Fletcher's Blog

I think this is pretty funny:

One of our wonderful supporters asked me how to respond to people who excused themselves from doing even the smallest thing to stop the killing (e.g, attend a pro-life event or contribute financially) by saying that ”everybody has a different calling” or “it’s just one of many causes.”  I suggested she might respond this way:

10-week (1st-trimester) hand on quarter

Regarding my request that you help with a pro-life activity that I am planning, you responded by saying that “not everyone has the same calling and that this is just one good cause out of many that you might help.” In addressing these statements, I need to ask you if you believe that every abortion kills a human baby? If not, then please say so because I don’t want to waste your time or mine. But if you agree every abortion kills a baby, then our nation is killing 1.2 million children every year. Do you really believe that stopping a Holocaust of this magnitude is just “one of many causes”? Can any Christian really do nothing at all?

There is some truth in your statement that God calls different people to different ministries. However, what would we say about a German Christian who did nothing to obey God’s commandment to protect and deliver the helpless being led away to slaughter (Proverbs 24: 11-12)? We might give that person a break, because for him, doing something might have meant execution.  But what would we think of Germans who claimed to be Christian and did nothing to help stop the killing of Jews, if we knew it wouldn’t have been personally dangerous? I think we might have asked the same question that Martin Luther King, Jr. asked when he reflected on White Southerners who did nothing to stop racism.  Dr. King asked ” What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices …?”

What do we say about the Priest and the Levite who passed the robbery victim on the side of the road (Luke 10-30-37)? I have heard many sermons on this parable, but never have I heard any pastor excuse the Priest and Levite by saying that perhaps they “had a different calling.”

What would we say of the person who saw a child drowning in a neighbor’s swimming pool and responded by saying, “I have never felt called by God to save drowning children, and it is, after all, only one of many good deeds I might do today.”

I am not trying to rearrange your life. But I am asking that you do something important for me. [What comes next depends on what you want the person to do.]

• [Help with a project:] If you agree that abortion kills a human baby, I am asking for a few hours of your time. Your small investment in this project will save babies that would otherwise be killed.  Because a real baby’s life is at stake, I am compelled to ask you to reconsider and assist me with this project. Specifically, I want you to … (summarize the request). May I call you tomorrow?
• [Financial assistance:] If you agree that abortion kills a human baby, I am asking you to consider a small monthly financial commitment to help stop the killing. If you have cable TV, I wonder if you would consider a monthly gift equal to your cable TV bill. But any amount will save babies’ lives if it is offered regularly (monthly). May I call you tomorrow?

What do you think?  Would this change anybody?  Did it change you?  If so, please click here!

18-yr-old Aisha on the cover of Time

Time Magazine has actually endorsed CBR/ProLifeOnCampus tactics! They published a photo of Aisha to (1) show people an injustice they could barely imagine and (2) communicate truth on an emotional level as well as a factual level. Sound familiar? That’s because we display photos of abortion victims for the very same reasons.

Time published the photo to support Obama’s Afghanistan policy (see earlier post).  But more relevant to our pro-life work was the statement by Richard Stengel, Managing Editor of Time.  I’ve extracted his most pertinent remarks:

Our cover image this week is powerful, shocking and disturbing.

I’m acutely aware that this image will be seen by children, who will undoubtedly find it distressing. We have consulted with a number of child psychologists about its potential impact. Some think children are so used to seeing violence in the media that the image will have little effect, but others believe that children will find it very scary and distressing — that they will see it, as Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, said, as “a symbol of bad things that can happen to people.”

I showed it to my two young sons, 9 and 12, who both immediately felt sorry for Aisha and asked why anyone would have done such harm to her. [Who can forget the words of little 3-yr-old Donn Garton, who asked his mother Jean, "Who broke the baby?"—FAB]

But bad things do happen to people, and it is part of our job to confront and explain them.

The image is a window into the reality of what is happening… I would rather confront … than ignore. … I would rather people know that reality as they make up their minds …

We do it to illuminate what is actually happening … Our job is to provide context and perspective … What you see in these pictures and our story is … a combination of emotional truth and insight into … the consequences of the important decisions …

Wow.  We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Christians see abortion for the first time.

We hear it all the time:

I’m a Christian.  I grew up in the church.  Our pastor may have said that he was pro-life, but I thought it should be a woman’s choice.  But now that I’m seeing your pictures, I know now that abortion is killing a baby.

How, you ask, can this happen?  It’s because the church is doing nothing to expose abortion, even among it’s own people.  Ask yourself this question:

When is the last time the pastor of my church showed us what abortion looked like?  When is the last time he showed abortion photos to our youth?

If the answers are “no” and “never”, then you know why 1 in 5 women who abort their babies identify themselves as “born again” or “evangelical” Christians.  The abortion rate among practicing Catholics is just as great.

This is intolerable, so we at CBR are doing something about it.  Over the weekend, we took our Matthew 28:20 pictures to the Harvest Crusade at Angel Stadium.  Tens of thousands of people saw the pictures as they entered and exited the stadium.  See pictures here.

Christians need to see abortion and work to stop it. Who will show them the truth?

There are three adverse conditions that must be corrected:

1. Christians need to know, and most of them don’t.
2. Christians need to work to stop the killing, and most don’t.
3. The Church needs to lead, and it doesn’t.

Unilaterally, we are able to correct only Item 1.  By God’s grace, we can show Christians the truth.  If we are willing to do that, we pray that the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

From Dan Becker, President of Georgia Right to Life:

Thanks much for your notice of our endorsement criteria.  It actually is one of the toughest in the nation.

Many people assume that having such strict standards would actually marginalize our influence.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We began this practice over ten years ago.  Today, the majority of publicly elected legislators in the state of Georgia hold to “life of the mother ONLY” exception.  In the last decade we went from the bottom of the list of states ranked by Americans United for Life (AUL) for its pro-life legislation to our current rating of 8th in the nation.

In the current race for Governor, 6 of 7 candidates supported our position AND support a Personhood Amendment to our Georgia Constitution.

We in the pro-life movement have been misled by our leaders in thinking that a biblicaly based, principled approach to politics is not achievable.  We have demonstrated otherwise.  We are proving that politicians “only see the light when they feel the heat.”

Thanks for all you are doing to end abortion in our day.

For the Sanctity of all life in the 21st century,
Dan Becker, President
Georgia Right to Life

(Note:  Dan Becker, President of Georgia Right to Life, left a longer version of the above as a comment on a previous FAB posting.  We thought his comments were important enough to warrant a reposting for wider visibility. — FAB)

Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) has issued their endorsements for the August 10 runoff election.  Click here.

GRTL has very strict requirements for getting their endorsement.  Each candidate must sign the following statement:

WHEREAS, the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law,” Georgia Right to Life PAC affirms the principle that the right to life is the bedrock upon which all other Constitutional rights are derived.

IN ADDITION, we believe, in the face of compelling biological evidence, that a continuum of human life and personhood begins at the moment of fertilization and ends at natural death, the ethical treatment of human embryos must include their “best interests,”

THEREFORE, as a candidate for public office, I affirm my support for a Human Life Amendment to the Georgia Constitution and other actions that would support these principles. This would assure that regardless of race, age, degree of disability, manner of conception or circumstances surrounding a terminal illness, that the civil rights of the pre-born at an embryonic or fetal level, the elderly and those with mental or physical infirmities are protected by law and are violated when we allow destructive embryonic stem cell research, therapeutic or reproductive cloning, animal human hybrids, abortion (except to save the life of the mother), infanticide, euthanasia or assisted suicide.

As a candidate for public office I agree to uphold these principles and positions.

Note that politicians who support a rape/incest exception would NOT get the Georgia Right to Life endorsement.  What do you think about this agreement?  Is it strong enough?  Too restrictive?  Please comment.

I think I would add a requirement that the candidate also sit and watch a video of abortion, e.g., the video on the www.AbortionNo.org website.  Do you agree?

FACT says vote “NO” on judges in Tennessee.  For the whole story, click here.

Do you agree?

The Tennessee Conservative Union has released their ratings for Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, Congressman Zach Wamp and Mayor Bill Haslam.  Candidates are rated on these factors: income tax (Tennessee doesn’t have one and doesn’t want one), Second Amendment, administrative experience, social issues (including pro-life), spending, and taxes.

Click here to see the full document: TCU Candidate Ratings.

Who are you voting for?  Why?  Please comment!

18-yr-old Aisha on the cover of Time

I still haven’t had a chance to read Time, but the story is really the photo on the cover.   I’m guessing that this photo alone will buy Obama an additional two years to find victory (or at least the appearance of victory) in Afghanistan.

Why is that important?  And why would Time Magazine want to help prolong our presence there?

Rightly or wrongly, the war in Afghanistan is perceived as Obama’s war.  Iraq was Bush’s war, but success or failure in Afghanistan will belong to Obama.  Ever since the invasion of Iraq, the Dems maintained the mantra, “We should never have ever gone there; we should have focused on Afghanistan instead.”  It was their way of trying to appear to be anti-war (in Iraq) and pro-security (in Afghanistan) at the same time.

Now that they control the government, the Dems are trying to navigate between (a) the American public who heard them say for so many years that we should be in Afghanistan, and (b) their own base, the fringe left, who expected Obama to bring all the troops home on January 21, 2009, no matter what.  For whatever reason, they’ve decided to stay.  For now.  And now that they’re in, Obama really needs a victory (or at least something that they can claim is a victory).

However, to achieve victory, Obama needs time to prosecute the war before political forces pushing for withdrawal become irresistable.  That’s where Time Magazine comes in.  They are heavily invested in their guy Obama, and they will do anything they can to make him appear to be successful.  The photo is a powerful argument to do what’s necessary to make sure young women like Aisha don’t have to live in a country governed by barbarians.  It’s an argument to give President Obama more time.

It is facinating to see how the press selects the photos it will use based on the public policy objectives it wants to support.  The press hated LBJ and Nixon, so they published photos of war violence that diminished public support for US involvement in Vietnam.  They hated Bush, so they published photos of war violence that suppressed public support for the war in Iraq.  But now they love Obama, so they publish a photo that will actually increase public support for Obama’s war.

Of course, it is a powerful photo.  It certainly refocused in my own mind what’s at stake in Afghanistan.  For myself, I hope we do everything possible to bring peace and justice to this corner of the world.  Not only for Aisha’s sake, but for many more just like her.  Taliban barbarians are a cancer that needs to be eradicated.  I say publish the photo.

What do you say?

You have heard of Lila Rose of Live Action.  You may have seen her under-cover videos that show how Planned Parenthood employees cover up the illegal sexual abuse of children.

In this video, Ms. Rose describes how CBR employs the exact same strategy that was used by other successful reformers in history, including the movements to stop the slave trade in England, to abolish slavery here, to end abusive child labor here, and to galvanize the civil rights movement in the 1950s.

Ms. Rose reports from Sproul Plaza at the University of California at Berkeley during our GAP presentation last October.

Besides college campuses, what other venues are appropriate for abortion pictures?  Please comment!

18-yr-old Aisha on the cover of Time.

In a surprising betrayal of left-wing kooks everywhere, Time Magazine has published (on its August 9, 2010 cover) a shocking and disturbing photo of 18-year-old Aisha, an Afghan woman who had her ears and nose cut off by the Taliban. Her crime? Trying to escape from abusive in-laws who beat her without mercy. She posed for the photo because she wants the world to see what a Taliban resurgence will do to the women of Afghanistan.

This has to be a setback for the fringe Left, who say we should forget about 9/11 and get out of Afghanistan and Iraq right now because, after all, America is the real source of evil in the world.

The political Left has allied itself with radical Islam, much in the same way that it embraces Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro (just one example).  This is especially ironic because radical Isalm seeks to impose Sharia Law, which would beat, imprison, and kill the very people that make up the Left: radical feminists, homosexuals, atheists, etc.  I guess they see America as the common enemy, and the defeat of this enemy is so important, they are willing to make common cause with barbarians.

I’m guessing this photo will make it a little more difficult for the kook Left to justify their collaboration with radical Islam.

What do you think? Am I wrong? Am I right? Tell me how!

If you haven’t already, please go “Like” us on Facebook!

Appalachian State U. students plan their pro-life year.

I got an e-mail from a Georgia Tech student just yesterday.  He wanted to know about our annual Student Leadership Conference (Sept 10-11):

“Georgia Tech has a bunch of new leadership that is really going to benefit.”

This is a generational struggle, and nothing we do is more important than our work to train the next generation of leaders.  When they lead the right way, babies and moms are saved right now.  And we get closer to that future day when the killing stops.  It’s just that simple.

That’s why CBR, along with the Students for Life of America, is hosting our annual Student Leadership Conference in Knoxville again this fall.  Here’s what one student at the University of Georgia had to say about this conference:

“While there is a lot of information about defending the pro-life cause, information about building leadership skills is scarce.  These skills are needed to start, grow, and manage a group.  The CBR conference is giving student groups around the country the tools they need to be effective on campus and I truly believe strong campus pro-life groups will change the country and the world.”

Leadership = Results at Appalachian State U.

Changing the country and the world.  That’s what we are all about at CBR.  Please consider a financial gift to support pro-life college students.  Your gift of $100 will pay the conference cost for one student!  It’s really an investment in the future of the pro-life movement.

What do you think?  How important is it to train the next generation?  Comment below!

Free money if you "Like" our Facebook page!

Great news.  If you act now, we can get $5,000 free money!  We need your help, but it won’t cost you a thing.

An anonymous donor has pledged $1,000 if we can get up to 1,000 pro-life fans on our fan page by August 31.  We already have 300 fans; we need 700 more.  Please do two things for us:

1. Simply go to our fan page (click here) and “Like” the page.
2. E-mail all your pro-life friends.  Ask them to “Like” the page and invite their pro-life friends to do the same.

But there’s more!  This donor has pledged another $1,000 for every additional 1,000 pro-life fans we can get by August 31, up to $5,000 for 5,000 fans!  Please do this.  It won’t cost you a thing, but it will mean so much to our work to save babies and moms on campus!  Let’s get 5,000 fans by August 31!

Here’s the Facebook link: www.facebook.com/ProLifeOnCampus

To add your own contribution to save babies and moms, click here!  (For your online donation to CBR/ProLifeOnCampus before August 31, you will receive a free pro-life gift!)

CBR Board Member Rev. Clenard Childress addresses the crowd.

 A number of CBR volunteers attended the Freedom Ride that started in Birmingham and ended in Atlanta on Saturday, July 24.  The event was organized by CBR board member Fr. Frank Pavone.

The TV coverage by the CBS affiliate in Birmingham was actually very well done.  Several women appeared on camera to express regret for their abortions and describe how they were deceived by the abortion industry.

Pastor Cecil Clark of True Vine Baptist Church in Knoxville was interviewed for that story (video below).  He appears at about the 1-minute mark.

More coverage by Fox News, the Birmingham News, and the National Catholic Register.

Question for you:  What kind of effect will demonstrations such as this have on the larger culture?  Please comment below!

Medallion emphasized to Londoners the humanity of the Black slave in 1787.

My talk last night at the Atlanta Right to Life was very well received, I think.  The subject was “Learning From the Past: How We Can Win.”  This is a similar talk to the one I gave to a group of pro-life Georgia Legislators a couple of years ago and the talk I gave to a group of pro-life Congressmen in DC.

This was a fairly easy audience.  We’ve been working with these folks to display abortion images for many years (GAP, RCC, etc.), so they are very familiar with the need to educate the public.  I didn’t need to convince them so much as to help solidify in their minds the connection between our work to educate the public using horrifying images and the work of other social reformers in history who achieved success using the same strategy.  Examples:

• The anti-slave-trade movement in England (William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson) used images to show the humanity of the Black slave and the inhumanity of the slave trade.
• Abolistionists in this country used similar images, and later used photographs, to expose the injustice of slavery.
• Lewis Hine, who was concerned about abusive child labor practices, took pictures of children working in coal mines and textile mills and turned them into a traveling display.
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “America will not stop racism until America sees racism.”  He arranged for video and photos of Black men and women being attacked with dogs and water cannons to be shown on TV and in magazines.

Horrifying photos of racial violence showed the ugly truth of racism and changed America's heart.

You can download my slides by clicking here.  It is a fairly large file (38 MB); it might take 10 minutes or so to download.  Just save it to a file; a pop-up window will ask you where to file it and will tell you how long it will take to download the file.

Please take a look at the slides and leave your comment on this post!