Deeper Still's Karen Ellison and Kay Smith at Market Square.

While doing GAP on Market Square last week, we were pleased to be joined by Deeper Still, a post-abortion healing ministry based in Knoxville.  It was the perfect message for our community, emphasizing both the horrifying reality of what abortion is and does, but also emphasizing the forgiveness and healing available to every abortion-wounded heart through Jesus Messiah.

Deeper Still invites abortion-wounded women to participate in weekend retreats that help bring healing and lasting freedom.  These are offered free of charge, not only to women in the Knoxville area, but nationally and internationally as well.  Please visit their website!

Deeper Still President Karen Ellison talks about Deeper Still:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owN4z8rcoo0

Tennessee Woman's Suffrage Memorial on Market Square. Note GAP display in background.

When we were on Market Square in Knoxville last week, we were stunned but pleased to see that the City of Knoxville had put up a monument to the pro-life position.  It wasn’t just pro-life, it was pro-family and pro-God.  It was awesome!

In fact, the pro-life monument has been there since 2006, but we enjoyed pretending that the City of Knoxville put it up just to endorse our message.

You all know about the pro-life convictions of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  Perhaps we could add Lizzie Crozier French (1851-1926) to that list.  She was the founder of the Knoxville Equal Suffrage Association.  She wrote these words that appeared on the monument:

Thanks be to God that in giving Woman the crown of motherhood He made her the giver not the taker of life.  Woman has no greater claim to the rights of the ballot than that she is the producer not a destroyer of life.

Young people learning the truth of abortion.

We displayed our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) on Market Sqauare in Knoxville.  Here are comments from passersby:

“This is really plain. I have cancer and cannot have children. Why don’t these folks give birth and let people like me adopt?” (young couple from Kentucky)

“We have both seen the destruction of societies from the kind of ‘real’ genocide (the kind most people identify with). But abortion is no less a genocide. We are destroying our own children for selfish reasons. We have seen what a society is like when life is not valued and we do not want America to become like China.” (travelers recently returned from Africa and China)

“China has a one-child policy enforced by the State. America has a 2-child policy enforced by the Church. And the pastors’ refusal to talk about contraception, the ‘full quiver’ (God determining family size), and abortion. And the outcome is still the same . . . death to the preborn.” (male passerby)

“Thank you for being brave to put this truth up for all to see.” (male passerby) (Note: we appreciate the thanks and the admiration, but frankly, we’d rather have your help. Thanks and admiration by themselves will not buy new signs, new handouts, truck fuel, nor anything else.)

“It is so wrong that you cut the water off so children can’t play in the water fountains today.” (female restaurant employee)

“The pictures are just awful; you should be ashamed to put them up.” (male passerby)  (Note: When Lewis Hine showed photos of children working under abusive conditions, he said people would look at the photos and get more angry at him for showing the pictures than at the industrial bosses for abusing the children.)

“The people that took info from me were not really interested in talking but extremely engrossed in taking in every detail of the display, some slowly digesting every photo-mural. Polite and very contemplative are two words I would use for the older (than college age) crowd at Market Square. I did notice that there were very many who looked at the display intently from a distance, whether walking by or from the surrounding restaurants. I did speak with one UT college age male who was glad we were there and remembered us from UT. The Deeper Still table had several come by, and a few ask for information about their post-abortion healing ministry.” (CBR volunteer)

That’s what they say.  What do you say?  Please leave your comments!

Market Square GAP

The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) has made it’s first appearance on Market Square in Knoxville.  Lord willing, it won’t be our last.

Before we had even set up the signs, a woman walked around the display and studied each one.  She was almost in tears as she asked, “Do you mean to tell me that abortions like this are legal in Knoxville?”  I explained that the first trimester abortions depicted in most of our signs are performed routinely in Knoxville.  Although the 22-week abortion depicted in two of our signs are legal in all 50 states (because of the Doe v Bolton decision), they are not routinely performed here.  She said she had thought all abortions were done on a small blob of tissue, and that we had certainly changed her mind.  I know she will be talking about the signs to her friends as well.

All day long, it was a steady stream of people passing the display.  Almost every one of them stared at the signs and studied them intently.  It was clear the signs were doing their work in the minds of all who saw them.

What do you think about Urban GAP?  Please comment!

I was honored to be invited to address the Atlanta Chapter of the Georgia Right to Life next week.  Here’s the announcement that went out to their members and other pro-lifers in the area:

You are invited to come and hear a presentation by Fletcher Armstrong PhD, Southeast Director of The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, entitled, “Lessons From the Past, Learning How to Win,” sponsored by the Atlanta Chapter Georgia Right to Life.  CBR is well know for Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), which is the world’s first large-scale abortion photo outreach to college students. Fletcher will explain how this and other CBR projects are effective because they are modeled upon the most successful social reform movements in history, including the movements to end the slave trade in England, slavery in America, abusive child labor in the early 20th Century, and racial injustice in the 1960s.

When: Thursday, July 22, 2010 7:00 PM

Where: Cathedral of Christ the King, Hyland Center

Some comments about GAP:

• “I saw minds and hearts changed right before my eyes. I believe in GAP and its ability to effect change.” (Tanya Comer, President, [University of] Georgia Pro-Life)
• “There is no doubt in my mind that GAP is the most effective pro-life project that any pro-life club can bring to their school.” (President, Students for Life, U of New Hampshire).
• “It is saving babies like nothing the pro-life movement has ever undertaken and is worthy of our heartiest support.” (Fr. Frank Pavone, Director, Priests for Life)
• “I’ve been doing this my whole adult life. And yet I have never heard a more compelling way of presenting the pro-life message.” (Hon. Trent Franks, U.S. House of Representatives)

If you know people in Atlanta, please let them know about this event.  Thanks!  I’m scheduled to speak in Athens on the evening of Wednesday, July 21.  I will link to my slides for both of these talks sometime next week.

If I can speak to your pro-life group or event, use the feedback form on our website to let us know.