Continuing our See you in the funny papers series (explanation), this one from the Grand Valley State University Lanthorn.

Science Student:  Given that you’re pro-life, I’m assuming that you’re also religious — Weird to see you attempting to cite “science” for something in that context.

CBR Response:  Famous scientists who believed in God: Nicholas Copernicus, Sir Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, Rene Descartes, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, and many, many others.

According to 100 Years of Nobel Prizes, a review of Nobel prizes award between 1901 and 2000, 65.4% of Nobel Prizes Laureates have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference.  Overall, Christians have won a total of 72.5% of all the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, 65.3% in Physics, and 62% in Medicine. (source)

Science is a way of discovering truth about the natural world.  Some scientists claim that all phenomena have a naturalistic explanation, but that is a statement of philosophy, not a conclusion of science.

Science can only tell us that the preborn child is both human and alive from the moment of conception.  Science cannot tell us whether killing humans is immoral or not, nor can science tell us which human beings may be decapitated and dismembered and which may not.

Answering a question about dehumanization at Grand Valley State University.

Online discussions can be a lot of fun.  When we do it social media, only our friends see it.

But when we do it on a newspaper webpage, most people who read it don’t agree with us.  That is our target audience!  So we monitor and respond to online comments.

We clarify confusion and challenge sloppy reasoning.  We reinforce the visual images these students saw when we were on campus.  Unlike many commenters, we avoid ad hominems and make only rational arguments.

Here begins a series presenting reader comments and our responses on an online article about GAP in the Grand Valley State University Lanthorn.

Annoyed Protester: We support the rights for those to chose what they wish to do with their body and the potential life they carry. … I just do not approve of the way they decided to compare it to genocide and had the nerve to basically call me a murderer because I support the right to choose.

CBR Response:  Annoyed, thank you for your comment.  Our purpose is never to condemn those who may have aborted in the past or those who support abortion.  Our purpose is to clarify the confusion that exists about the baby in the womb and his or her moral status.  We don’t say that you are a murderer, but we do say that you are the victim of a confused culture that has taught you that decapitating and dismembering little human beings can be justified.

For example, you call the baby in the womb as a “potential” life. Science tells us — and your own common sense will bear this out — that the baby in the womb is both human (not a pig, horse, or cow) and alive (not dead but alive and growing).  The abortion industry dehumanizes this child so that they can justify killing him or her.

We compare abortion to genocide because abortion kills 1.2 million children per year, many by decapitation and dismemberment, and some of them by torturing them to death.  Yes, late-term babies can feel excruciating pain.

Diana Jeminez broke the rules to display this abortion victim photo at Biola University.  A baby was saved and Biola later apologized for their abusive treatment of her.

In recent years, CBR has encouraged students at Christian universities to display abortion victim photos, in spite of demands by university administrators that these images be covered up.  This has included Biola University and Liberty University, but CBR is committed to growing this list.

As Christians, we are commanded to obey those in authority over us (Hebrews 13:17, Romans 13:1), presumably even if, in our opinion, the authorities are in the wrong.  So, therefore, we must ask the question:  Is it permissible for Christians to break rules in order to save lives?

In the case of rules which prohibit students from saving the lives of children on Christian university campuses, the answer has to be an emphatic “Yes!”

We can start with Mark 3:4.  Jesus asked the religious authorities, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”  When babies are dying all around us, when Liberty University parking stickers are seen at nearby abortion mill parking lots on a regular basis, when 1 in 5 women who aborts her child identifies her as a born-again or evangelical Christian, and when the Church leaders are trained to believe that abortion is somebody else’s problem, then we think it’s fair to ask the question, “Which is lawful at Liberty University (or Biola, or wherever), to do good or evil, to save life or to kill?”

And no student has any Biblical obligation to obey school rules which conflict with God’s laws.    God’s law regarding injustice mandates that we intervene in defense of its victims (Isaiah 59:15-16, Proverbs 24:11-12).  Ephesians 5:11 proscribes intervention by “exposing” the deeds of darkness, not covering up those deeds.

CBR has seen countless pregnant students change their minds about killing their children after seeing abortion photos on public university campuses.  Christian university administrations, however, have spent more time and energy stopping the display of abortion imagery than they have ever spent trying to stop abortion.  Publicly, these universities profess to be pro-life.  Christians are scandalized to learn that the unwritten rules at these Christian universities actually censor pro-life speech on their own campuses.  That is an inconsistency that deserves to be exposed and resolved.

Our experience at Biola has been very instructive.  Biola’s treatment of Diana Jimenez can only be described as abusive, even after she had graduated.  Biola has since apologized to Diana, but Biola’s claims that CBR’s video was “edited” and had “given a false impression” can rightly be compared with Planned Parenthood’s response to the CMP videos released in 2015.

In the face of all of this, God has actually used Diana’s courage to save at least one baby’s life.  The following message was posted online:

There are a lot of people bashing Diana right now but first hand I can tell you she did what she was told to do.  I am 20.  A student of Biola and always claimed to be pro-life.  I thought that until I got a positive pregnancy test.  This came after a night of partying just outside the campus and had a one night stand with a youth pastor in training.  I was going to go to Planned Parenthood that day and as I walked through campus her signs made me realize there is a human life in my womb ….  In that moment I went to my dorm room got on my knees and asked that I would have the strength to be my baby’s mom.  STOP saying she didn’t follow her stupid rules.  God came through for me because of her.  (emphasis added)

Matthew 23:23 says, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin.  But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness.”  We don’t want to make that mistake.

Liberty University students expose the truth to their classmates.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

It may seem counter-intuitive to display abortion victim photos at Liberty University (LU), the world’s largest evangelical university.  But these students need the truth, just like everyone else.

Eye-witnesses confirm that cars with LU parking stickers are often seen in nearby abortion mill parking lots.  Obviously, LU people are having abortions.  That doesn’t surprise us, because 1 in 5 women who aborts her child identifies herself as a born again or evangelical Christian.

But when Christians see abortion, they are much less likely to abort their own children.

They are also more likely to understand God’s commandment to be a witness against evil in their own communities.  God’s law mandates that we intervene in defense of its victims (Isaiah 59:15-16, Proverbs 24:11-12).  Ephesians 5:11 proscribes intervention by “exposing” the deeds of darkness, not covering up those deeds.

Despite all this, abortion victim photo (AVP) displays are prohibited on the LU campus.

However, courageous students at LU are displaying them anyway.  At the encouragement of CBR, they have displayed AVPs on several occasions over the past 2 years, most recently during the Fall 2015 semester.  All of these events have been peaceful and quiet.  Compared to their public university counterparts, LU students are less inclined to curse and carry on.  However the students’ most recent display provoked more than one visit from unhappy administrators.

Near the end of the event, the students were approached by the LU police and asked to meet with administrators to discuss their pro-life activism.

Stay tuned.

In a future post, Lord willing, FAB will examine the question of whether it is permissible to break rules in order to save lives.

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

According to the definition found on microaggressions.com — yes, that is a real website — “Racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color.”

“[Microaggressions] create and enforce uncomfortable, violent and unsafe realities onto peoples’ workplace, home, school, childhood/adolescence/adulthood, and public transportation/space environments.” (source: Microaggressions.com)

If that’s the case, then Planned Parenthood (PP) is guilty of multiple violent microaggressions at the University of Missouri (Mizzou).

At our recent visit to the campus, CBR worked alongside the Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN), a pro-life organization led by black men and women with a message to the black community.  We were there to say that if Black Lives Matter, then ALL Black Lives Matter.

For the record, I am a black woman and also a Project Director at CBR.

But when Mizzou students incited by PP arrived, they were especially disturbed to see us black folks.  “We don’t like that you are tokenizing minorities for your agenda!” they shouted.  And, “You shouldn’t use minorities to further your agenda!”

Note how the uppity white kids did not speak directly to the black pro-lifers.  They didn’t come to us and say that they were concerned about our presence and the intent of our white co-workers.  Instead, they spoke about us, in our presence, as if we were children at a daycare.  Or perhaps slaves, mindlessly doing the will of our white masters, too stupid to comprehend the conversation going on about us.

How demeaning can you be, to suggest that black people are so stupid, we can’t even decide for ourselves whether to be pro-life or pro-abortion.  If black people don’t act right, it must be the fault of our white masters.

Please, let’s call this what it is … racism, pure and simple.  The PP students viewed us as nothing more than stupid “nigger joes,” unqualified to have our own views.  They were so filled with contempt, they wouldn’t even speak with us directly.  We were beneath them, unworthy to be treated as equals.  So they addressed their comments to our white “masters” (according to their view).

Maybe Blacks really do need a safe space at Mizzou.  No PP allowed, because they just want to kill off the stupid niggers in the womb so that America can be made into their lily-white ideal.

PS:  Planned Parenthood, don’t try to suggest that you didn’t incite this violence against us.  They were carrying your signs.

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

LEARN and CBR team with ALL Black Lives Matter signs at the University of Missouri.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

The University of Missouri (Mizzou) was recently the epicenter of campus unrest nationally, primarily among the African American student population, but also including others who have felt offended for whatever reason.  The protests at Mizzou were an extension of the “Black Lives Matter” campaign that erupted after a law enforcement officer in Ferguson, Missouri was not indicted for defending his own life against a violent criminal.

At Mizzou, there were unproven allegations of racial slurs.  There were complaints about so-called “microagressions,” which may be loosely defined as any statement whatsoever that could somehow be twisted as potentially offensive to anybody.  Campus administrators were excoriated for failing to respond quickly and decisively enough to these offenses.  They failed, for example, to set up “safe places” for blacks only (a policy once known as segregation).  As a result, the Mizzou President and Chancellor were both forced to step down.

Many conservatives tried to keep a low profile, for fear of being accused of who-knows-what, but not CBR.  We teamed with the Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN), an African American pro-life ministry, to remind students at Mizzou that ALL black lives matter, not just the particular black lives that fit a certain leftist narrative.

Our “ALL Black Lives Matter” campaign, a derivative of our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), shows students that while they have been standing against injustices that may or may not exist, a huge, can’t-deny-it’s-there injustice has been going on right under their noses — most of the time, with their explicit approval.

On the third day, a sizable protest took place, with students displaying “I stand with Planned Parenthood” posters and engaging in clownish behavior typical of college pro-abort protesters.

Media Coverage:

• Mizzou students asked to fill out Bias Reports because of ‘offensive’ pro-life display
• MU anti-abortion group disagrees with Genocide Awareness Project’s tactics
• Student organizations speak out against anti-abortion graphic images outside Student Center

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

The following speech was delivered by CBR’s Georgia Project Director, Lincoln Brandenburg, at the 2016 March for Life in Columbus, Georgia. 

What is the goal of the pro-life movement? Jason Jones, the co-producer of the pro-life film “Bella” recently wrote a dynamite article called “The Pro-Life Art of War.” In it, he asks us to:

“Imagine if same-sex marriage were prohibited nationwide, and legal protections for homosexuals consistently struck down or defeated—while sodomy laws were re-imposed and enforced, with billions of dollars in funding from Congress. How effective would you consider the gay rights movement? If the Second Amendment were reduced to a hollow, meaningless shell, and Americans’ guns—even hunting and target rifles—were all confiscated by the feds, what would we think of the gun lobby? If the U.S. abandoned Israel to its fate, and starting sending aid and arms to Hezbollah and Hamas, what would we say of the Israel lobby? Fix each of those scenarios in mind, and let’s ask the question: What should we think of the pro-life movement? The answer is tragically clear: For all the minds and hearts it has changed, it is a comprehensive political failure. American abortion laws are among the laxest on planet Earth…”

Such thinking doesn’t exactly bring out the sunshine on a cloudy day like this, does it? And yet, when you consider the success of the aforementioned movements, contrasted to where we are after 43 years of legalized child killing, one cannot deny that Jones is on to something. In terms of public policy, we really have very little to show for decades of efforts.

Our goal must be to win. We can save a life here and there, but winning is the only way that the killing stops. But we have become entirely too timid to win. Most in our movement are Christians. And it is so ingrained in us to be loving, selfless and nice that we don’t know how to stand firmly and boldly against the evil of child sacrifice. We don’t even have a category for that in our thinking. We know how to be gentle as doves, but we don’t’ know how to be wise as serpents.

I would like to submit that being Christlike – loving, sacrificial and gentle – does not exclude us from also standing boldly against evil. Failure to do so is itself is unloving.

In the introduction to the book “The Bravehearted Gospel,” Pastor Ben Davenport writes:

“The historical Jesus was not crucified because God so loved the world. No! The only begotten of the Father was fastened with iron nails to an unforgiving cross because He spoke the truth with authority and glistened with the light of Heaven and men loved darkness rather than light…

“If Jesus, who was perfect, who never sinned, and who was love incarnate, could not speak the truth without being hated, rejected, and despised, who are we to think that we can do better? Who are we to think that we have figured out a more ‘loving and ‘relevant’ way to present the truth in a more ‘seeker-friendly’ manner than Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

“We have wholeheartedly embraced the sentimental, watercolor Jesus that seems to spend most of His time holding lambs and patting children on the head with some faraway, glazed-over, dreamy look in His eye. And we tend to shy away from, or altogether ignore, that man who spoke the truth of God so boldly that conspiracies were hatched, witnesses were bribed, and politicians were entreated to bring about His painful and public execution.”

This is the side of being Christlike that we are afraid of.

Now does this mean that we shun and condemn women and men who have been involved in an abortion? Does this mean that we scream at people outside of clinics? Of course not! I too have sinned. Were it not for the grace of God, I would still be blinded to sin. From one human to another, I can assure you that God is eager to forgive and to free from bondage to sin, including abortion. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.” If you view such people as the enemy, maybe you need to spend some time with God looking in the mirror first.

This is not a call to become one-dimensional. We have all seen people who became so enamored in a cause that they became cynical and abrasive. They develop tunnel-vision and lose their tenderness towards others, their winsomeness and their clairvoyance. That also is not what God calls us to.

But for the majority of us, that’s not the temptation we face, is it? Our temptation is to be silent and passive. Our temptation is to be content with having a political or theological stance, but not taking sacrificial action. We’re comfortable having our bible studies with people who are like ourselves; talking about “discipleship” and “worship,” and being really, really nice people… but doing nothing about the babies being decapitated and dismembered down the street from us.

After WWII, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s best friend, Eberhart Bethge, wrote about the weakness of the Confessing Church in Germany during the war. These were not the liberalized, Nazi-pandering churches, but the Bible-believing ones that still held to orthodox theology. He observed that “it became clear where the problem lay for the Confessing Church: we were resisting by way of confession, but we were not confessing by way of resistance.”

Taking a cognitive stance is not enough. The love of God compels us to act. If we will not take a bold stand against the evil of modern child sacrifice, when WILL we finally stand up? What else would it take?

Yes, it is uncomfortable. Yes, we will get flack for it. We will be mischaracterized and called names. At my church we’ve been studying the sermon on the mount in Matthew’s gospel. In chapter 5, Jesus says: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in Heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” That should put steel in our spines!

“A servant is not greater than his master;” like Jesus, we should not be surprised when we get flak for speaking the truth in a culture that loves lies. When my colleagues and I engage in activism, we don’t yell at people. We don’t call names. We show the truth of what abortion is and attempt to engage in respectful dialogue. People yell at us. They throw things at us. They call us names. But God uses the prophetic message to convict consciences, change minds, and to save lives and souls. And each one of those precious lives and souls is worth it.

Imagine a day when killing preborn children is a thing of the past. We are continuing to support pregnancy resource centers, such as Sound Choices and Seneca, Choices for Life), not because it’s the pro-life thing to do – but because it’s just the Christian charitable thing to do. No other reason. Imagine us getting together like this, not to march for life, but to celebrate the precious lives that are no longer in danger. Imagine standing before the God who purposefully placed you in this time and place of history, and hearing the words “well done, good and faithful servant!”

With that dream in mind, go forward courageously and boldly. Connect with others who are engaging the culture. Let’s stay humble, stay winsome. But let’s also refuse to take no for an answer. Let’s refuse to let up. Let’s stop playing nice.

Submitted by Lincoln Brandenburg

Engaging the pro-aborts at GAP, because we respect the dignity of every human person.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

They curse.  They celebrate baby-killing.  Some would say they bask in the glow of the fires of Hell in a self-righteous orgy.  But they are still human beings — still people made in the image and likeness of God.  They deserve respect and intellectual engagement.  We keep this in mind when we talk to pro-abort demonstrators at GAP.

Volunteer Marie Bastone approached the die-hard pro-aborts at Tennessee Tech University.  One of them that her church taught about the inherent human dignity of every individual.  Marie readily agreed.  Given they co-ed’s particular schooling in the faith, they had common ground!

On that note, Marie gently spoke to her and her friends about the humanity of the preborn child, hence their inherent human dignity that no one can bestow or revoke because it is inherent.  They didn’t seem to know what to say.  They had been intellectually engaged as equals and couldn’t find a flaw in Marie’s logic.  To top it all off, to show them that they weren’t just a bunch of (poor) arguments with pants on, but actual people with value, Marie asked each of them what they were studying.  By the time Marie left, they clearly saw her respect.  They were quieter and calmer.  And they were thinking.

Marie engaged a pro-abort woman who asked if the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) aimed to make abortion illegal.  To that Marie replied that laws reflect society’s values, as well as shapes them.  Legality is not necessarily morality, as the history of human slavery demonstrates.  Marie explained that GAP was to make abortion unthinkable by showing the results of abortion.  GAP was pointing out the violence against the innocent and asked if we as a society can find a more humane and just way of dealing with unwanted pregnancies.  The young woman questioned Marie for a very long time, trying to make a case for the necessary evil of legal abortion, though she did admit it was horrible.  Marie remained polite, respectful and focused, asking what could possible justify the evil that abortion is.  In the end, the young woman told Marie that she had not expected her to be “so rational and approachable”.

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.