At Virginia Tech, a male student asked what should a couple do if they can’t financially provide for a child.  We talked about community resources and adoption options.  We talked about adopted children who are thankful to be alive.  He was visibly moved, we wondered if he is the father of a pregnant woman’s child.

It occurred to me that our culture is telling young people two contradictory things.

First, they hear a steady stream of flattering remarks about how smart they are.  Stuff like, “You are the smartest group of students ever to attend this university.”  Teenagers already believe they are much smarter than everybody else.  That’s part of being a teenager, but this generation believes they are smarter than George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

On the other hand, they believe themselves to be so weak and helpless, they can’t possibly take care of themselves, much less take care of their own children.  It has never occurred to them that parents less well-educated and less wealthy than themselves have been raising children for thousands of years.

This kind of thinking is the staple of the political party who promises to (1) provide for their every need, and (2) preserve their the right to kill their own children.  If people figure out that they are plenty strong enough to take care of themselves and their children, the party of dependency and death would become less relevant.

GAP is a venue for Christians to openly share truth.

Sometimes we focus so much on the antics of those who oppose us, we forget to report on the many pro-life students who support our presence on campus.  They are so thankful that they are not alone.

“Thank you!  I am glad you are here!”

“I’m glad those other students [finally] have something to be upset about.”

“If you support this, why don’t you want the advertisement?”

“Why are these people saying you should leave campus?  It is just [the truth]!”

“These are just pictures.  If you are upset, that’s good.”

“This is stirring up conversation; this is good.”  (Christian dining hall employee)

Young Christians believe the truth (at some level), but they don’t know how to answer the full-frontal assault that is the atheistic campus culture.  The modern church has never taught them how to articulate and defend the Christian Faith with logic and reason, so they fear the Faith is illogical and unreasonable.  What a tragedy.

The most effective evangelical organization on campus is often the College Republicans, because those kids know how to articulate the truth without fear.

The two biggest threats to our children … your children … are Dawinism and abortion.  Darwinism is an assault on the intellect; abortion is an assault on the flesh.  Yet the typical evangelical church (e.g., your church) does almost nothing to address these threats.

For example, have the youth at your church seen the movie, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed?”  No?  That’s a scandal.  And if you have never watched it yourself, that’s a scandal, too.

Anyway, the intellectual needs of young Christians has been ignored by the modern church, but when we show up with GAP, they don’t feel so alone.

Debbie Picarello set up a table for Deeper Still, a post-abortion counseling ministry, at Virginia Tech. She is able to reach many people who will not walk over to the GAP display itself.

She was a student at Virginia Tech.  She was 23, post-abortive, divorced, and has a toddler and a new boyfriend.  She joined the protest against GAP.  She has lived hard and experienced a lot.

She came from a Christian background and was pro-life until she aborted her first child and walked away from the faith.  She does not regret her abortion and is thankful she had it.  She wouldn’t look at the pictures while we talked.

After 45 minutes she finally said “Ok, I now get what you are saying about a woman’s autonomous body and the baby’s autonomous body.  They don’t share the same DNA and the baby is not a part of her body.  I am really struggling now.”  We gave her some literature about prenatal development.  She thanked us and said, “I am now interested in reading about this.”

Here is the question that keeps us awake at night …

What if her pro-life pastor had understood/cared enough about her salvation and her baby to show her the truth about abortion?

Why didn’t he show her an abortion video (e.g., Choice Blues) before she shed innocent blood and ran away from Jesus.

Hearts and minds were changing all around the GAP display at Virginia Tech. Seeds were planted for future conversions.

Here are a few stories from GAP at Virginia Tech.

Almost did that to my son.  A 40+ year old housekeeping staff was crying as she stared at the 22-week abortion picture.  When asked if she was OK, she replied “I almost did that to my now 27-year old son.  Thank you for being here.   I will take a brochure back to women I work with.”

Pro-choice support for GAP.  Even pro-choice students sometimes agree that women can have real choice only if they are fully informed.  One pro-choice female student said, “Talking to you has helped me realize that pro-lifers are not what I thought they were.  I was so angry because my roommate was angry about this display and so I had to come out to see for myself.  I am so glad I talked with you.  You are much friendlier than your pictures.  Education on this topic is so important and even though I am still pro-choice, I want women to have all the information available to them.”

Another pro-choice endorsement.  A female student: “I know why you do this; I just don’t like it.”

Too big, too horrific to ignore.  The purpose of GAP is to force people to think about abortion when they would rather think about anything else.  Our opponents admit that GAP works.  One pro-abortion student told us, “Because of social networking across campuses, this message has not only reached Virginia Tech, but has gone far beyond.  Facebook is abuzz about abortion and people on this campus plus many others are talking about abortion now.”

Bad emotions?  A male student commented about the sadness of giving up a child for adoption.  We told him that parents might very well feel sad to give up a child, but that is a much better emotion than the sadness and memory of killing their own child.

CBR volunteer Laurice Baddour explains how genocide victims are denied rights of personhood.

GAP made it’s first appearance ever at Virginia Tech University on March 27-28, where we were hosted by the Advocates for Life (AFL).

Because you support CBR, Virginia Project Directors Maggie Egger and Nicole Cooley encouraged and trained AFL President Zach Hoopes and others to expose abortion at Virginia Tech, and they formed AFL for just that purpose.

CBR’s Pro-Life Training Academy prepared students to articulate and defend the pro-life position.

There was a slight hiccup in the final day or two before GAP.  A key member of AFL resigned from the group, which almost caused a delay.  Fortunately, we were able to complete the project as scheduled.

Media coverage:

• Drillfield display goes too far
• Anti-abortion campaign causes controversy in front of Dietrick
• Editorial: Free speech must remain considerate
• The aftermath of activism
• Letter to the editor: Abortion display necessary

More to come!

Our location on the Drillfield guaranteed a steady stream of student passersby.