Recently, John Stonestreet made some great points in his commentary A Time To Shock? over at BreakPoint.  He says that he used to be against the use of graphic abortion images, but now has “mostly” changed his mind.  He made several good points that will be familiar to most FAB readers.

However, we’d like to see him change his mind all the way.  We were confused as to what displays Mr. Stonestreet endorses and what displays he believes are off-limits.

His subtitle says: “Using Images of Abortion in the Public Square.”  But then he says: “Now let me be clear: I am completely against blindsiding people with images of aborted babies. It’s not only unfair; it can be a visual form of assault.”  How can we expose abortion in the public square without being accused of blindsiding or assaulting people who are in the public square and don’t want to see the photos?  Is it too much to ask them to look the other way?

He writes favorably about reformers who absolutely placed horrifying images into the paths of people who did not consent to see them (e.g., publishing the photo of Emmett Till in a newspaper, taking unsuspecting men and women into the odor cloud of a slave ship, publishing the photo of the Vietnamese girl on TV and in magazines).  In our case, the newspapers and TV are covering up the truth of the abortion injustice, so is it inappropriate for us to go to the public directly?

Are abortion photos off-limits except for academic settings, sermons in church, and speeches (generally attended only by people who are already pro-life)?  How can we show our fellow citizens the facts if they don’t attend our lectures or worship at our few-dozen churches where they will see the truth?

He cites Eric Metaxas saying we should show our fellow citizens the facts, but we should do so in “appropriate ways at appropriate times.”  What does that mean?  What is an inappropriate method or time to show our fellow citizens the truth?

When does showing abortion pictures become an assault?

Your humble correspondent was interviewed by Tom Dupree on WLAP Radio, the Rush Limbaugh station in Lexington.  To listen to the podcast, click here.

This interview was aired on Sunday morning, October 26.  Tom is a great interviewer.  We covered a lot of serious ground, but it was fun, too.  Hope you enjoy listening.

CBR Maryland at the Bel Air Festival for the Arts

It seems that CBR Maryland’s presence is becoming well known in the Washington-Baltimore area.  “Jack” recently posted the following on Facebook, next to a photo of our Black Genocide Awareness Project display:

Jack ——-, August 25:

I saw these guys at the March yesterday and they really bothered me – they show up at most big events in DC, like a bloody wet blanket.  Dear Bloody Baby Guys,  I see your oversized panels of blood, guts and tiny human parts at most large gatherings on the Mall and it offends me. But frankly you bore me, and I can’t take you seriously and you all are aggressively annoying and I think, intellectually dishonest.

Unbeknownst to Jack, one of his own Facebook friends was CBR Maryland volunteer David, who responded, instigating the following conversation:

David ——-, August 25:

Hi Jack. If you continued down to the second to last sign on the left you would have found me. I didn’t see you there so maybe you didn’t see that at least 6 of our members were women. For the most part people seemed interested, shook my hand, and thanked me for being there.

Jack ——-, August 25:

Dave, I am proud to call you a friend and neighbor! Much love back at ya!  Please answer this, Dave, why the giant gross-out signs? Such a negative presence, I personally don’t like them, but further I can’t imagine they win many to your cause. For every one person you may win I suspect you drive away 20!

David ——-, August 25:

I believe that it is important to put a real face on the victims of abortion just as for years we have put a real face on the victims of poverty, war, human trafficking. You know this from Time, Life, and so on. Young people who see these images begin conversations because they are so shocking and then we instantly have another pro-lifer for the rest of her/his life. Never does it work in the reverse unless that person is nuts. 40 years of legal abortion on demand at any stage of fetal development and very little change in public policy because when people say choice they think “reproductive health rights”. The images will help associate “choice” or “right to choose” with the true end product of the wrong choice, a dead baby.

Tim ——-, August 25:

I think that was a great explanation.

Jack’s comments are proof positive that, despite the media blackout, pro-lifers can still succeed in getting their message across to the community.  If it can be done in DC, it can be done anywhere!  If this is what we can do with a mere sixteen volunteers, image what would be possible with a hundred or more!

Jonathan Darnel speaks to a group of young people

CBR peacefully confronts a crowd of 350,000 with the truth. What an honor to bring light to this darkened place! What a tragedy more pro-lifers don’t do it.

FAB is grateful to CBR Maryland Operations for filing this report.

Pro-life activism at it’s best — Artscape 2013

Again this year, CBR rocked the Baltimore art scene to its core with three days of non-consentual, anti-abortion witnessing.  Twenty volunteers helped reveal the truth of child-killing to a crowd of 350,000.  Many of them were willing to see and hear the pro-life message.  Reactions ranged from extremely hostile to enthusiastically supportive.  In fact, four people came out of the crowd and joined our demonstration!

On Friday, a woman who had protested against us last year turned up again, this time with spray paint.  She defaced one of our signs and violently assaulted a volunteer before being apprehended by Baltimore police officers.  There were many more incidents of vitriol and rage, but this was the only physical assault, thanks to the diligence of the Baltimore Police Department.

Two volunteers abandon their plans for the day to help save babies. Will you abandon your plans for the day and help? Whether you hold a sign yourself or buy a sign for somebody else to hold, your contribution saves lives.

Saturday and Sunday gave us greater exposure, as the size and density of the crowd increased.  Our headline banner could be read seen from the other end of the fairway, so we attracted a great deal of attention.  People of all races, ages, and backgrounds passed by to read our messages and see the reality of abortion.  We spoke to Satanists, eugenicists, homosexuals, atheists, Christians, post-abortive women, adopted children, and a self-described socially liberal, gay, pro-life young woman running for state delegate.  The diversity of human emotions and reactions was incredible.

It is often saddening to see how absolutely the pro-abortion narrative dominates people’s thinking, despite their pro-life instincts.  Over and over, they confirm what CBR Executive Director Gregg Cunningham has long said,

When the topic of abortion comes up, the average IQ in the room drops by about 40 points.

People have taught themselves to believe really stupid things about abortion that they don’t … well … things they don’t really believe.

We met several who did not believe late term abortions were performed in Maryland.  The assumption that the world is overpopulated was almost universal.  Few people, even the most intelligent, had a coherent idea of what constitutes a “person,” almost as if they had never considered the question before — which most probably hadn’t.  As always, many had simply never seen what an abortion looks like.

What an honor to bring light to this darkened place!  What a tragedy more pro-lifers don’t do it.

As we departed for the last time Sunday afternoon, a police officer quietly shared with one volunteer that his parents had considered aborting his younger brother, yet chose life instead.  This same brother is now designing satellite systems.  What a testimony!  If only every unborn child were given the same chance!

The pro-life movement cannot afford to overlook opportunities like Artscape.  Everywhere we turn, there are people whose pro-abortion assumptions have never been challenged.  How can we expect to win without converting people to our side?  Babies are being murdered even as you read this.  To save them, we must reach our fellow citizens … where they are … and make them see.  Please help us do it.  There is no time to waste.

FemKill Fundraiser

Abortion industry fundraising events are a great venues for pro-life activism.  Here is a story from Mick Hunt of Life Advocates in Asheville, NC, describing his work at a Femcare (abortion clinic) fundraiser.  You can read the complete story and see more photos on his blog (Part 1 here and Part 2 here).  Mick is a faithful CBR volunteer and uses CBR Choice signs in his work in North Carolina, as seen in the photo at right.

FemKill Fundraiser
by Meredith Hunt, Life Advocates

Yesterday evening, fourteen of us stood in front of the entrance of the Millroom to greet financial donors of the Asheville business that aborts prenatal children on Orange Street.

Amy Renigar, Executive Director of Girls on the Run of WNC (GOTR) attended the fundraiser.  The GOTR website says, “Amy Renigar joined the GOTR team in June 2012 because of her interest public health and passion for creating a world where all girls (and women) are empowered to become their best selves.”  Ann Pfaff, an outspoken abortion supporter, is on their Board of Directors.  This organization runs programs in elementary schools all over the region, including at Veritas Christian Academy.  Go to it’s website to learn of its numerous local sponsors, many of whom would not wish to be connected with the violent deaths of prenatal children.  Groups such as Rotary Club of Asheville, Earth Fare, Diamond Brand Outdoors, and so on.

City Councilman Gordon Smith passed by me with an acknowledgement, “How are you, Meredith?”  I nodded.  Then he turned back and said with a grin, “You have raised so much money for them in there.”  Something like that …  Money.  This got me thinking.  The people at this event were pretty committed and not likely to be influenced.

But not everyone is this way.  Many people still have a functioning conscience when it comes to abortion.  Or at least they can have a normal reaction.  When we were winding down, I took Eric and Starla with me around the block to the other side of the building, which is the front of Asheville Pizza and Brewing, the business that owns the Millroom, which was either rented or donated for the Femcare fundraiser.  Asheville Pizza has an outdoor dining patio that is right next to the sidewalk and last night it was full of people eating.

We had faced the large posters of a mangled, bloody 10 week pre-born child toward the customers no more than two or three seconds before we had a diner in our face, confronting us.   None of the Femcare supporters acted like this.  People are more upset over an impediment to their appetite then they are about children being slaughtered and about a fundraiser for such atrocities in the same building in which they are filling their stomachs.  They demand that we behave decently when this horrible outrage goes on day after day, year after year (out of sight, out of mind).  But at least they react.  One of the managers called the police and when an officer came we chatted a few minutes.  I wonder how much money we could raise for Asheville Pizza and Brewing.  It would be a new twist to “Brew and View.”

Notorious celebrity Cecil Bothwell’s contribution to dialog was to practically shout that one of the protestors should “repent of your self righteousness!”  I wonder if he can explain “self-righteous” in a way that doesn’t include his own attitude?  This accusation dodges talking about what’s really right or wrong.

Outside a Baltimore Abortuary

CBR Maryland reports on how a graphic abortion video on the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform’s (CBR’s) website, AbortionNO.org, was used to save a baby’s life.

“Star” was counseling for only the second time ever outside Planned Parenthood (PP)of Baltimore.  Among the numerous couples she approached was a woman in her 30’s, escorted by her male friend.  While mom didn’t want to speak to anyone, her friend was willing to hang around and chat.  Like most people headed into an abortion clinic, he was convinced that this was the only choice.

Star procured a smart phone and persuaded him to watch the graphic abortion video posted on AbortionNO.org.  He was visibly disturbed and told her that witnessing abortion certainly did change his perspective.  Eventually mom came out again to retrieve her friend, who urged her to view the video herself.  Reluctantly, she did, and experienced the same paradigm shift.

Star continued counseling these two for 30 minutes, aided by other counselors on scene, until at last the couple departed the clinic, armed with information on a local crisis pregnancy center.  Victory!

Star was instrumental in another save that same day, and in a third encounter used the graphic video to persuade a woman to reenter the clinic and attempt to get her abortion-minded friend out of there (result inconclusive).

CBR encourages the use of graphic abortion images outside abortion mills.  The pictures do not make the sidewalk counselors unapproachable, and they have been instrumental in deterring several women from aborting their children.  Praise God that an image of man’s inhumanity can become a tool of life and love!

Jonathan Darnel practicing what he preaches.

Guest column by Jonathan Darnel, Project Director for the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) Maryland Operations.  This originally appeared as an online comment to a piece by Gerald Nadal on LifeSiteNews.com.  Dr. Nadal’s piece was in response to a hit piece against the pro-life movement written by Elizabeth Jahr.

Does the March for Life advance or impede the Pro Life Movement?
by Jonathan Darnel

I’m afraid neither Ms. Jahr nor Mr. Nadal is right.  Mr. Nadal has adequately refuted Ms. Jahr in this article, but his belief that the March for Life (MFL) motivates pro-lifers to fight abortion is false.  Rather, the MFL convinces most pro-lifers that all they need to do is march once a year, and spend the rest of the year pursuing their normal lives.

Don’t believe me?  I can prove it.  According to Mr. Nadal, last year’s MFL attracted 600,000 marchers. According to AbortionDocs.com, there are fewer than 800 abortion clinics in America.  Do the arithmetic: 600,000 pro-life marchers divided by 800 abortion clinics equals 750 marches per clinic.  Tell me, are there 750 people targeting each abortion clinic in America?  Are there even 100?  What is the average number of people you see standing outside an abortion clinic on a Saturday morning?

Ask any random pro-life person what they are doing to end abortion and you will hear them say, “I pray, I vote, and I attend the MFL.”  Maybe their church gives a pittance to a nearby crisis pregnancy center.  This is the sum of their dedication.  And they think it’s enough?  Outrageous!  I know plenty of abortion clinics located mere blocks from a Christian church or high school, and nobody seems to notice or care.  It’s the same for both Catholic and Protestant churches.  It is absolutely terrible.

Instead of one large march which gets zero media coverage, we should be conducting thousands of local marches, and maintaining persistent, year-long vigils outside very clinic, every abortionist’s home, every government building, every college campus, and every busy city intersection.  As long as we can do more, we should.  Few of life’s pursuits are more important than ending this wicked Holocaust.

When I attend the MFL, I go there with large banners decrying Christian apathy and calling on marchers to get serious or go home.  Marching once a year is not enough.  It is an insult to the lives we supposedly are there to defend.

CBR Maryland has launched a new project called Run2TheBattle (link here), which aims to help Christians realize that marching once a year is not enough to end the abortion holocaust, and that kids are dying because barely anyone is fighting to save them.  Several other groups around the country are also doing this.  It’s about time.  40 years of apathy is just too long.

CBR volunteers show what “family planning” looks like to NEA delegates.

On Monday morning, July 1st, delegates of the National Education Association’s (NEA) annual assembly were in for an eyeful as they made their way to the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.

CBR volunteers from all over Georgia stood at the intersection of Andrew Young International Boulevard and Marietta Street with CBR’s handheld “Choice” signs, which depict images of early-term aborted fetuses. Our group’s positions were adjusted throughout the morning to adapt to changing traffic patterns.

CBR was working alongside other pro life organizations, including Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) and Pro Life Educators of America (PLEA), to bring a message to the NEA: adopt a neutral position on abortion.

“We are not asking the NEA delegates to do a one-eighty and change our union’s abortion position and activism to being pro-life,” said Bob Pawson, Director of PLEA and  NEA member, “We are asking that our union be verifiably neutral and totally non-involved regarding abortion. And stop hiding their advocacy behind euphemistic language such as ‘reproductive freedom’ or ‘all methods of family planning,’” Pawson said.

CBR works to effectively dismantle such euphemisms. While other pro life advocates used text signs to exhort the NEA to neutralize it’s pro-abortion position, the graphic pictures we used showed exactly what certain methods of “reproductive freedom” and “family planning” do to unborn children (and future students).

The Truth Truck made several rounds in front of the CNN News Center in Atlanta.

NEA members were also shown the true meaning of these genteel phrases by billboard-sized abortion images on CBR’s “Truth Truck.” Our truck made rounds in the Georgia World Congress Center vicinity throughout the mornings and afternoons of July 1 and July 2, insuring that as many NEA delegates as possible would be exposed to the brutality that their union’s official resolution currently supports.

“Normally, in America’s news media, when citizens hear or read press reports about teacher unions and picketing, it is the union DOING the picketing; usually demanding more money. This event is one of those unusual instances in which the NEA Teacher Union is the TARGET OF PICKETING; ironically, by NEA members, taxpayer-parents, and students. The very constituencies which the NEA leadership touts itself as supposedly serving,” said Pawson.

While we received some of the usual irate responses, several passersby paused to observe and ask questions about the images. One driver, a young African-American woman, rolled down her window to address one of our volunteers when stopped at the traffic light:

“Excuse me, is that a real picture?”

“Yes, it is”

“Awe.” She was audibly saddened by what she saw.

Much conversation was overheard among pedestrians regarding abortion and the NEA’s stance on abortion. While some doubted that the NEA took a pro abortion stance, others indicated that they were previously unaware of the fact before encountering the message being shown to them. Pro life NEA members in particular expressed appreciation of CBR’s message and our assistance in reforming the teacher’s union.

For more on the NEA’s position, please see http://www.grtl.org/?q=NEA-pro-abortion-tendencies

Submitted by: Lincoln Brandenburg

Did you see The Alamo (2004), starring Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton?  Check it out; it’s a great movie.  Thornton’s portrayal of US Congressman David Crockett is stellar.

When the Mexican army arrived on 23 February 1836, the Alamo defenders numbered only 150 men.  Crockett said to Lt. Col. William Travis, “We’re gonna need more men.”  Later, when he stood on the wall and saw that the army surrounding the Alamo was 1500 strong and growing, he revised his estimate, “We’re gonna need a lot more men.”

Pro-life students on campus are outnumbered and surrounded, just like the Texians at the Alamo.  Their enemies are principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12).  Opposing artillery are lies that Satan uses to destroy children, mothers, and families.  His foot-soldiers are key faculty members and administrators, who themselves have been deceived and victimized.

Armed with truth, pro-life students are fighting back, but they are gonna need a lot more men (and women).  We can’t just abandon them to fend for themselves.  That’s why I’m traveling all over the Southeast this summer, recruiting and hiring new staff.  Our team of project directors will reinforce, equip, train, and help pro-life students to expose the deeds of darkness (Ephesians 5:11) on campus, where it’s needed most.  Link to job announcement here.

That’s where you come in.  Please put me on the road, so I can recruit and train an army of reinforcements.  Unless I go out, we can’t find the reinforcements we need, and pro-life students will have to go it alone.  Please put me on the road with your special gift of $1,000, $500, or even $100.

If you will send me, I will go.  Please send me, because pro-life students are gonna need a lot more men.

Every week at George Mason University (GMU), a mobile ultrasound clinic from A Best Chioce (ABC) offers free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds to women on campus.  Link to story here.  ABC explains why:

Ultrasound gives a woman an opportunity to bond with her baby early on, and 8 out of 10 abortion-minded women choose life after seeing their baby on ultrasound.  Women attending college are the most vulnerable to the deceptive lure of abortion, so we realize that a pro-life presence on college campuses is vital.  Sharing the truth will allow us to witness many lives saved.

Here’s something great:  By supporting CBR, you helped make this ministry possible!

Two years ago, we made GMU a priority for pro-life activism.  Our goals were to

• recruit students who would restart pro-life activism on campus,
• bring the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) to GMU, and
• encourage a wide range of pro-life projects.

It was the Pro Life on Campus hat trick!

• Read stories of GAP at GMU here, here, and here.
• New pro-life activism here, here, and here.
• Now, the GMU Students for Life (SFL) are hosting a mobile ultrasound and pregnancy resource center on campus every week!  Link to story here.

ABC is the only mobile ultrasound and pregnancy resource center in the DC area.  Executive Director Angela Clarke and Medical Director Dr. Kirsten Ball both played key roles in helping us restart the GMU SFL.  Now, the GMU SFL is hosting ABC’s mobile ultrasound unit every week.  Cooperation … what a concept!

Explanatory note:  On most campuses, non-student groups like CBR and ABC can’t just show up and occupy space.  We have to reserve that space.  Under most circumstances, we can’t just reserve the space ourselves; we have to be hosted by some on-campus department or student organization.  That’s why GMU SFL is critical.

Because you helped us get GMU SFL back on its feet in 2011, babies are being saved today.  It’s the pro-life double-whammy:

• Show people the truth … Make them more horrified of abortion.
• Offer resources and support … Make them less terrified of an unplanned pregnancy.

People choose life when they are more horrified of abortion than they are terrified of unplanned pregnancy.  We have to do two things: (1) show people the truth and (2) offer them help.

BSFL Vice-President Claire Chretien speaks to the media. Successful social reformers use modulated conflict to focus attention on injustice.

Creating and Exploiting Modulated Conflict

Historically, social reformers have not feared conflict.  They embraced conflict, even created it, to focus public attention on injustice.  They did it knowing their actions would invite persecution from a culture that was complicit or complacent about injustice.

The Bama Students for Life (BSFL) are masters at creating modulated conflict and using that conflict to focus public attention on abortion.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said

… I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.”  I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.
***
… so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies [i.e., annoyances or irritants] to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism …  The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.

At the U of Alabama, BSFL and CBR annoyed and irritated people who were complicit or complacent about abortion, people who desperately wanted us to leave them alone.  But we didn’t leave them alone.  We focused their attention on injustice, knowing that they would dislike us for having done so.  Based on the media coverage and the huge crowds of angry people, we certainly succeeded!

Media Coverage for GAP at U of Alabama

Television Coverage

1. Controversial abortion display stirs controversy on UA campus
2. Pro-life display on Univ. of Alabama campus stirs strong emotions
3. Controversial display ignites abortion debate (video report)

Newspaper/Online

1. Student group displays graphic abortion photos on UA campus (poll) (positive poll results!)

Crimson White (student newspaper)

1. Anti-abortion group sponsors ‘extremely graphic’ display on Quad (news article)
2. Anti-abortion groups should back up opinions with facts (op-ed)
3. Our View: Bama Students for Life should examine the language they use (op-ed)
4. Students sound off about abortion displays (news article)
5. BSL’s belief in their own infallibility has cost them credibility in this debate (op-ed)
6. Anti-abortion proponents only restrict freedom of choice for American women (op-ed)
7. BSL, Speer both fail in effectively messaging their case on abortion rights (op-ed)
8. How the pro-life movement can make win-win situations out of abortion debates (op-ed)
9. Consider the issue, not the language (pro-life op-ed)
10. BSFL’s images necessary to change culture (pro-life op-ed)
11. University’s public assembly laws must be re-examined (op-ed)
12. Changing from ‘pro-choice’ to ‘pro-abortion’ (the only coherent pro-abortion op-ed we saw, followed by a flood of name-calling and ad hominem attacks, with lots of comments from FAB)
13. Insulting the public not conducive to campus abortion debate (op-ed)
14. Counter-protesters were told to stop handing out fliers, student says (news article) (Note: CBR opposes restricting the First Amendment rights of people who lawfully protest against our display; the First Amendment is good for everyone.)
15. In response to ‘Examine Language’ (pro-life op-ed)

BSFL Blog

1. GAP Press Release
2. Highlights of Life Week

Can you name one other pro-life project that creates 15 items in the campus paper?

State employees in Juneau attempted to censor CBR Alaska’s display of aborted baby photos.  News coverage:

• AnchoragePress.com.
• LifeNews.com.

Video here:

London passerby, one of many who changed their minds when shown abortion photos.

Quote:

If you had not shown me images, I would not have changed my mind.  Now, all I see is murder.

The Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform UK holds Abort67 project outside the Department of Health, London, UK.  There were many conversations like this one.  Graphic Images are crucial for changing the way society feels about abortion.  This will enable them to change their thinking and behaviour on abortion too.

.

FAB Note:  Sorry for the hiatus.  We’ve been on the road for more than a month, both on CBR projects and on personal business.  We’ve always thought it better to do good work than to just talk about it.  Now that we’re back home for a few days, we can talk some now!

Marriott Opryland CAP: The work goes on!

On our 5th and final day of the launch (just final day of the launch, not the last day of the project!), we were greeted by the most powerful and coldest winds we had seen to date!  Weather Underground reported winds gusts as high as 43 miles/hour!  Yikes!

But God did not forget us.  He sent us warm encouragement in the person of Carly Hill, the Managing Editor for YoungPatriots.com, a website for … well … young patriots.  She spent quite a while with us and posted this report.  (See video below.)

A few days later, Lyndon Allen returned to the Marriott Opryland with a team of Nashville volunteers to continue the project.  (See photo below).

Video report:

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Volunteers continue the project:

Lyndon Allen returns to Marriott Opryland with a team of volunteers. It had warmed up by then.

CBR’s Lincoln Brandenburg at the Chattahoochee Valley March for Life

On January 25 our Georgia Project Director, Lincoln Brandenburg spoke at the 2013 Chattahoochee Valley March for Life in Columbus, GA, noting the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. Hundreds attended, and we gave out 1,500 “Choice” cards, each of which features a graphic abortion photo.   A “Choice” cards in your wallet is an excellent tool for changing minds by simply showing people the truth!  The following are excerpts from his speech.

Forty years is a long time. Too long. And those of you who have given of your time and resources to save lives and to end the killing may be wondering, “Have we made progress?”

Many of you are familiar with the legendary human rights activist William Wilberforce who, in the early 1800’s, led the movement to abolish slavery in the United Kingdom. That campaign was an uphill battle. Slavery, like abortion, was as profitable and invisible as it was cruel and horrifying. But awareness was raised. Abolition bills were introduced, failed, and introduced again year after year. Incremental progress was made over the decades.

Finally, his old and broken body failing, Wilberforce received word that the votes and support were in place, and that legalized slavery in the British Empire would, at long last, come to an end. Three days after receiving this wonderful news, a tired Wilberforce went home to his Savior.

I’m telling you this story, pro-life friend, because it took Wilberforce and his team not forty, but nearly fifty years to accomplish justice. Fifty years of toil and labor, small victories, heavy defeats, and the ridicule of being misunderstood by friend and foe alike.

Though it has been a long journey for us also, we will not give up, because the lives of those precious little ones and the hearts of their mothers are worth fighting for! So stay in the fight, my friend.

I have one more story to tell. This is for friends who are pro-life, but not yet active in this work of saving lives.

In May 1940, German forces attacked Holland. The following years of occupation brought a gradual fulfillment of Nazi policies, resulting in the dehumanization of Jews. There were severe criminal penalties for any who would aid, abet, or harbor them. But that did not stop some. Casper ten Boom was an elderly watchmaker who, along with his two grown daughters, lived out their professed Christianity by risking their lives to hide Jews in their own home and guide them to safety.

A Jewish mother and her baby came to them for refuge. As they sought to find a safe place for them, the ten Booms asked a country pastor if he would take this family in.

Sadly, what this s0-called “minister” of the gospel gave them was not help, but cowardly excuses. “No. Definitely not. We could lose our lives for that Jewish child.”

Upon hearing that, Casper picked up the baby, holding him tenderly, and responded “You say we could lose our lives for this child? I would consider that the greatest honor that could come to my family.”

Eventually, the Germans found this family out. They were shipped to concentration camps, and Casper ten Boom, being sick and elderly, did indeed lose his life for saving the lives of others. But unlike that pastor, he stood before God as one who could give a good account of his stewardship during a dark time in history.

You and I are also living in a time in history during which innocent lives are being snuffed out. But we have it much easier. Unlike the ten Booms, we do not have to keep our efforts hidden. We still have the freedom to peacefully stand up for these children whom our government won’t protect. How much more readily should we do so, given the comparable ease of our task? Friends, change will not come about by us wishing it away. It will not come about by thinking pro-life thoughts. It will not come about by going to a march one day a year and then staying at home for all the rest.

In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”