Jane asked, “Where are the Christians?”

On Day 2, GAP at Auburn got really revved up.  Huge crowds came out to see the display and discuss abortion with our staff and volunteers.  Some of them even protested!  Imagine that.

Where are the Christians?   One female student was sitting on the ground, about 30 feet away, occasionally looking over at the photos, bowing her head, and reading her Bible.  Jane Bullington went over to talk.

She was a Christian, she was pro-life, and she knew abortion was wrong.  But she was worried that post-abortive women might see the signs and commit suicide.  She was genuinely upset and wanted us to pull the signs down.  Jane spoke with her at length, explaining why it is necessary for us to show the truth.  Jane told her that millions of children have died because the “pro-life” church has covered up the truth about abortion.

Jane told her that women who abort are at a much higher risk of committing suicide.  It is not us that puts them at risk; it’s the abortionist who kills her baby.  Jane explained that many, many babies’ lives have been saved by exposing the truth using graphic abortion photos.   She explained that all of our people are trained to treat people with respect, that we are all Christians who look for opportunities to share the Gospel, etc.

The young lady listened, she smiled, an occasional tear rolled down her cheek.  Jane told her that we do our best to invite Christian ministries and pastors to join us at GAP, but they almost never come.  It is just not on their agenda.  Jane asked her, “Where are the Christians on your campus?  Why aren’t they out here?”  There is no good answer to that question.  She just starred off in space for a moment and then said, “I need to go to class; thank you for talking with me.  I am going to post on my Facebook page a plea for those in my campus ministry to join me today on the concourse to pray for GAP and for our campus.”  We wonder if any did.

Media Coverage at Auburn.  The student paper came out after we had left Auburn, so we don’t know how much was in the print edition, but you can find these two items online:

• The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform is pro-life on the concourse
• Student calls for public apology from graphic display

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At our GAP presentation at Auburn, some complained that we displayed graphic photos near a day care center, where they might be seen by children.  We don’t know if the University administration notified the day care staff or not, but they had a month to do it.  Unless we show pictures in the public square, the killing will never stop.  No injustice in history has ever been eradicated by covering up the truth.

In 1997, the movie Schindler’s List was shown on network TV during the family viewing hour.  Some expressed concern that children might walk into their living rooms and see the graphic violence before parents could intervene.  Those people were laughed to scorn, “How dare they suggest that this movie shouldn’t be shown in places where children might see them?”  They even said that children ought to see this movie, so that they can prevent such an injustice from ever happening again.  That movie, by the way, was much more difficult to see than any of our abortion pictures.

We won’t submit to a double standard.  If it’s appropriate to show a violent movie so that people, even children, will understand an injustice committed in another place and time by another group of people, then it’s appropriate to show pictures of an injustice that we are commiting ourselves, right here and right now.

Additionally, horrifying images of violence are routinely published on magazine covers and on newpaper front pages.  These images are placed in checkout lines at the supermarket.  Millions of children see them.  Nobody complains about that.

We really have only two alternatives.  If we show the pictures, some children may be disturbed by them, but other children will certainly be saved by them.  We might even stop the whole bloody mess.  But if we cover up the truth, the killling will never stop.

Day 1 of our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) at Auburn was Holocaust Remembrance Day.  People always complain that we schedule GAP on that day, because they are “offended” that we would compare killing millions of preborn children with killling millions of Jews and eastern Europeans.  We don’t target any particular day; we just look for good weather days when the students are on campus.  However, we believe it is just as appropriate to show the truth about abortion on that day as much as any other day, perhaps more so.

Nazis called their victims useless eaters and non-human (rats, pigs, vermin, “untermensch,” etc.).  So the government took away their rights, experimented on them, and killed them.  Surely we could never let that happen again.

Today, abortion promoters call their victims non-human (products of conception, blob of tissue, parasite, potential life, etc.) and a burden.  The Supreme Court took away their rights.  Medical practitioners experiment on them and kill them.

Many of the same people who say “never again” will turn around and destroy their own children, for very similar reasons.  They are “offended” when we point this out.

It is easy to oppose an injustice committed by somebody else, a long time ago, an ocean away.  It is much more difficult to oppose an injustice that we ourselves are guilty of, right here and right now.

But if people still complain, we make them this offer: If the abortion clinics will shut down their deadly clinics on Holocaust Remembrance Day (or any other day), we will suspend our presentations until the clinics open back up.

Dehumanization – one of our most effective Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) panels.

A crowd gathers at Auburn University. (Click to enlarge image.)

We took our Pro-Life Training Academy (PLTA) and our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) to Auburn University earlier this month.  We had a great location on the Haley Concourse, right in front of the Student Center.  You can see the large crowd in the photo (right).  We were hosted by the Auburn Students for Life.

Converting the neutral and activating the converted.  Nicole spoke at length with a student who was marginally pro-life until we showed up.  She spent hours volunteering at the GAP display and is now on fire to do more.  She joined the Auburn Students for Life and we know we’ll see her again!

Too late.  Nicole also spoke with a young man who was obviously distraught.  She said, “You are obviously upset by what you are seeing.  Would you mind sharing with me what you are thinking?”  As it turned out, this young man had advised his sister to get an abortion, just two weeks before.  Clearly, we needed to be at Auburn last year.  In fact, we need to be on every campus every year with GAP.  Additional visits with “Choice” signs would be good, too.  Nicole, who is post-abortive herself, explained about the many physical and emotional risks that his sister now faces.  She also recommended counseling.

Abortion is not genocide … so they say.  Many people are confused about the definition of genocide and assert that abortion is not genocide.  Of course, abortion is neither murder nor genocide if the preborn is anything less than a living human being.  But if the preborn is a living human being — science and common sense tell us that the preborn is both human and alive — then abortion kills 1.2 million American human beings every year.  If not genocide, what else would we call it?

They try to say that abortion cannot be genocide because the government doesn’t perform the killing.  That’s a silly argument because (a) government leadership is not part of the definition of genocide, and (b) the US government actually pays for a lot of abortions and will, under ObamaCare, pay for all of them.

There is no one definition of genocide.  In our years of studying this crime, we have identified three different classes of definitions: general, legal, and scholarly.  Within each category are literally hundreds of definitions.  We use the definition of genocide embodied in the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 96, which defines genocide as “a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings….”  Resolution 96 goes on to say genocide is a crime “whether committed on religious, racial, political or any other grounds …” (emphasis added).  With abortion, the “entire human group” denied the right of existence is unwanted, preborn children.