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FAB undercover operatives an e-mail that was sent to the parents of Liberty Christian Academy, which was previously posted here on FAB.  CBR Florida Director Mike Schrimsher responded as follows:

Dear Mr. Patterson,

I am the Florida regional director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and took part in the recent visit to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. I watched your interview that was included in the abc13 WSET-TV news coverage and read your letter that was sent out to LCA parents last week. Please allow me to provide some details and clarification about our visit.

We agree that the pictures of aborted babies are “very graphic” but I’m not sure what you mean when you refer to them as “insensitive”. I assume you mean that either their public display is insensitive or perhaps that we are insensitive for displaying them publicly. We also agree that our graphic images of aborted fetuses are jarring and offensive to many viewers, precisely because these images accurately portray the horror of abortion, and abortion itself is very offensive, and insensitive, especially to unborn babies. Abortion is an act of violence which kills a baby and wounds his or her mother, and it is worse than many people think, even in the first trimester (first 12 weeks) when 90% of abortions are performed.

Most Americans, including pro-life Christians, are not bothered enough about abortion to stop the killing and they need to be jarred and offended into action to defend those who are being taken away to slaughter. (Proverbs 24:11-12) I hope that the hundreds who complained and sought protection for their born children from our abortion pictures will also take action to protect unborn children from abortion procedures.

While we did not set up any of our displays at entrances to LCA, we know that some parents drove past our display across from Hardees on their way to LCA and that our trucks did pass by the LCA campus on their way to and from the entrances along the east side of Liberty University. Clearly, the focus of our visit was Liberty University as we maintained our displays only at LU entrances and focused the driving of our trucks on the LU perimeter. Undoubtedly, however, people of all ages, young and old, saw our trucks as we drove on Lynchburg roads around Liberty.

You should know that we wrote and called Liberty University, requesting a meeting to work out the details of a visit on the LU campus similar to our frequent visits to secular public universities. This would have enabled us to interact almost exclusively with college students and staff, but we received no response of any kind from Liberty and were left with the choice of doing nothing at Liberty or designing a visit to the borders of Liberty’s campus. We chose the latter.

We know of only one contact with someone who may have been an LCA representative. A lady who parked in the Hardees parking lot came over and spoke to one of our ladies on Tuesday morning and requested that we take down or move the sign(s) near Hardees during the morning drop-off and we did discuss and voluntarily comply with her request that morning. Also, later in the week we dropped that location and focused on the other 2 locations.

Again, I hope that similar time and energy will be invested in efforts to stop baby-killing as were expended to research how LCA and LU might “curb political speech on public property”. On future visits to Lynchburg, I think it would be reasonable for us to coordinate with LCA to limit driving our trucks past LCA’s campus during morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times, and LCA parents might choose to avoid our signs near Hardees by using another route while we are there. However, while it is understandable to shield pre-school and elementary school children from abortion imagery, most middle school students and practically all high school students should be made aware of the reality of abortion in America: who the unborn baby is and what abortion ~legally~ does to him or her. Anyone old enough to make a baby or have an abortion is old enough to see abortion.

Please let me know if you have any additional comments or questions and I will be pleased to respond.

Thank you for your service in the U.S. military to help protect America, and for your ministry with students at Liberty Christian Academy.

Michael A. Schrimsher
CBR-Florida Regional Director

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Trucks and signs at Liberty University Bookstore.

We got a message from a Liberty student who objected to our presence outside the campus.  We’ll call him “Warren Wilson.”  Here’s what “Warren” had to say:

I am a student at Liberty University where your organization has been picketing the past week. I need to preface by saying I agree with the message of what you all were saying. I am extremely pro-life. Its an issue I care about. I’ve worked at the Right to Life Booth at the North Carolina State Fair with my family for years. I typically vote for pro-life candidates. I believe abortion is never right and in every situation it is murder.

At the same time, I must express extreme disapointment in you and your organization. Your signs and billboards are disgusting. By using such graphic displays, you are not winsome or loving. Your methods are offensive which cause people to be defensive. If those images were in a film or on a website where you made a warning before showing them, that would be different but thrusting them in people’s faces while they are just walking by is inapropriate. To be convincing, we need to love people and be winsome. The Bible even instructs us to be winsome in our methods of talking to people. You will never shock someone into changing their minds. Perhaps in the future your organization can use more effective methods instead of fringe, extremist, hateful propaganda.

Your people also heckled me and my friends while we were just walking by. Not to mention using their children to hand out your graphic, gruesome pamphlets. We are probably a 97% pro-life campus. It rubs people the wrong way to yell, condemn, or shove posters in their face. I hope you will listen with an open mind and make changes to legitimize your organization in the future.

In Christ,
“Warren Wilson”
1 Tim. 1:15

CBR Florida Director Mike Schrimsher responded:

Dear Warren,

Thank you for writing us about your concerns. We agree with you that our signs and billboards are disgusting and offensive because they accurately portray that abortion is disgusting and offensive, even during the first trimester when most abortions (90% of them) are performed. It is disappointing to us that fellow pro-lifers are just as eager to cover up the horror of abortion as pro-aborts. I’m not aware of any “winsome” way to display abortion, but it is absolutely loving to show young men and women who are the most vulnerable to abortion (18 to 24 year olds) exactly who the unborn baby is and what abortion does to that baby. Folks who are experiencing an unplanned “crisis” pregnancy make life or death decisions over a short time span that are irreversible. Our images regularly save lives and help bring post-abortive men and women to repentance. We hear it and see it again and again. However, when someone knows the truth that abortion is an act of violence that kills a baby, and yet they insist upon making a fully informed decision to have an abortion, or pay for it, or support it, or coerce it, or fail to oppose it, then that individual should feel defensive, and guilty.

You are correct that it is better when we are able to put up warning signs around our displays. Unfortunately, since we were unable to gain access to a more ideal location on the Liberty University campus, our space was limited and so were our options. Please visit our website abortionNO.org to see a film with a warning at the beginning and other examples of our signs. However, it is not correct to say that we were “thrusting them in people’s faces while they (were) just walking by”. Our signs were stationary and our staff merely offered brochures to passersby. It sounds like you might prefer to limit your pro-life efforts to “loving, winsome” methods that focus on the pregnant woman’s visible crisis and ignore the more urgent hidden crisis of the unborn baby, with primary emphasis on post-abortion counseling. I think it would be very enlightening if we could swap Bible verses. You may want to re-read the gospels and be reminded of Jesus’ teaching methods. You may not believe it, but we regularly “shock someone into changing their minds”. Please let us know about your “more effective methods”. We are eager to abolish abortion as quickly and efficiently as possible. However, you know very well that our materials are not “propaganda” and your use of terms like “fringe, extremist, hateful” to describe our work would enable you to fit right in at a Planned Parenthood or NARAL or NOW meeting.

I sincerely doubt that our people “heckled” you and your friends, but I know that it is possible, so please provide as many details as you can remember so that we may correct the individual(s). I certainly hope that you and your friends are more offended by the gruesome death of aborted babies than you were by having live children hand out “gruesome pamphlets” with pictures of aborted babies. I’m sure you know that there may be some Liberty students who will have sex outside of marriage, have an unplanned pregnancy and consider abortion. But even if Liberty is in fact a “97% pro-life campus” then what better place to find activists who will not only choose life for their own babies, but also protect the most defenseless among them and persuade others not to kill their babies either. We did not “yell, condemn or shove posters” in anyone’s face and these unfounded accusations do not help us “listen with an open mind”. Perhaps the graphic images themselves were so powerful that they made you feel heckled, yelled at, or condemned, etc. Or perhaps the contrast between exuberant children enjoying life right next to graphic abortion images was just too jarring for you. In any event, we don’t really care whether or not you think our organization is legitimate. We care what you think about abortion and what you are going to do to help stop it.

Sincerely,
Michael A. Schrimsher
CBR Florida Regional Director

Students tell us that the opinion among Liberty U students was divided.  Some appreciated our efforts to expose the deeds of darkness (Ephesians 5:11); some did not.  That was not a surprise.

But several of our staff members noticed something very different about the reaction of Liberty University students to our presence.  The people who objected were almost all men.  They seemed to believe that they were all pro-life enough, and we shouldn’t bother them any more about it.  (They didn’t realize that one of our our primary goals was to bother them about abortion, so that they would do something about it.)  They listened politely to our explanations, but you could see the skepticism was still there.

The women, however, all seemed to get it.  They didn’t claim that their classmates were all pro-life.  They understood the need for students to see the pictures, even at a Christian school like Liberty.

Could it be that the men didn’t get it because, as a group, men are much more adept at hiding (from each other) their involvement with sex, pregnancy, and abortion?

We are not being critical in this regard; we are just being realistic.  CBR’s Executive Director Gregg Cunningham recalls listening to a broadcast of James Dobson’s radio program, during which Dr. Dobson interviewed six Christian college presidents.  Dr. Dobson asked them if they had ever seen a pregnant student on their campuses.  To a person, they said no.  To a person, they all believed this was evidence that their students were living chaste lives.  Dr. Dobson was incredulous.  We are not.

Perhaps the women need to speak, and the men need to listen up.

God commands us to expose the deeds of darkness.

FAB undercover operatives obtained this e-mail that was sent to the parents of Liberty Christian Academy, which is essentially on the campus of Liberty University.

LCA FAMILY,

I have received hundreds of complaints about the abortion demonstrators who have recently occupied the space at the corner of Candler’s Mountain Road and University Boulevard, across from the Hardees. Additionally, the pro-life demonstrators are driving large vans with very graphic and insensitive pictures of aborted babies on the city roads around our campus.   While their goal of ending abortion is commendable, the use of graphic images of aborted fetuses has been jarring and offensive to me personally and to many in our LCA family.  Some have asked what we have done to protect their children, and I write to explain.

First, we must recognize that the First Amendment to the constitution limits what can be done to curb political speech on public property.  We have consulted with Liberty University administrators, our law enforcement personnel, and attorneys with expertise in this area and confirmed that the demonstrators are fully within their rights.  Of course, they can voluntarily stop demonstrating or move.  Therefore, we approached the group to learn how long they planned to occupy the corner and drive their vans and if they would consider moving to a location that would not expose our school children to the graphic images of aborted babies.  Unfortunately, they were unwilling.  We understand that they plan to continue their current demonstration until Friday, September 2.   

Please understand, I share your interest in protecting our children and protecting your decision on how and when you will introduce this important issue to them.  We have re-arranged bus routes, playground usage, and transitions between areas to keep the children from being exposed to these photographs while your children are under our control.  Thank you for your passion in protecting your children; I share this with you.  I feel privileged to lead a school where parents care so deeply about the innocence of their children.  As always, I thank you for your support.

Straight Ahead,

John Patterson
Superintendent, Liberty Christian Academy

There’s so much here.  Mr. Patterson said that hundreds of parents complained because their children saw pictures of abortion.  We have to wonder if these same parents ever asked either of these questions:

1. Mr. Patterson, what are you doing to teach my children the truth about abortion?  What are you leaving out?
2. How can we best teach our children never to kill our grandchildren?
3. Are we teaching our children to think this is just somebody else’s problem?

Aren’t those the more urgent questions?

We must compliment Mr. Patterson on one thing.  He offered perhaps the most astute comments by any Liberty administrator regarding our visit.  In his interview with WSET-TV, he said this:

Hopefully, our parents can turn this into a positive … to explain to our kids possibly what abortion is and take a pro-life stance.

This is really the point … to show students at Liberty University students what abortion is, so that they will be more likely to obey God’s commands to avoid killing, to be a voice for the defenceless (Proverbs 24: 11-12), and to teach other Christians to do the same (Matthew 28:20).  We are merely showing Christians what they need to know.  If Liberty were already showing age-appropriate abortion imagery inside the citadel, then it would become less important for us to show it on the outside.  We might go somewhere else.

Regarding high school and middle school students, if they are old enough to get pregnant and have an abortion without their parent’s knowledge, they are old enough to know the consequences of that decision.

Obviously, we don’t target young children with our pictures, but with all the institutions of society (including the Church) covering up the truth of abortion, we have no choice but to take to the public square. Otherwise, the killing will never stop.

Sarah commented on a previous posting where the issue of children seeing the images came up.  Here’s what she said:

… to the mom who says she doesn’t want her young children to see that I would say it is not our job to always shield our children from every unpleasant thing, but to explain it all in context of God’s Word.  Does she also shield her children from the gruesome truth of what was done to Jesus when He died on the cross?

I learned about abortion at a very young age and saw photos.  It made me pro-life and kept me sexually pure throughout my teen years as well.  My son is 4 and he also has learned about abortion.

It is remarkable when children see the images they remain calm if the parents remain calm.  If the mom explains what it is and allows the moment to be a lesson in the sanctity of human life, the children are fine.  But when hysterical, ridiculous moms and dads get upset, yell and carry on the children also get upset.

We live in a fallen world.  We cannot keep our children in a compound and shield them from every single thing.  But we can take valuable opportunities to teach them God’s values.  Shame on you “Christians” for attacking those who are defending children from slaughter.  God said not to hurt children because their angels behold the face of the Father in heaven.  What are you doing to help save children?

I believe this is the greatest sin of the church.  So many go to church, carry their Bibles and think they are good with God when in eternity they will answer for why they turned a blind eye as 53 million (and counting) children were torn limb from limb down the streets from their very churches.

Children are exposed to graphic images of violence all the time … on newspaper front pages, on magazine covers that are visible in the supermarket checkout lines, etc.  They even showed Schindler’s List on TV during family viewing hours a few years back.  Nobody objects because nobody feels guilty about their own complicity or complacency with respect to those acts of violence.  Many are guilty of complicity or complacency with respect to abortion.

What is worse, a born child being horrified by a picture of abortion or a preborn child being killed by the act of abortion?

You might ask if Jesus would ever put a graphic image on display where children could see them.  In fact, He did just that.  Jesus controlled every aspect of his arrest, trial and execution.  He arranged to have Himself beaten nearly to death before stumbling through the most crowed part of Jerusalem on the most crowded day of the year.  His bloody body horrified throngs of Passover pilgrims which included large numbers of families with young children.

He then permitted himself to be stripped naked and tortured to death in full view of still more passersby, including more children.  The Romans used executions to intimidate subjugated peoples.  They located crucifixion cites for maximum public exposure. Our Lord accommodated Cesar by going out of His way to make this disturbing spectacle of His death as public as possible.  And in the process, He chose as the very symbol of our faith, a bloody instrument of torture.  His point was to disturb us with the gravity of our sin but bless us with the grace of His forgiveness, despite the fact that many children would be traumatized in the process.  Did He get this wrong?

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Liberty students study the abortion photos and Scripture verses.

We wrapped up our visit to Liberty University on Friday.  It was quite a week.  Not sure if it was the heat (90+ degree days) or the lack of sleep, but this ole boy is whipped.  Can’t wait to do it again, though.

By the end of the week, we had found a location near the Liberty University Bookstore that featured a publicly owned piece of land adjacent to a major walkway and at perhaps the most active entrance for cars and buses.

Based on the comments of the students, our presence was the talk of the campus.  Many students didn’t appreciate our displays of graphic photos.  Others were fully supportive.  Still others agreed with our use of graphic images, but didn’t understand why we came to Liberty.  “We’re already pro-life, aren’t we?”  Stimulating that kind of conversation, reflection, and debate is a major goal of our work.

We were pleased to sign up more than 20 students who were enthusiastic about becoming more involved in pro-life activism at Liberty.  Twenty people can make a huge difference.

I learned that on Day 4, the Lynchburg police (who were present during our entire visit) had come by to investigate a trespassing complaint.  Before we even started on Monday, we had given each team member a set of aerial photos which depicted the intersections we would work, along with property boundries that separated private property from public property.  These maps were downloaded from the City’s own Geographic Information System (GIS) website.  (See pages 16-19 of this letter to see the photos.)  Our volunteers produced the maps, which showed that we were clearly on public property, so the police thanked us and went on.

I should emphasize that we are grateful for the courtesy shown to us by both the University and the City of Lynchburg.  Perhaps they didn’t want us to be present, but they didn’t interfere, either.

If you’re dead tired and you’ve been at it for 4 solid days in the hot sun, you have to wonder if a 5th day is really worth the wear and tear on your body … and everybody else’s bodies.   But even though we had been there 4 days already, we still noted the impact of the photos on the students.  They still studied the abortion signs and reflected on the Scripture verses displayed.  It was on this 5th day that the Liberty student TV crew came out to get video and interview our people.  The Liberty student newspaper also showed up.  Praise God for giving us that 5th day!  We are interested to see what the reporting will look like.

As we were packing to leave, we encountered one student whose sign shocked us at first, but whose message was a huge encouragment in the end.  In big letters, his sign said, “Looking @ dead babies just makes me hungry …”  He was being clever.  In small letters, he continued his declaration, ” … for change!”  Indeed.

Hungry ... for change!

Christians see abortion for the first time.

We hear it all the time:

I’m a Christian.  I grew up in the church.  Our pastor may have said that he was pro-life, but I thought it should be a woman’s choice.  But now that I’m seeing your pictures, I know now that abortion is killing a baby.

How, you ask, can this happen?  It’s because the church is doing nothing to expose abortion, even among it’s own people.  Ask yourself this question:

When is the last time the pastor of my church showed us what abortion looked like?  When is the last time he showed abortion photos to our youth?

If the answers are “no” and “never”, then you know why 1 in 5 women who abort their babies identify themselves as “born again” or “evangelical” Christians.  The abortion rate among practicing Catholics is just as great.

This is intolerable, so we at CBR are doing something about it.  Over the weekend, we took our Matthew 28:20 pictures to the Harvest Crusade at Angel Stadium.  Tens of thousands of people saw the pictures as they entered and exited the stadium.  See pictures here.

Christians need to see abortion and work to stop it. Who will show them the truth?

There are three adverse conditions that must be corrected:

1. Christians need to know, and most of them don’t.
2. Christians need to work to stop the killing, and most don’t.
3. The Church needs to lead, and it doesn’t.

Unilaterally, we are able to correct only Item 1.  By God’s grace, we can show Christians the truth.  If we are willing to do that, we pray that the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

Billboard challenge to church pastors.

There have been a number of pro-life billboards pop up in Knoxville over the past couple of months.  This is my favorite.  It’s at the junction of I-40 and I-640 (west end), visible from eastbound I-40.

It is clear to us at CBR that the church has ample resources to stop abortion.  Yet you’d be hardpressed to find more than one or two churches in Knoxville that initiate any pro-life activity.

Every year, “pro-life” churches in the Knoxville area spend multiple millions of dollars to improve the production value of our music on Sunday morning.  These same churches spend only a few thousand dollars to stop abortion, barely enough to salve the conscience.  We spend thousands of paid staff hours organizing hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours on elaborate music programming, but we spend almost zero staff hours organizing almost nothing to stop the killing.

I’ve searched the scriptures diligently, and I find no instance where God chastened His people because their music wasn’t good enough.  Yet God judged His own chosen people (Israel) because they were killing their own children:

[Because the inhabitants of Jerusalem have worshiped false Gods and burned their children in the fire as offerings to Baal] … I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies … and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. … I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters [in the siege].  (Jeremiah 19: 4-9)

Even as 1 in 5 women who aborts her pregnancy identifies herself as an “evangelical” or “born-again” Christian (which means 1 in 5 men are also aborting their children), the church does little or nothing to stop the killing, even among their own members.  If you want to stop the killing in your own church, check this out.  Or this.