Please pause for a moment and consider the messages of spring 2023’s LIFESPAN events. First, at the Be the Change youth event on April 29, our two powerful speakers were Trevor Pollo of Protect Life MI and Bryan Kemper of Stand True Ministries. Trevor presented the four most common pro-abortion arguments and then debunked them one by one. 1) Abortion helps poor women by allowing them to avoid bringing another hungry mouth into the world. The reality is that the Abortion business is a $1.5 billion industry annually that exploits the poor and dehumanizes the unborn. 2) The preborn are not yet full human persons. All human beings are human persons and the difference between the preborn, the teenager, and the elderly is one of SLED (S = Size L= Level of development, E = Environment, and D = Degree of dependency). Trust the science! 3) The strongest pro-abortion argument is Bodily Autonomy. While people should have much personal freedom, almost no one argues this gives us the right to inflict physical harm on other humans. Autonomy means sovereignty and none of us have absolute sovereignty to own a slave or rape or stab a neighbor for instance. 4) Pro-abortion is popular and cool in Hollywood, on college campuses, and on social media. In reality, pro-lifers are the counter-cultural rebels who must resist Big Abortion and its corporatist Big Government sponsors. Trevor closed with the story of Kitty Genovese beating beaten to death over the course of hours while dozens of people within earshot chose to go back to sleep instead of to save her. This describes the Bystander Effect in which the larger the number of people witnessing an injustice, the less likely it is that anyone acts. Next, Bryan Kemper shared his life story beginning when his unwed mother sought an illegal abortion in the 1960s, but failed to find one after her parents kicked her out when she became pregnant. The turning point of his life was a conversion from a life of drug addiction to one of faith. This only happened by the grace of God because an EMT and ER doctor caring for him following a drug overdose gave him the simple message, “God loves you and you have value.” Bryan then pioneered the “Rock for Life” concerts in the 1990s, even promoting life at Lollapalooza and on MTV. He annually brought hundreds of tattooed, mohawk-sporting youths to the National March for Life and was arrested multiple times for blocking abortion mills in support of Red Rose rescues going on inside. He closed with a story of his visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp and how he was haunted by a solitary farmhouse sitting just outside the camp gates. He pondered if he would have had the courage to act to save lives if he lived in that farmhouse in 1942 and then told the audience, “We do live in that farmhouse!” As the American holocaust of abortion continues in our town, do we have the courage to stand up and act or turn away in fear of losing some personal comfort?
At the Celebrate Life Dinner on May 9, friend of LIFESPAN Dan Devine shared with the audience that he was in a dark place, angrily questioning God after our 2022 election defeat, when our own Diane Fagelman called and shook him out of it. Dan recommitted himself to re-light his passion to save preborn lives and asked the audience to do the same. Our awesome speaker Jason Jones discussed how he grew up in a broken home, but gained a vision of fatherhood when his teenage sweetheart became pregnant. His girlfriend tried to hide it from her parents while he joined the Army to support her and their preborn child. Terribly, her affluent parents found out and forced her (so much for “bodily autonomy”) to have a third trimester abortion that killed his baby girl. Jason became a pro-life activist immediately and although initially an atheist, he flippantly prayed to God to give him the wealth, power, and success to help the unborn if He was real. Jason has since become a successful political advisor who has attended meetings in the Oval Office, produced pro-life feature films, and even showed his award-winning short film “Crescendo” to the UN General Assembly. As well as a movie producer, Jason works as a global human rights activist today. Jason challenged the audience to overcome any fear and joyfully change our culture to support all human life.
WILL YOU CHOOSE TO CURSE THE DARKNESS OR LIGHT A TORCH TODAY?