Posts Tagged ‘North Carolina State University’
Gems at North Carolina State University
by Jacqueline Hawkins
Despite the mayonnaise a pro-abort student smeared over one of our signs, there were some real gems that appeared throughout the two days we brought GAP to North Carolina State University.
Chastity and purity. A young black woman told Jane she and her boyfriend have mutually agreed their bodies belong to the Lord, and their physical relationship will comprise only hand-holding until marriage. She has turned down many Christian young men as dating partners because they could not see anything wrong with kissing and whatever that led to.
Hard, but softened by friends. A male and female student were sitting near the display. Jane watched them for a couple of minutes and thought she saw them praying. Jane walked over and asked if they had questions or comments. She asked if they had, indeed, been praying for us. “Yes, we were. We are here to spread Jesus on our campus and we wanted to pray for you guys.” The young woman’s last comment was, “Being a Christian is the hardest thing I have ever done.” It is, but it is made easier by praying friends.
No choices for her. “I am a single mom. I have a 13-year-old and a 2-year-old. When I got pregnant 3 years ago, as an educated, upwardly mobile black woman with tenure on this campus, I got no support for my decision to keep my baby. Two different faculty members asked me, ‘Can I take you to get it taken care of?’ and ‘What are you going to do with it?’ There was no ‘choice’ for me unless my choice was theirs as well.”
Spared from gendercide. A student from India told the story of his very blessed mother. “My mom grew up in a rural village in India where baby girls were thrown down into a well in order to kill them. My mom was spared because our family had a little more money apparently. She used to play by that well. She didn’t know until she was an adult who was inside. Years later, an Indian man, educated in America where he also made a lot of money, returned to that small village and built a school just for girls. Times are changing in rural India but it is slow.” He pointed to the pictures and said, “This is horrible as well.”
Grab-n-go info. “So what if the woman is raped?” asked a male student. CBR volunteer acknowledged the horror of rape and gave our standard answer. “OK, what if the woman’s life is in danger?” Patti answered with our script about having two patients [mother and child] that we may or may not be able to save. “Got it! Thanks” He kept moving. No argument! No questioning my sources! No extreme examples and exceptions! He made Patti’s day!
Wisdom through pain. Jane and I spoke to a very nice married couple when they came by during their lunch break. They thanked us for being there. “People need to see this,” the husband said. He was a librarian at the NC State library. The wife had an abortion years ago, after her daughter was diagnosed with a disease. Her daughter would have been in her late teens by now. Now the couple has trouble conceiving. The wife sagely asserted that you never know what the future holds. You need to treasure the children you are blessed with now, regardless of your situation, because you may not be able to have more in the future. This is especially true after an abortion. We directed the wife to the Deeper Still table to learn more about post abortion counseling and retreats. They were good people that God will hopefully bless with more children one day.
Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.
The curious case of Egg Boy
by Jacqueline Hawkins
We don’t know his name … so we’ll just call him Egg Boy (not to be confused with Humpty Dumpty). At NC State, Egg Boy tried to champion the pro-abortion cause with a raw egg.
“I tell you, chemically speaking, there is no difference between this 2-week-old chicken fetus and a 2-week-old human fetus,” he declared resolutely, again and again.
In his hand was an unfertilized chicken egg (not even a chick-in-a-shell), so it was hard to figure out just what his vehement, triumphantly-stated argument was.
So I finally had to tell him and his approving friends, “Sir, at the end of the day, that chicken fetus will grow up, have it’s head chopped off, turned into chicken tenders, and served at the Chick-fil-A right over there. Meanwhile, the human fetus will grow up, become a student at NC State, and eat the former chicken fetus-turned-tenders. Does that answer your question?”
With that, Mr. Egg Boy scratched his head and looked dubiously at his visual aid. “I don’t know … I’m not really sure why I have this anymore …” At least he was honest.
Egg Boy was stumped. But, if at first you don’t succeed, …
So Egg Boy took his visual aid and tried again. He was so confident that his new angle would deliver a glorious victory, he brought his own camera(phone) man. He would be a YouTube star!
Holding up the egg, he asked CBR volunteer Patti Shanley, “Can you eat this human fetus?”
“That’s not a human fetus; that’s a chicken egg.” Patti is pretty smart for a pro-lifer.
“How do you know this isn’t a fetus? Wouldn’t you have to open it up and kill it to find out?” The phone was brought closer and closer, to record the overwhelming domination of this intellectual giant over the mentally-deficient pro-life bigot.
“Seriously? You’re a student at NC State and you are asking me if this chicken egg could possibly be a human fetus? Is that the best you have? I’m disappointed.”
“But, but, couldn’t this be a fetus?” he insisted.
“No, it couldn’t, but I think you should take it to the agriculture school and ask someone over there. I’d love to see the look on that professor’s face when you ask.”
Foiled again! “Stop recording!” Egg Boy commanded.
With that, he slinked away. We actually saw Egg Boy the next day. He rode by on his skateboard … no egg and no arguments.
He is actually smarter than many of his peers. He at least knew his argument had been beaten.
Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.
Pro-Life On Campus at North Carolina State University
by Jacqueline Hawkins
North Carolina State University student Aubrey Griffin is a pro-life all-star! The industrious young woman is the President of the NCSU Students for Life (SFL). Having seen how effective GAP was when we came in 2014, she and her comrades brought us back for an encore performance.
Both days were filled with intellectual discussion and debate. There was a pro-abort protest group, but they seemed rather halfhearted about the whole thing. Their presence, although perfunctory, brought even more attention to the pictures!
I love it when a plan comes together!
Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.
Conceived in rape: Should it be a death sentence at North Carolina State?
by Maggie Egger
I’d been dealing with protesters and administrators all morning — not sure which is worse, sometimes — but things had quieted down a bit. I was finally ready to engage a few students, so I went over to our free speech board. It is a low-stress place they can write whatever they want without fear of confrontation, but we can often use their comments as springboards for dialogue.
I saw a young woman writing on the board, so I casually walked over to see what she was writing and to possibly start a conversation. What I saw next moved me. She was writing furiously fast, right in the middle of the board. I discreetly looked over her shoulder to read her comments, expecting to see some justification for abortion, a rant about women’s rights, or whatever. Instead, I discovered this:
People say they shouldn’t have to give birth to conceptions of rape. As a probable conception of rape writing this, I feel discriminated against, as if my life is worth less than everyone else’s. You don’t have to raise a child of rape, ADOPTION IS AN OPTION! You would not believe how thankful my parents are that I was not aborted, but given to them, a couple who were not able to conceive.
As soon as she finished writing, before I had a chance to speak with her, she walked away. Honestly though, I don’t know what else she could have said that she hadn’t already.
Not long after that, I was standing near the poll table when a young man came up to answer “Yes” to our poll question “Should abortion remain legal?” I asked him why he thought that.
His main argument was that it’s a woman’s choice to make, and therefore it has to be legal, regardless of her justifications. We started discussing some of those justifications and soon another young man joined our conversation. He said he was pro-life, except in the case of rape.
I said to him, “You have to be careful when you start making exceptions to who has a right to life. There are people on this campus, your fellow students, who were conceived in rape and you have effectively just told them ‘I wouldn’t care if your mothers had killed you before you were born,’ simply because of circumstances outside of their control. Have you thought about that?”
I walked them over to the free speech board and showed them what the woman had written earlier. I could see the wheels turning, turning. The “pro-life” student started to look a little guilty. The pro-choice student said, “Yeah, maybe some of the reasons women get abortions aren’t that valid after all.”
I have always said that abortion can be justified only when necessary to save the mother’s life. However, I have still found the case of rape to be one of the hardest questions to answer satisfactorily. People get so focused on the woman being the victim and easing her pain, they just can’t see the other victim who needs their compassion and love. They can’t imagine “forcing” the woman to do anything else she doesn’t wholeheartedly agree to (i.e. carrying a pregnancy to term).
That day at NC State helped me realize what the problem is, for some. They want to help the victim, but they don’t realize that they are actively creating more victims, in two ways. First, they are condoning a woman’s choice to destroy her unborn child based on how the child was conceived. Second, they are victimizing those born people conceived in rape whose mothers chose not to kill them, by saying their lives are less valuable.
Sadly, most college students in America have a personal experience with rape, whether it was themselves or their classmates. They can relate to those victims. But how many of them have a personal experience with someone who is a “conception of rape”? They can’t relate, because they don’t see the face of the second victim. GAP brings those faces out into the open.
Maggie Egger is a CBR Project Director and FAB contributor. She served as site manager for CBR’s Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) at North Carolina State University in April 2014.
Half the Battle is Just Showing Up
by Mick Hunt
Fall is coming and classes have begun at the major universities in the United States and Canada. Which means it’s the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) season again. I hope you will consider joining the team for the GAP nearest you. At least come out to observe. There’s a need for every kind of personality and set of interests and abilities.
We just need to show up, and that’s where we fail most often.
Some people are really good at speaking to crowds. Fletcher Armstrong is one of the best at this. Every group that gathers becomes his class and he is the professor. Stephanie Grey of CBR Canada is best at give and take in a crowd. I prefer the one-on-one, off-script, creative, philosophical discussion.
All of us struggle with the angry, bright, loud, combative student or professor. Sometimes the most you can do is listen, and let the pictures speak for themselves. I enjoy talking or debating with really smart people, and invariably they know more about certain subjects than I do, in which case I’m usually quiet while listening and asking questions. I look at these times as an opportunity to learn.
The one thing that makes it all easier is the fact that our position is right. We represent truth, fact, and reason. And no matter how smart or educated you are, no matter how polished your PhD looks, or how many peer-reviewed publications you have, or how many academic honors you’ve received, if you are trying to defend the indefensible, you will have a hard time, especially if you believe too many things that aren’t true. We pro-lifers, on the other hand, win the debate without saying a word. We just need to show up, and that’s where we fail most often. Very few pro-life people are involved when needed (or as often).
Showing up. Let me tell you about a classic confrontation during our Genocide Awareness Project at North Carolina State University (NCSU) last spring.
I was standing at the corner of the GAP display nearest the student center where most of the traffic was. Between me and the main walking lane was a line of pro-abortion-choice students holding signs. All of a sudden someone started shouting. He was a rather nice looking student with a clear baritone voice in an Australian accent. He had been talking with one of the GAP volunteers, another man about my age. Something apparently ticked the student off, which set him hurling insults at the volunteer.
He then said, “Who’s in charge here, who is the mastermind? Who can answer my questions?”
He then shouted a few of the usual derogatory remarks about GAP. A few people around cheered.
True, he was angry, but he obviously was clear-headed, fearless, and bright. Capable of sarcastic, winsome insight. I was intimidated. So, when he looked directly at me and asked loudly if I was the mastermind, I was relieved when an attractive girl just then spoke to me out of the blue from my left when I had been looking toward the commotion on the right. She had asked a question, an easy one. So, I was saved from being drawn into a public spectacle in which I had a clear disadvantage. No way I could look good and respond to this guy in front of a crowd. I just can’t yell and be winsome.
Things quieted down and I took a break and sat on a brick wall away from the action. Then I noticed our Australian friend was talking quietly with Starla, a pro-life acquaintance of mine from Asheville. I joined them just as the young man asked her about the classic “Famous Violinist” thought-experiment of Judith Jarvis Thomson, the scenario taught in every introductory liberal rhetoric class.
In a few moments I could tell Starla wasn’t prepared for this question, and I joined in. She left after a minute. (She said later it was fine for me to butt in.) Then I talked with the young man for the next hour. It turned out that he had been a war paramedic in Afghanistan and had seen more than his share of blood, death, and mangled bodies. Also, he said his mother was strongly pro-life and had often debated with him about abortion. So, he was good at this.
I believe (for the reasons given above) I won the debate. He could only assert but not defend his claim that it’s OK to kill a prenatal child and not OK to kill a born child, but he wouldn’t admit it, of course. His argument was built around “agency” or the mother’s right to “bodily integrity”, which means a woman is morally permitted to repel a person who “invades” her body, even if the person is her own child whose very existence came into being by the child’s mother’s actions, actions which are by nature those bringing people into existence. And even if society ordinarily places a burden on parents, even unwilling parents, to either provide for a child or safely turn the child over to another agent.
My conclusion was to say his position was “brutal”. He said it wasn’t, and basically that’s where we ended the debate. If a person can’t see how it is brutal to kill a child in the womb when looking at the photographs of brutally killed children, I don’t know what else to say. My conversation with him took place on our first day we were at NCSU, and I saw him again the second day when we spoke again briefly.
At least I gave him an amicable, cogent presentation, but conversations like this point out the price we are paying for 47 years of legal child killing by abortion since 1967. The brutality of it isn’t so raw anymore. Over time, some people have become so accustomed to the violence that they don’t believe it is violence. Which is all the more reason to reach as many people as possible as soon as possible before it’s too late to turn things around.
So, we need to show up. We need to stand and talk.
Mick Hunt is a regular contributor to FAB.
Pro Life on Campus at North Carolina State
North Carolina State University (NCSU) Students for Life (SFL) hosted the Pro-Life Training Academy (PLTA) and the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) earlier in April.
Teresa Pincus, President of NSCU SFL, is an effective leader and we expect great things from her in the years to come.
CBR Virginia Project Director Maggie Egger served as Site Manager for this and all of the GAPs this Spring. We are thrilled to see Maggie and others young people stepping forward to lead the next generation of pro-lifers, the generation that will win!
Media coverage:
- Letter from Mick Hunt before GAP
- Response to Mick’s letter
- Abortion display provokes protest
- Genocide Awareness Project: A lost cause
- One last thought about the Genocide Awareness Project
- All the best intentions
Do not be discouraged at the tone of the items printed in the NC State student newspaper. Remember what Mahatma Ghandi said:
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
They are fighting us.
More to come!