Gregg Cunningham

In response to the arrest of brave pro-life students at Carleton University in Canada, we got an e-mail from a pro-life, Christian Carleton student.  She objected to the work of the arrested students on the grounds that showing photos of abortion is neither loving nor compassionate.  She wrote, in part:

If you can honestly say that you are upholding the greatest commandment, to love your neighbour, by holding up those graphic images then we clearly have a different interpretaion of this great commandement.

CBR Executive Director Gregg Cunningham responded:

Your references to Christian “love” are badly muddled.  Ephesians 5:11 commands us to “Expose the deeds of darkness.”

We aren’t calling women who abort “murders” and I challenge you to find one sign or document of ours which makes that accusation.  Women who abort invariably know they are doing something wrong, but they seldom know how wrong.  They are lied to about who their baby is and what abortion will do to both mother, and child and in that sense they are also victims of abortion.  Abortionists, however, are physicians.  They know exactly what they are doing.  They are unambiguous murders.

Nothing could be more cruel or un-Christ-like than for pro-lifers to help abortionists trick mothers by hiding the horror of the abortions into which they are being deceptively drawn.  That is a dark perversion of mercy which cannot fairly be called compassion.

That pretty well sums it up!

Protestants and Catholics, unite!  Dr. Alveda King, a Baptist minister, and Fr. Frank Pavone, a Catholic priest, have long worked together to promote the Gospel of Life, a message of hope and healing, across racial and denominational lines.  Fr. Pavone and Dr. King (niece of Dr. Martin Luther King) will be in Knoxville on Friday-Saturday, October 15-16, and I hope you will join us.

Friday night’s Worship Rally will be at 7 p.m. at the Tennessee Theater and Saturday’s Prayer Vigil will be at 9 a.m. at the Cherry Street Planned Parenthood Clinic.

There are three abortion clinics in Knoxville, including Planned Parenthood’s new clinic in East Knoxville.  Nearly 4000 children are killed every year in these clinics. This does not include those killed by the RU-486 abortion pill and other forms of chemical abortion.

Nearly twenty years ago, pro-life leaders in Chattanooga rallied and prayed together.  For their faithfulness, God closed the last abortion clinic in Chattanooga, turning that property into The National Memorial for the Unborn. Chattanooga remains the largest city in America without an abortion clinic or PP presence.

Let’s pray and work to make Knoxville the next one.  For more information, visit www.ProLifeFreedomRides.com.

Andy Stephenson and Kathryn Sloane of Worthing, West Sussex, display CBR abortion photo.

Andy Stephenson and Kathryn Sloane of CBR UK were arrested for displaying an abortion photo outside a publicly-funded abortion clinic in Brighton, England. The story (link here) appeared in the London Telegraph, along with this photo (right).  This is the first time a major British newspaper (with a global readership, we might add) has published a photo of a first-trimester abortion. It is sure to be seen by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world.

The richest element of the story is not only the fact that the complainants who called the police were the abortion clinic staff, but also that these abortionists were “concerned” that aborting mothers “… entering the clinic felt traumatised and upset” by photos which showed them what the clinic was about to do to their babies!  They make this incriminating admission without a hint of ironic awareness.

Even more paradoxically, Ann Furedi, the abortion clinic director “… said she fully supported the right of pro-life activists to demonstrate against abortion clinics” but only so long as they don’t show mothers the evil atrocities Ms. Furedi is committing inside the clinic.  She condones a pro-life presence which allows aborting mothers to feel good about what they are about to do but condemns “… actions that are designed to distress people who are accessing legal, medical services.”  Abortion can only thrive in secrecy because secrecy allows everyone to pretend that the baby isn’t really a baby and abortion isn’t really a vicious act of violence.

Anybody who has done street pro-life work very long has encountered the police.  The overwhelming number of police officers do a great job, but there are some who really like to throw their weight around.  Others are confused about your rights.  And, as this video makes clear, there are some police officers who will lie and tamper with evidence to cover up their own misconduct.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE8Xom38Rd8

For your own protection, we recommend you audio-record all of your public activities and, where possible, videotape.  It is your right to do this.  It creates an indisputable record of what you did and didn’t do.  It also discourages people from assaulting you on the street.

If an officer tells us to stop recording, we comply.  When approached by officers, we tell them that we are wearing audio recording devices and are recording the conversation.  If a video recorder is operating, we tell him that, too.  If he tells us to turn them off, we reply, “Officer, I will comply with your demand, but I need to ask you by what law or regulation you are compelling me to turn it off.”  Whatever he answers, we turn it off.  If he tells us to leave, we leave.  There will be plenty of time later to bring a civil rights action against the police/city, and it’s better to be a plaintiff in a civil rights action than a defendant in a criminal complaint.

By the way, we save ourselves a whole lot of trouble by formally notifying the police when we are planning to conduct operations within their jurisdiction.  This gives the chiefs a chance to check us out and tell the street cops to leave us alone.

Kristan Hawkins, Director, Students for Life of America

You know about our Pro Life on Campus (GAP) display.  We have displayed this project more than 150 times on major college campuses all over the USA.  But we do more than that.

Today, pro-life college students have flocked to Knoxville to learn how to be more effective on their own campuses.  Peggy English of Silent No More has just wrapped up her talk.  I’ll be speaking later this morning about the history of social reform.

Social reformers of history used images to show the humanity of the victim and the horrifying nature of the crime.  They confronted the culture.  They were willing to accept persecution.  I will be showing students how they can put these principles to work on campus.

We are indebted to Shirley Moore of Knoxville for this excellent essay.

They were accused of disturbing the peace in the churches, a peace [William Lloyd] Garrison did not believe they were entitled to enjoy.

Are you an extremist?

Extremists, self-righteous, judgmental, violent (or the cause of violence). These terms, familiar to pro-lifers, were also applied to the 19th Century abolitionists, and most particularly to William Lloyd Garrison, the editor of the anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator. He renewed an anti-slavery movement that had languished during the first part of the 19th Century and agitated against slavery from 1829 until it was abolished at the time of the Civil War.

Because he challenged the core morality of the US and because he never lost sight of the moral issues (the sanctity of life, the equality of the races, and the obligation of Christians to oppose slavery), he was hated, mocked in newspapers, and persecuted throughout his life. However, he had a loving family and loyal circle of friends.

After a century and half, at least one book has given him his just due: All On Fire by Henry Mayer. Mayer is a veteran of the 60s-era Civil Rights Movement. Few books have been written about Garrison because the image of him as a “holier-than-thou nut” has persisted to this day. He put justice above peace and has never been forgiven by the culture he challenged.

As many pro-lifers experience today, the churches of the 19th Century despised abolitionists. They were perhaps “too” Christian for the men and women in the pews. They were accused of disturbing the peace in the churches, a peace Garrison did not believe they were entitled to enjoy. Like many pro-lifers, they were “outsiders” in their own congregations and parishes.

Sometimes, being effective and being liked are incompatible.  In social reform movements, this is almost always the case.  Which will  you choose?

Appalachian State students plan their pro-life year

Please forward this link to every pro-life student you know.

CBR / Pro Life on Campus and the Students for Life of America (SFLA) announce the 5th Annual Pro-Life Student Leadership Conference, to be held on September 10-11, 2010 in Knoxville, Tennessee.  The theme for this years conference is Sharpening Your Focus to Cultivate a Pro-Life Campus.  For more information, click here.

This Conference is about how to make your student pro-life group more effective on your campus.  We show you how to:

1. select projects that work,
2. recruit members to grow,
3. raise money to pay for projects,
4. assert your First Amendment rights when they are threatened, and
5. maximize media exposure.

Put them all together, and you have a comprehensive pro-life action plan for your campus.

In short, we give you the entire tool-box you need to make a huge and ongoing impact on your campus. If you do the things we teach, you will be the most talked-about student group on campus within a year, and number 2 won’t even be close.  And we back that up with a money-back guarantee.  Who else does that?  And who else offers a conference for only $10, and that includes housing and meals?!

 You can get more information and register here.  Deadline for reserving free housing is August 28, so call now.

I am stunned.  This is the best and most encouraging pro-life story I’ve seen in a long time.  I’m speechless.  Check it out.

Not only are the Midland Catholics for Life doing a GREAT job, one TV station is willing to cover it.

Its right out of the CBR playbook.  Educate people about the horrifying reality of abortion, and do it in such a way that compels the media to cover it.  Create conflict—not uncontrolled conflict, but modulated conflict—that draws attention to the plight of the preborn child.  Media might not like us, but they can’t resist conflict.  Thank you Midland Catholics for Life!

The abortion photos on the billboard came from CBR.  We provide graphic images to pro-life groups all over the world who (1) comply with our non-violence policy condemning all abortion-related violence and refusing to associate with groups or individuals who fail to condemn such violence, and (2) agree not to alter the images.

We give all glory to God, and we are so thankful he is using us in this way.  Please share in our blessing by $upporting our work!

Appalachian State U. students plan their pro-life year.

I got an e-mail from a Georgia Tech student just yesterday.  He wanted to know about our annual Student Leadership Conference (Sept 10-11):

“Georgia Tech has a bunch of new leadership that is really going to benefit.”

This is a generational struggle, and nothing we do is more important than our work to train the next generation of leaders.  When they lead the right way, babies and moms are saved right now.  And we get closer to that future day when the killing stops.  It’s just that simple.

That’s why CBR, along with the Students for Life of America, is hosting our annual Student Leadership Conference in Knoxville again this fall.  Here’s what one student at the University of Georgia had to say about this conference:

“While there is a lot of information about defending the pro-life cause, information about building leadership skills is scarce.  These skills are needed to start, grow, and manage a group.  The CBR conference is giving student groups around the country the tools they need to be effective on campus and I truly believe strong campus pro-life groups will change the country and the world.”

Leadership = Results at Appalachian State U.

Changing the country and the world.  That’s what we are all about at CBR.  Please consider a financial gift to support pro-life college students.  Your gift of $100 will pay the conference cost for one student!  It’s really an investment in the future of the pro-life movement.

What do you think?  How important is it to train the next generation?  Comment below!

CBR Board Member Rev. Clenard Childress addresses the crowd.

 A number of CBR volunteers attended the Freedom Ride that started in Birmingham and ended in Atlanta on Saturday, July 24.  The event was organized by CBR board member Fr. Frank Pavone.

The TV coverage by the CBS affiliate in Birmingham was actually very well done.  Several women appeared on camera to express regret for their abortions and describe how they were deceived by the abortion industry.

Pastor Cecil Clark of True Vine Baptist Church in Knoxville was interviewed for that story (video below).  He appears at about the 1-minute mark.

More coverage by Fox News, the Birmingham News, and the National Catholic Register.

Question for you:  What kind of effect will demonstrations such as this have on the larger culture?  Please comment below!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A749cVjVbJk

Market Square GAP

The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) has made it’s first appearance on Market Square in Knoxville.  Lord willing, it won’t be our last.

Before we had even set up the signs, a woman walked around the display and studied each one.  She was almost in tears as she asked, “Do you mean to tell me that abortions like this are legal in Knoxville?”  I explained that the first trimester abortions depicted in most of our signs are performed routinely in Knoxville.  Although the 22-week abortion depicted in two of our signs are legal in all 50 states (because of the Doe v Bolton decision), they are not routinely performed here.  She said she had thought all abortions were done on a small blob of tissue, and that we had certainly changed her mind.  I know she will be talking about the signs to her friends as well.

All day long, it was a steady stream of people passing the display.  Almost every one of them stared at the signs and studied them intently.  It was clear the signs were doing their work in the minds of all who saw them.

What do you think about Urban GAP?  Please comment!

CBR and LEARN at NAACP

You may know about the NAACP Convention going on in Kansas City this week.  What you won’t see on the news are CBR’s abortion photos on display outside the Convention Center.  The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and Pastor Clenard Childress of BlackGenocide.org are in Kansas City asking “Why No Outrage?” about the destruction of Black children by abortion.

“NAACP Security” issued bogus demands that Pastor Childress move the signs away from the sidewalk adjacent to the Convention Center, but he promptly ignored them.  He told them that “only the Kansas City police have any authority to ask us to move.”

Pastor Childress told us that

This was our most effective NAACP picket to date.  We were ideally positioned for maximum exposure to delegates at the main entrances to the Convention Center.  When thousands of delegates rushed out, along with young visitors just brought in to hear First Lady Michelle Obama, they flooded all around our people and our graphic signs.  As I looked over our team, for the first time in all the years we have been doing this, everyone was simultaneously engaged in dialogue with Convention attendees.

Great job!  One of the Convention attendees encouraged us:

We know who you all are.  We’ve seen you here before.  …  Why are you still outside with your message?  Why haven’t they invited you in?

Fat chance of that.  Another Conventioneer:

If a bunch of white people brought these signs to our Convention, I would not have come up and spoken to them.  Thank you for coming.

CBR at 2009 NAACP Convention

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and Pastor Clenard Childress of BlackGenocide.org are planning several days of outreach using CBR’s GAP signs and truth trucks at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) national convention in Kansas City, MO on July 12-13. Bill Calvin of CBR commented:

“With 33% of all abortions performed on black women – that is black genocide. With over half of all pregnancies to black women ending in abortion – that is black genocide. When African-Americans make up 13% of the population but continue to kill babies at such an astounding rate it is way past time to confront the leadership of the NAACP in their complicity in black genocide.”

I’ll have updates from the field.  We can’t do this without you.  Your gift of $50 pays for one hand-held sign!  Click here to stand with us.  By the way, I’m running a special this month.  Give any amount online, and I would love to send you a Precious Feet lapel pin!

GAP sign for NAACP Convention reveals racism behind Roe v Wade. (Click to enlarge.)

Gary Johnson and the photos that saved Suzanne's baby.

Got a voice mail today from Suzanne (not her real name), a grateful mother who saw one of CBR’s hand-held “Choice” signs.  She was on her way into an abortion clinic when she saw the two signs that CBR supervolunteer Gary Johnson displays at one of the clinics every Friday morning.

Gary has seen many moms turn around and leave the clinic after seeing abortion photos.  But this time, Suzanne walked over and thanked him for showing her the truth.  Gary gave her my number, so she called and left this message:

Fletcher, my name is Suzanne.  I was going to get an abortion today.  But I saw your pictures and I changed my mind.  So, I guess you helped save my baby’s life.  And you saved mine, too.  But I just want to say thank you for those pictures.  That was just horrible.  I couldn’t do it.  Thank you.  Please pray for me.

She was thanking Gary and me, and we are thanking you.  This is an eternal victory.  Because of your support, Satan was defeated in Knoxville today.  Suzanne’s baby was saved.  Thank you for supporting CBR.  And please pray for Suzanne and her baby.

To save more babies and moms like Suzanne, can I count you you to help?  Please click here to make a tax-deductible contribution!