Liberty, you’re a university … C’mon man!
WDBJ-TV, the CBS affiliate in Roanoke, broadcast a story on our RCC/GAP at Liberty University. It was very well done, except for their unwillingness to show what the display was all about: abortion.
But you gotta hand it to WDBJ. They did something we were unable to do. They got Liberty University to state their official policy toward abortion. Unfortunately, Liberty is just like the pro-life church; they oppose abortion, but they also cover it up. Out of sight and out of mind. Liberty was quoted as saying this:
Liberty has always taken a strong pro-life position on the abortion issue, but it does not encourage the public display of the horrific images of the deaths of aborted babies in order to further the pro-life cause.
In other words, we can talk against abortion, but we won’t show people what it really is, even those who desperately need to know. But can anybody provide even one example of a deadly social injustice that was ever eradicated by covering it up?
Compare this policy to that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who brought about dramatic changes in our society, even ending segregation in less than 10 years. Was he wrong when he said this?:
We bring [injustice] out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.
Dr. King also said, “America will never reject racism until America sees racism.”
Was he wrong? We’ve been asking that question for many years, and nobody … not one person … has ever stood up to defend the proposition that Dr. King was wrong. We can name many historical examples that prove that his strategy of exposing injustice works. People who criticize our our use of King’s stragegy to fight abortion can’t provide even one example to suggest hiding injustice works.
This all reminds me of that regular feature on Monday Night Football … Liberty, you’re a university. You’ve got a whole department of history. C’mon man!
Tags: abortion pictures, C'mon man, GAP, Genocide Awareness Project, Liberty University, RCC, Reproductive Choice Campaign
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 at 7:25 am and is filed under Abortion and the Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
20 Responses to “Liberty, you’re a university … C’mon man!”
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August 30th, 2011 at 8:00 am
“They got Liberty University to admit that their official policy toward abortion is to cover it up.” How is not encouraging the viewing of the aborted fetus’ covering it up? There is a strict policy on abortion at LU including high fines and suspension. How is this ‘covering’ it up?
August 30th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Jeremy, thanks for visiting. I’m happy to clarify the statement. (Note: I have revised the posting, but the question still applies.)
If you are not exposing truth, and if you are encouraging others not to expose truth, isn’t that (by definition) covering it up? What other word would you use?
I hope you will go to the front page of our website, http://www.ProLifeOnCampus.com, and read the Open Letter to Liberty University. You really need to consider the nature of the Holocaust of abortion and the response of the American Church to it. Is our response anywhere at all in proportion to the magnitude of the crisis? At least the German Church had an excuse—acting on behalf of Jews was punishable by death—but we have no such excuse.
We can’t comment on the policy at Liberty University, because we don’t know what it is. It is our belief that pro-life students have been told that women who become pregnant can continue their educations. If it is true that students can be suspended for becoming pregnant, then there is a huge problem that must be addressed. If the policy is more compassionate, but students are allowed to believe that they might be suspended if it becomes known they are pregnant, then that is also a huge problem. Perhaps Liberty University could clarify that issue right away.
We understand that a Christian university must insist on sexual purity, but punitive policies put excruciating pressure on women to abort children. This pressure can be direct, based on her own fears (e.g., loss of status, scholarship, financial wellbeing, etc.) or indirect, applied through a boyfriend who fears what will happen to him if his fatherhood becomes known.
August 30th, 2011 at 7:31 pm
Why do you do the things you do? Is it to save babies or is it ultimately to bring people to Christ? I would genuinely like to know because you seem to be throwing out the rest of the bible in your pursuit to shock people into opposing abortion.
I like you oppose abortion, we just have radically different ways of conveying that to the world.
August 30th, 2011 at 8:06 pm
LU, are you trying to imply that saving babies and bringing people to Christ are mutually exclusive?
And where does it say in the Bible that we must cover up great evil and keep it hidden from view?
Our goals are many. Here’s three of them: (1) save babies, (2) save moms, and (3) teach Christians to obey God’s commands. When Christians see the horror of abortion, they are more likely to obey God’s command not to kill their own children (Mark 10:19). Furthermore, they are more motivated to protect and defend the defenseless (Proverbs 24:11-12). And finally, they more fully understand their duty as Christian leaders to teach other believers to do the same (Matthew 28:20).
I hope you will read our Open Letter to Liberty University, which you can link to from our website, http://www.ProLifeOnCampus.com. Some of what follows below is taken from that letter.
Our Christian witness is badly damaged when we pursue unity at the expense of justice. Missionary aviator Steve Saint is the son of the late Nate Saint, one of five missionaries who were martyred in Ecuador’s Amazon jungle in 1956. Steve has been a great help to our aviation ministry and he recently told us of a talk he had given at a missionary conference in Guatemala. At the conclusion of his remarks, he was approached by a group of Indian women who wanted to know if it was true that abortion is legal in America. Fluent in Spanish, he conceded that it is. With a keen eye for hypocrisy, one of his inquisitors asked, in essence, “By what moral authority do Americans then take the Gospel to the world?”
Francis Schaeffer once warned that if people who claim the Name of Christ are unwilling to offer serious resistance to something as evil as killing a baby, the world has the right to ask whether Christ is real.
Consider the fact that God commands us to protect and deliver the helpless in Proverbs 24:11-12: “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done?”
How about James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
Who is more of an orphan than a baby who is being delivered up by his own parents to be killed? And who is more of a widow than a woman who is being threatened with abandonment if she will not consent to the death of her own child?
Consider the consequences of doing nothing, as outlined in Jeremiah 19: 4-9: “[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].”
We disobey God when we kill our own children. Many Christians do it, not because they are evil as much as because they are ignorant. It is up to Christian leaders to teach them the truth so that they do not fall into great sin through ignorance.
We disobey God when we do nothing to protect those being killed by abortion. The Church is massively uninvolved in the struggle against abortion.
We disobey God when we fail to teach other Christians to obey God’s commands, including the commands not to murder and to protect the defenseless.
You say that we have different ways of conveying our opposition to abortion to the world. Let me claify one thing, and this is critically important. We are not trying to convey our opposition to abortion. We could do that with signs that say, “We oppose abortion.” Our goal is to show people facts about abortion that they don’t already know, so that THEY will oppose abortion.
Dr. Martin Luther King didn’t have to do much to let people know he opposed racial injustice. He pretty much just had to walk around being black. He was effective because he caused millions of Americans to see images, on TV and in magazines, of Black men and women being attacked with dogs and water cannons. As a result of seeing those images, they realized that racism/segregation was much worse than they imagined. It was THEIR opposition that ended segregation, not his.
August 30th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
Sir you have answered my question. You do not care about the lost and hurting people. You don’t care about the girl who realized the mistake she made in having an abortion. Those people are worthless to you. You care about the babies the lost people of this world are aborting and the mothers who are carrying the children. That is where we are eternally different. Your Priority is preventing people from aborting babies, my priority is showing them Christ.
I wish you would take this vigor and intensity to presenting to gospel as you to to displaying pictures of aborted babies. The Gospel will solve this problem not the hate you and your organization spew from the street corners.
August 31st, 2011 at 6:42 am
LU, I have given you reasonable arguments, based on Scripture, as to why it is incumbent on us as Christians to expose injustice and teach other Christians to obey God’s commands. You have responded with an ad hominem attack. Ad hominem attacks are no substitutes for reasoned arguments.
You profess to care about women who have had abortions and I don’t doubt your concern. But if there are post-abortive women walking around Liberty University, isn’t it true that there are also pre-abortive women … women who will have abortions next week, next month, or next year, if nobody bothers to show them the truth so that they can make a different decision? How is it compassionate to cover up the truth of abortion and not warn her of the consequences of her act?
Many post-abortive women agree with us. Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, said she is glad we are showing the truth, because it will prevent others from experiencing the same agony that she has experienced over the abortion of two of her children.
On Friday, I hope you will make it a point to come out and meet Nicole Cooley, our Virginia project director. Being post-abortive herself, she can explain better than me how important it is to show pictures as a way to prevent abortion and also as a way to promote healing. She will tell you that she could not be healed until she came out of denial. More about her at http://box2012.temp.domains/~fletchl3//cbr-appoints-nicole-cooley-as-project-director-for-virginia/.
August 31st, 2011 at 3:41 pm
For the past two days I have walked by your signs and even seen your truck displaying the horrific photos of aborted fetuses and the thoughts that come to mind are too many to relay in this comment. However, I would like you to know that you are doing no good to the pro-life cause by forcing disgusting images on those who pass. The shock factor is not as effective as you would like to believe. Abortion has been in the light of public media for years now and I would say that most adults do know what takes place. You are not showing us anything we haven’t seen or heard before, you only anger the students of this campus with your lack of tact. Also, it pains me to see the young children with your group being involved in this protest. These children are way too young to be seeing these images in the first place and are only being brought up into a lifestyle of intolerance; not a true life of love as we as Christians are called to live. Children need to be taught both sides of an issue and allowed to develop their own opinions once they are capable to do so. This is the same in the issue of faith. We are not supposed to go on blindly following what our parents believe. We need to be able to decide for ourselves through skeptical study of the Bible and beliefs we have been taught. It is sad to see how Christianity is being portrayed to unbelievers through your work. I pray for you, your family, and fellow campaigners.
August 31st, 2011 at 11:16 pm
LU Student, you are mistaken on many points. Please read my Open Letter to Liberty University, which you can link to from our website, http://www.ProLifeOnCampus.com.
You said that “abortion has been in the light of public media for years now.” Really? I watch public media all the time. I see unborn children dehumanized as mere blobs of tissue, masses of cells, products of conception, parasites, etc. I see abortion euphemized as a reproductive “choice.” A mere picture would dispel those myths, but the myths are cherished by those in power, so the pictures are suppressed. With all the talk about “choice,” I’ve almost never seen any attention paid to what is actually being chosen. The rare exception is when we come into town and some of the local media outlets actually show the pictures we have put on display. Without any presentation of the reality of abortion in the media, the education system, and even the Church, most people have no idea who the preborn baby is and what abortion does to her.
You say the “shock factor” is not as effective as we would like to believe. Your argument is not with us. Your argument is with the countless women and men who have let us know that our pictures changed their minds. In many cases, they tell us that our pictures saved their own children from destruction at the hands of the abortionist. You can see many testimonials on http://www.AbortionNo.org and on http://www.ProLifeOnCampus.com.
You say that children should never be shown these pictures, but that you and everybody else at Liberty has already seen them? How can that be? If only a few kooks like us are letting our children see the pictures, how can it be that by the time they are 18, everybody has seen them? We have encountered many, many students who tell us that they grew up in “pro-life” churches, had never seen abortion pictures, had come to believe abortion should be a choice, and changed their minds only after seeing our pictures.
You say that “Children need to be taught both sides of an issue and allowed to develop their own opinions once they are capable to do so.” Really? Whatever happened to God’s side? Whatever happened to “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6)? We are commanded not to kill their own children (Mark 10:19). We are commanded to protect and defend the defenseless (Proverbs 24:11-12). And finally, we are commanded to teach other believers to do the same (Matthew 28:20). These commands are not optional.
When Christians see the horror of abortion, they are more likely to obey God’s command not to kill their own children (Mark 10:19). Furthermore, they are more motivated to protect and defend the defenseless (Proverbs 24:11-12). And finally, they more fully understand their duty as Christian leaders to teach other believers to do the same (Matthew 28:20).
September 1st, 2011 at 1:36 pm
I was appalled to see the abortionno.org pictures as I took my sweet little pre-schoolers to a Thomas Road church activity today. They wondered what they were. As a parent one of my goals, at this tender age, is to protect their innocence and yes that means the ugly graphics of your pro-life abortion group. I am a Christian woman who looks upon your tactics/pictures on street corners and on trucks around Liberty Campus as apalling graphics for my little ones to whitness. Liberty and TRBC are certainly pro-life just like I am. Simply, your graphic pictures are not suited for families of young children.It is of my opinion that your tactics do not promote the beauty of Christ, but use a “shock” tactic to “get people thinking.” It is simply wrong to put such graphics anywhere in a public “street corner” forum. These graphics are equivalent to my children seeing a horror movie. I do not believe you are helping the body of Christ.
September 1st, 2011 at 8:39 pm
Wow! Jeremy- regarding Liberty fining and suspending women (and hopefully fining/suspending the MEN that get them pregnant) is not a Christian response that Liberty U.should be proud of. Talk about kicking them when their down! Reread John 8:1-11.
Jennifer-its all about you isn’t it. Your “sweet little pre-schoolers” don’t really know what it is their looking at!-their reaction is in response to YOUR reaction and you have an opportunity to teach them what being pro-life is all about! Explain that some parents do very bad things to their children but that they have been blessed with parents who love her and will always protect her. Tell those sweet little preschoolers that what they saw in the abortion photos happened to a baby before that child was born. Tell them that violence is never a solution to life’s problems and love is better than selfishness.
Too few Christians are truly horrified by abortion. That is why too many Christians are having abortions, too many Christians are RATIONALIZING PAST ABORTIONS instead of repenting of them, and too few Christians are working to outlaw abortion. The world is watching the Church’s muted response. Historians will record it and God will judge it!
September 1st, 2011 at 9:23 pm
“Children need to be taught both sides of an issue and allowed to develop their own opinions once they are capable to do so.” How do you reconcile this attitude with murder? I am curious when using this theory how did you teach your children about Our Lord Jesus Christ? “Well honey, He might be the Savior of the World, or HE might not be-we will let you decide… It might be murder or some may say its a choice, but we will let you decide-cause we don’t want to dictate your beliefs. HELLO!!!! “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6) But wait how can I train my child up in the way he should go with this kind of perspective?
Child-Killing is the greatest moral evil of our time and ending it demands a level of commensurate with that EVIL!
AWARENESS-(photos show the horror of abortion)
ACTION-when was the last time you visited the gates of hell in your community,i.e. an abortion clinic
GOD WILL NOT END ABORTION UNTIL ENOUGH OF US ACT LIKE WHAT IT IS:CHILD SACRIFICE, INFANTICIDE, MURDER!!
September 1st, 2011 at 9:49 pm
One last entry and this is in regards to post-abortive women and graphic pictures. Many think that the graphics are somehow wounding these women. For a few that’s probably true-but for many women I’ve spoken to its not a picture that brings pain. Its watching a child on a mother’s breast. It’s looking at a baby doll in the store. It’s seeing someone pregnant. The choices I made prior to knowing the Truth have
made me sensitive and determined to educate and
put a face on the consequences of abortion. I chose
death for my four babies over 20 years ago. If I had
seen what it is (a baby) and what happens to my
babies (seeing an abortion) and the fallout
(dismembered remains of baby) I would have spared
death for my children as well as regret and pain for
myself. When I did finally repent of what I did it wasn’t a graphic picture but the precious feet lapel pin on someone’s coat that terrified me! Abortion is what hurts a woman not a picture. If the guilt and sorrow were not already there, a picture would not trigger it! Pictures do not cause the pain ABORTION DOES!
p.s. Stop hiding behind women and children.
September 1st, 2011 at 11:33 pm
Jennifer, thank you for commenting. 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. Furthermore, 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. NBC and PBS 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.
You have to tell me 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?
September 2nd, 2011 at 3:34 pm
(Prolifer)ations 9-1-11 - Jill Stanek says:[…] Fletcher Armstrong tells about his experiences with the Genocide Awareness Project at Liberty University – a Christian, liberal arts campus. […]
September 2nd, 2011 at 7:32 pm
First, the woman who has had an abortion is in need of forgiveness but she needs to repent. How will she repent if she is never confronted with the TRUTH of what her abortion did? There are those posting here who are assuming its a bad thing for a post-abortive woman to see images of aborted children, when I can tell you from experience that just the opposite is true. Seeing the images breaks the heart, truth floods in. Sorrow leads to repentance and then the Lord can truly forgive and restore. Shielding post-abortive moms from the visual truth of what they did is not helping them. It is keeping them in blindness, bitterness and grief. It is keeping them enslaved to sin. Shame on you if you call yourself a Christian yet you would have post-abortive moms blind to the truth and enslaved to sin. Secondly, 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.
September 3rd, 2011 at 12:14 pm
“Your Priority is preventing people from aborting babies, my priority is showing them Christ.”
Did Jesus go to the temple area and quietly say, “Fella, you are selling those calves and doves too close to the temple. It makes the temple noisy and dirty; a market place instead of a place of prayer. Shhh… do you think you might find it in your heart to just pack up your stall and move further away?”
Is that what Jesus did? Or do you read a different Gospel than the rest of us?
My point is this: Young adults at a university are the prime targets of the abortion industry. They are bombarded by the media, by advertising, by euphemistic words like ‘family planning’ and ’emergency contraceptive’ and ‘reproductive health.’
Yes people are made angry by the graphic pictures. Maybe angry enough to stop the abortion industry from killing another generation?
September 3rd, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Sarah- Thank you for your words of wisdom! Do I hear an amen?
September 3rd, 2011 at 9:30 pm
Amen Sarah!! Very well said!
September 7th, 2011 at 9:51 am
(Prolifer)ations 9-2-11 - Jill Stanek says:[…] Fletcher Armstrong tells about his experiences with the Genocide Awareness Project at Liberty University – a Christian, liberal arts campus. […]
September 28th, 2011 at 7:41 pm
Shouldn't Christians be taught God's side? says:[…] [Note: You can read the entire discussion stream here.] […]