it includes a collection of links to essays by and about "anti-abortion heroes" and to news articles.

His activities haven't gone unnoticed.

"The FBI has been to this house many times," Spitz said.

He appeared before grand juries in Alexandria and Philadelphia during separate investigations into Hall and Clayton Waagner, the man who sent hundred of anthrax scare letters to abortion providers in 2001.

The letters, containing white powder, stated: "You have been exposed to anthrax. We are going to kill all of you. From the Army of God, Virginia Dare Chapter."

Spitz sees nothing wrong with Waagner's tactics.

"It's fine with me," he said. "My two goals in life is to stop unborn babies from being murdered and to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Spitz has no intentions to stop his crusade any time soon.

"I'm compelled to do it," he said. "This is the job God has given me to do, so I keep doing it."

Spitz has no illusions that he will change abortion laws. He's given up long ago the hope of a Supreme Court reversal of Roe vs. Wade, the landmark decision legalizing abortion.

"We're saving individual babies from being killed," he said. "That's what we're doing."

In the trunk of his white Chevrolet Lumina, Spitz keeps his anti-abortion picket signs, a bullhorn and a black briefcase filled with pro-life pamphlets. A large sign in the back window of his car reads, "Jail Abortionists."

He'll let God judge his actions here on earth, he said.

"When I die, he's the one I'll stand before to give my account of my life. So, people can say or do whatever they want to do."

John Hopkins, (757) 222-5221, john.hopkins@pilotonline.com