by Fletcher Armstrong

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

Observer:  People on both sides of the issue spent half their time trash talking people who opposed them instead of keeping it to the issue.  The pro-lifers compared the pro-choicers to Germans who ignored the Holocaust, while pro-choicers compared pro-lifers to racists who fought to keep public schools segregated.  This constant mud-slinging contest is exactly why people don’t like talking about important issues.

CBR Response:   Observer, thanks for your comment.  We did not invent the comparison of abortion to the Holocaust and slavery.  Martin Luther King, Jr. often compared racial injustice in America to the Holocaust.  Rev. Jesse Jackson later extended the comparison to abortion.  Both of them cited some of the same factors that we highlight in our display, including denial of personhood, dehumanization of the victims, etc.  But it would be wrong to accuse them of “trash-talking”.

It isn’t trash-talking to point out that perpetrators of genocide always redefine personhood in terms that exclude the intended victim class.  Our Supreme Court declared preborn children to be non-persons in the 1973 Roe v Wade decision, applying a developmental criteria (trimesters).  The Court did the same thing in 1857, by declaring Black men and women to be “subordinate and inferior” beings.  The Nazi court declared Jews to be non-persons in 1936.

Another common theme is the language used to dehumanize the intended victims.  For example, Nazis called their victims rats, pigs, vermin, and untermensch (subhuman).  We all know the language used to dehumanize Black men and women in this country.  So what do we call preborn children.  A wanted preborn child is called a “baby” — “look at the ultrasound of my baby” — but an unwanted preborn child is never a baby, but is often referred to as a “parasite”, “blob of cells”, “products of conception”, etc.

These are all true historical facts.  Stating facts is not mud-slinging.

Of course, these facts have relevance only if the preborn child is a living human being, but science tells us that the preborn child is both human (not a pig, cow, or horse) and alive (not dead, but growing).  So can anyone tell us why it OK to decapitate and dismember some human beings and not others?  And what criteria is appropriate to decide which human beings may be decapitated and dismembered and which may not?

by Jacqueline Hawkins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by Jacqueline Hawkins

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

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

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

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

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

Media Coverage:

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

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

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

by Jacqueline Hawkins

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

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

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

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

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

Mixed reactions to one powerful truth at UNC Wilmington.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

Here are an assortment of reactions and comments in response to GAP at UNC Wilmington, ranging from the heartwarming, to the disturbing, to the downright ridiculous.

Tolerant and loving.  Three students walked by and one said, “This is so embarrassing — to call abortion genocide.”  Jane Bullington chimed in and asked, “What would you call one million deaths a year?”  To that, the tolerant, loving student embraced diversity by saying, “Don’t talk to me, or you might get assaulted.”

Determined father.  A 19-year-old father of a pre-born child had his resolve strengthened by the pictures.  “My girlfriend is pregnant,” he told Jane.  “It will be hard but we will not do this.”  Jane spent a long time speaking with the young man.  While both have supportive families, they didn’t plan on being parents so early.  He was very nervous but also very grateful that Jane just listened to him and gave him encouragement.

Informed voter.  A young Republican told us after a long conversation, “I am asking a lot of questions because I need to vote appropriately.”  Music to our ears!  That is one of our goals.  We save babies in the here and now, but we also work to prevent future killing by helping Americans ask questions and “vote appropriately.”

Paradoxical or hypocritical?  A young woman made the standard battle cry, “It’s my body!”  But then she followed up with the paradoxical, “You should be ashamed of yourself!”  Not sure how that works.  Weren’t we displaying abortion photos with our own bodies?

Where have the gentlemen gone?  A male student started cussing Jane Bullington out, calling her a piece of you-know-what over and over.  He left after about ten minutes and Jane kept her cool the entire time.  Half an hour later, he came back and told her that while he didn’t agree with Jane, he respected how she willingly took his abuse.  He decided to consider what Jane told him.  Nice.

Forming personal convictions.  A young woman was starting to formulate her own opinions instead of relying on her parents.  She told volunteer Christy McKinney that during a recent sorority meeting, the co-eds were asked to raise their hands if they had an abortion.  She was surprised by the number of hands that went up.  We gave her more abortion information so that the facts, along with the pictures, could properly inform her opinions.

Idiocy gets folks killed.  One student insisted that abortion was perfectly okay because sex wasn’t enjoyable after pregnancy and birth.  Well I guess that’s the logical conclusion when you are willing to kill your children to preserve your sex life.

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

Open-area location allowed many ECU students to look, see, and know.

Here are some gems we found at East Carolina University:

Impressed upper classman.  “This is the best thing I have seen on campus in all four years!” said an ECU senior.  Here, here!

Brother-in-arms.  Pro-life activists often share their own stories with us.  A man who frequently walks and prays scripture around campus thanked us for being there.  In the 1970s, soon after Roe v Wade, he used laminated abortion victim images to do his own pro-life activism.  Many Christians and pro-lifers told him to tone it down, but he said “No way!”  He’s our kind of man.

Too much or just enough?  One student told us it was “too much”… at first.  But after speaking with our Jane Bullington, he said, “I see what you are doing and respect your right to do it.”  That was nice but the kicker was: “And yes, if this had just been a pamphlet you handed out, I would not be talking to you.”  Exactly.  Boy, our job would be so much easier if all we did was pass out pamphlets!  But that doesn’t get the work done.  That doesn’t engage the pro-aborts, fence-sitters, and even pro-lifers in a way that makes them want to come and hash it out.

Several African American students were touched by the pictures. Many of them spoke with Jane Bullington:

Look. See. Stop. Help.  “I didn’t want to look, but I had to look,” she said.  Jane asked her if she considered herself pro-life.  She did.  Jane replied, “Then I am glad you looked because when we realize how evil it is we will step into someone’s life and say, “Don’t.  I will help you.”

The “but” gets folks killed.  Another co-ed said, “They are little human beings.  I wouldn’t, but …”  The word “but” in this case is deadly, so Jane gently explained slavery “choice.”  A lightbulb went off!  “Well when you put it like that, I have just changed my mind.  I understand what you are saying.”

Big and tall, small and frail.  A big and tall young man was taken aback by the smallness and frailty of his fellow citizens.  “Wow! I had no that this is what abortion was.  They are so tiny!  And that is a hand!”

Need to see. “It’s gruesome,” she said.  “I didn’t know how developed it is so early. People do need to see.  Maybe they will make different decisions.”  It’s sentiments like that that will help to save the black community from pre-natal annihilation.

Conflicted to concluding.  Another young woman was not so sure as her schoolmate.  “It’s hard to look at, but I’m conflicted because it’s a woman’s body.”  However as she spoke to Jane, she began to understand that it was another’s body and it was murder.  “Abortion is a hard topic that people don’t want to talk about,” she said, “but we need to.”

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

GAP produces victories at every school.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

Here are a few gems from Georgia Southern University.

People need to see.  A female student was glad we were there, “I know the facts and while this is hard to see, I am glad you are here.  People need to know what the word means.”  Exactly.  People need to connect the dots.

Revulsion. A male student exclaimed, “Disgusting. How can people do that?”  The pictures are making more and more people ask that same question.

She looked like the picture.  An administrator came by and told us that while she was pro-life and abortion was never an option, she had never seen or realized that abortion was so atrocious.  “Startling,” she said.  “I have a 21 year old who was born at 24 weeks, and she looked like the picture you have on your poster.”  GAP connects the dots for pro-aborts, fence-sitters and pro-lifers alike.

Power of the pictures. In the Statesboro Herald, the journalist Scott Bryant wrapped it all up nicely when he said, “Photographs have the power to make us smile, laugh and remember the times of our lives.  They also have the power to challenge our assertions and confront our worst fears. And sometimes they have the power to offend our sensibilities and tastes.”  And when people start questioning why something offends their sensibilities and tastes, they start to connect dots and see that maybe things aren’t quite right.

A quiet campus, but a productive GAP.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

Columbus State University yielded several gems during GAP.  Here are just a few:

Horror brought to light.  A mother with two sons came to our display.  “Everything that is in my head is what I see in these pictures.  Thank you for doing this.”  She said she couldn’t conceive a third child and would love to adopt.

Potentially on chopping block.  She was a young woman born to a 16 year old mother 20 years prior — that could have ended very badly for both her and her mother if the abortion industry had anything to do with it.  She knew all the facts, including the one that said that human life begins at fertilization.  She was very pro-life and glad that we were there!

Shades of gray to black and white.  A male student was conflicted at first.  “It’s a reality. I wish it were not.  The human condition is more gray than white and black,” he asserted.  But after looking at the pictures for a while, he was more inclined to see abortion as a black and white issue.  Imagine thinking that slavery was a “gray” issue.  But of course, at the time, many people saw it that way.

Staggering numbers. A female student on the softball team told us: “I am pro-life but I had no idea about the numbers.  I am glad you are here.  If I can do something I want to.”  Gratitude and a call to action!

Decades of pain. A female faculty member told us, “I’m so glad you are here.  Folks don’t know what they are doing.  Fifty-year-old friends of mine still hurt.  It goes much deeper than people realize.”  And that is what we are trying to show them.

Spread the truth.  One young man asked, “Can I have a brochure? I want to show my bio-ethics professor.”  The pictures are like the ripples in a pond.  They spread by way of friends, co-workers, professors, and family.

Hypocritical country.  A male student told the ABC news affiliate during GAP, “It makes me sick to think that even though these images are out there — and I’m sure there’s plenty of other people who have seen them before — that it’s still allowed.  We stop genocides overseas, we stop genocides everywhere else, but we allow one right here.  It’s a little scary.”  Amen.

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

Men and women gain strength from receiving truth at Fayetteville State University.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

Our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) always makes a special impact on students.  For some, it is a baby saved.  For others, it is hope and healing that comes only from confession and repentance.

Another baby saved.  “This is so ironic that you are talking to me, that this exhibit is here, and that you have asked me about this.  This is a divine appointment!  I am in this situation right now.  My girlfriend is pregnant and we go back and forth on what to do.  Thank you.”  Nuff said.

Manning up.  When asked about his thoughts, a young man replied, “Well I did this (abortion), so it’s hard to look at.  But I have to deal with it…”  Here is a young man confessing and taking responsibility for his actions.

Hope and healing.  A young woman also realized the gravity of her actions.  After speaking with volunteer Marie Bastone for awhile, she confirmed that she was post-abortive.  At the time, she felt abortion was the only way.  Her father is a very pro-life minister and she was embarrassed to be pregnant.  However, after seeing GAP, she realized that she had rushed into abortion without thinking.  She was starting to accept what she had done.  Here is a strong woman honestly facing herself and her actions.  It’s the first step to healing.

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

Beth Fox and I exhort Liberty students to be pro-life with their actions as well as their thoughts.

by Kendra Wright

Who needs to see abortion photos?  Everyone?  Even those that are already pro-life?

Absolutely.

This point can seem confusing.  If you already believe something, you don’t need to be convinced of it.  Right?

Yet, it is clear that Christians are doing almost nothing to stop the killing in the culture.  They are even killing their own children at staggering rates.  One in five women who abort identifies herself as a born-again or evangelical Christian.

Secular universities devote massive resources to training advocates for the abortion industry, but Christian universities like Liberty University have zero training programs to prepare Christians students for the pro-life mission field.  Zip, zero, nada.

In fact, Liberty has even forbidden pro-life students from displaying abortion victim photos on campus.

It is a tragedy every time a savable baby at Liberty is killed by abortion.  But CBR is working to change all that.

Beth Fox is one Liberty student who is willing to stand up and be counted.  On several occasions, Beth, (CBR Project Director) Maggie Egger, and I have stood in front of the Liberty library with a sign showing an abortion victim photo.  The sign first asks if Jesus would use a bloody picture, then answers that question with a picture of the Crucifixion.

Many student studied this sign and discussed it with their friends as they walked by.  Two students that gave us a thumbs up.

As we were packing up to leave, a professor came up and asked why we were there.  He wasn’t against the use of the pictures, but he was confused about their use at Liberty.  He asked, “But why are you here on a Christian campus?  Isn’t everybody here already pro-life?”

Maggie stopped him with her reply, “Are they doing anything about it?”

Good question.  The pictures challenge Christian complacency.

Kendra Wright is a CBR project director and a regular FAB contributor.

This Liberty student is hungry … but, for what? His answer may not be as creepy as it seems.  Read on to find out why.

by Nicole W. Cooley

I got my first collegiate baseball cap at Liberty University in August 2011.

But at Liberty, we weren’t actually on the campus.  Despite requests by Student Government and CBR, the Liberty Administration repeatedly denied permission for our GAP display.  First Amendment rights don’t exist at private schools.

That is very creepy, I thought.  But then I saw the fine print at the bottom of his sign.

But we came anyway.  We used the streets, sidewalks, and public spaces just off campus.  We displayed GAP signs at the campus entrances and drove Truth Trucks around the perimeter of campus.  Five Truth Trucks.  For an entire week.

I lost count how many times students asked me, “Why are you here?  Everyone at Liberty is pro-life already.  Why don’t you go somewhere else?”  Many were annoyed at our presence.

Over and over I replied, “I’m so glad you are pro-life.  What are you doing about it?  Do you vote pro-life?  Do you sidewalk counsel outside of abortion clinics?  We’re here because you are attending the largest Christian university in the United States.  If we can’t get Christians to care about abortion, we have no hope of ending it.”

One conversation stood out.  On the fourth day, a young man came up to me in tears.  “Why are you doing this?  I can’t get those pictures out of my head!”

I gently replied to him in the same way as I did the others, “We had to break your heart about abortion – otherwise you’d continue in ignorant apathy like the rest of America.”

On the last day at Liberty, we finally got a protester … or so I thought.  A student stood along the side of the road with his sign which read, “Looking at dead babies just makes me hungry.”

That is very creepy, I thought.  But then I saw the fine print at the bottom of his sign, “…for change.”  Because he saw the pictures, he was hungry for change.

Amen!  So are we.

Nicole Cooley is a CBR project director and a FAB contributor.  This is the second in a series of “hat blogs” about memorable conversations gleaned from her experiences with GAP.

This public space near the bookstore allowed CBR to overcome the Liberty University’s censorship of the pro-life message.

“You all are a bunch of racists for comparing abortion to slavery!”

The accusation is almost comical.  We hear it all the time from students who have no better argument for decapitating and dismembering little human beings.

But of course, we didn’t invent the comparison.  Long before there was a CBR, Jesse Jackson compared abortion to racial injustice.  He must have been a racist.

As it turns out, Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson has also equated abortion with slavery.  He must be a racist, too!

.

by Nicole W. Cooley

At the Shenandoah Valley Soap Box Derby, a complete stranger asked, “Did you go to Tennessee?”

He seemed really excited about my orange Tennessee hat.  I hated to disappoint him, but “No, my boss did.”

Furrowed eyebrows.

I continued, “I am a pro-life activist.  We travel all over the country with our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), and I always get a hat from each campus.”

Who knew a simple baseball cap could spark a conversation about abortion with a complete stranger?

… he carefully dismantled each [fallacy] in a patient way, not acting superior, but as if he were merely suggesting another way to look at it.

I’ve been a collector all my life.  I collected Longaberger baskets for years.  I still buy a new basket on occasion, but at over 200 baskets, I’m pretty satisfied there.

As a child, I collected rocks from the different places we lived.  We were a military family that traveled all over the world, so I have lots of rocks, including some neat limestone from England and large round rocks from a beach in Scotland.

But of all my collections, my current one is the most meaningful to me.  You see, every hat has a story.

At the University of Tennessee, I spoke at length with a student who used to be pro-life, but changed her mind in college.  Veteran pro-life apologist Mick Hunt took the lead.  I call him “the philosopher” because he’s great at talking with students who are wrestling with higher-level questions.  Her struggles centered around “bodily autonomy” arguments like the “famous violinist” who could be saved by an unwilling kidney donor.  We sat on the grassy knoll across from the display for over an hour.

Mick gently explained how a mother’s relationship to her own child is different from a person being forced to offer his kidney to a complete stranger.  I took note of his probing questions to specifically identify the fallacies in her thinking.  I also saw how he carefully dismantled each one in a patient way, not acting superior, but as if he were merely suggesting another way to look at it.

I’m not sure if that young lady is pro-life today or not. But, I do know she must have wrestled with the things we talked about for some time.  Most people are not solidly pro-life without having first wrestled a bit.

For most people, being pro-life or pro-abortion is a continuum; few are truly 100% pro-life or pro-abortion.  Most get hung up somewhere along the line because of those pesky “exceptions” to the rules.  They struggle with the idea of telling a rape victim she should carry to term or with preventing abortion in the case of fetal abnormalities.  That’s why GAP is such a great tool for college campuses.  We help students wrestle with the hard questions.  We challenge the status quo of their own opinions.  We put pebbles in their shoes and force them to think.

After watching Mick Hunt at work, I vowed to be ready next time.  I went home and studied the bodily autonomy arguments in depth.  At the next GAP, I would be ready to plant a few pebbles of my own.

Nicole Cooley is a CBR project director and a new FAB contributor.  This is the first in a series of “hat blogs” about memorable conversations gleaned from her experiences with GAP.

Diana Jimenez speaks with a student at Cal State Long Beach.

The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) returned to California State University Long Beach (CSULB) in April, hosted by the Catholic Newman Club.  What a rare thrill to work with a Christian group with the courage of their convictions!

Media coverage:

• CSULB Catholics bring pro-life advocates to campus
• Bio-Ethical Reform should not be allowed to display graphic photos for its anti-abortion campaign on campus
• Letter to the editor: Genocide Awareness Project
• Letter from the editor: the ‘Genocide Awareness Project’
• Letter to the editor: Ban the Abortion Fort

Notable responses:

“Our goal is to get them banned from campus because of how uncomfortable it makes people feel.” (Karina Sarabia, sophomore English major)  [Translation: “Messages and people who make me uncomfortable must be banned.”]

“Everyone has the right to demonstrate his or her beliefs, but … these pictures should not be displayed in the center of campus ever again.”  (Tuyen Dinh, junior journalism major)  [Translation: “The US Constitution is a living, breathing document, so we can make it mean whatever we want it to mean at the time.  My friends and I get to decide who has rights and who does not.”]

“[Their signs said], ‘Do not engage’ or ‘Want to help? Just walk away. Do not engage.’  Were they attempting to silence GAP because the pro-life side was actually making sense and was more compelling than theirs?”  (Meredith Amon, CSULB Sophomore)  [Answer:  Yes!]

“A university is a place for learning, so there is simply no excuse for the ignorance that was on display two weeks ago.”  (Ariana Sawyer, Opinions Editor)  [Translation: “Ignorance = any knowledge I wish to avoid.”]

“If the pictures are scarring and viewers are uncomfortable, wouldn’t your next thought be ‘why?’  Why the negative reactions?  There must be something disturbing about what is being photographed.  A picture is nothing but a neutral, unbiased portrayal of what is on the other side of the lens.”  (Dyanne Roper)

GAP commands the attention of all. Only by reaching the unwilling audience can we ever hope to reform culture. When the culture embraces our message, our work is done.

by Lincoln Brandenburg

Pro-life students at Western Kentucky University (WKU) were trepid about using victim images, so we brought the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) under the university’s vendor policy.

Rather than participate in GAP, they set up a free-speech board about 100 feet away, with the question “How can we help pregnant women on campus?”  According to their president, they wanted to gauge the responses of students to GAP before committing to using victim images.

We acknowledged that many students would not be thrilled about it!  But we also guaranteed that GAP would be more effective than anything else they have ever seen.

But they didn’t have to just take our word for it.  They saw it with their own eyes and heard it with their own ears.  Near the end of a fruitful first day of GAP, one of the SFL members approached.  He said, “We’ve had a lot of people tell us they changed their mind on abortion because they saw your pictures!”

During our conversation, I mentioned that the most outspoken students tend to be those who are upset by abortion victim images.  He assured me that, “Oh, the students who’ve talked to us were upset, but they realized that abortion is wrong.”  They had been upset because they realized that abortion, by it’s very nature, is upsetting.

Social reformers are never popular until after they achieve their goal.  Martin Luther King got thrown in jail.  But reformers don’t wait for the culture to approve; they act against the evils that society tolerates and celebrates.

According to Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, “Perhaps the most important principle … for the pro-life movement to adopt at this point in time, is that pro-life activity which relies on the voluntary consent of the audience is insufficient. … To put it rather bluntly, effective social reform requires forcing the message on an unwilling audience.  It means confronting the culture with what it does not want to hear.”  (Source: The Unwilling Audience)

Lincoln Brandenburg is a CBR project director and a regular FAB contributor.