Dear Partners and Friends,
This month we cover our GAP trip to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). We had been wanting to go there for quite a while, because Chattanooga has a very active pro-life community. We thank God for your generosity, because your support makes all of our work possible.
Fletcher and Jane
Lookout! GAP Signals Pro-Life Awakening at UT Chattanooga
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Our location along Baldwin Street, formerly a street but now a major pedestrian walkway, ensured heavy traffic both days. |
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On March 23 and 24, we were hosted at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) by the UTC Students for Choosing Life (SCL). Assisting with GAP were members of the Pro-Life Majority Coalition of Chattanooga (ProMaCC). In 1993, ProMaCC purchased the building that housed the only abortion mill in town. That building is now the home of AAA Women’s Services and the National Memorial for the Unborn.
Abortion Wars, the Next Generation. One of our greatest blessings is to work with the outstanding young people that God is raising up. One such leader is Mark Baker at UTC. When Mark was in high school at the Christian Academy of Knoxville, his senior Bible class studied CBR’s A Choice for Life mini-course. This year, as a freshman at UTC, Mark wrote to us about the ways A Choice for Life has helped him defend the pro-life position on a secular campus. He started a new pro-life group and adopted the name Students for Choosing Life based on the name of the CBR mini-course. Their first major activity was to bring GAP to UTC.
Great location and weather. We set up the GAP display in the heart of campus, in front of the Lupton Library and close to the newly remodeled University Center. This, along with great weather, ensured lots of pedestrian traffic both days.
Domination. Wherever we go, the GAP pictures really dominate the landscape. Not just the physical landscape, but the intellectual landscape as well. Students and teachers alike talk about the pictures, in the dorm and in the classroom. One student told us how GAP took over her sociology class:
We were supposed to talk about poverty in sociology but we couldn’t stay on the subject. We read this pamphlet out loud and discussed it. Everyone on campus is talking about this.
Another student told us about all the students on campus reading the Why Abortion is Genocide booklet we handed out. Two political science faculty members asked Mark Baker, President of SCL, to come and talk about abortion in their classes next semester. Abortion was THE topic on campus.
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CBR staffer Paul Troiani uses the pictures to explain why abortion is morally equivalent to other forms of historical genocide. |
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Poverty. Back to the sociology class, they actually were talking about poverty—the kind of moral and spiritual poverty that leads us to kill our own children and think that it’s OK.
Making abortion unthinkable. One female student pointed to the abortion pictures and said, “That is sick. If I ever think of having an abortion, I’m gonna see that!” Exactly the point. When the subject of abortion comes up, we want people to recall to mind the very vivid picture of a baby that’s been tortured to death.
Gender confusion. One male student said (either joking or mocking), “I’ll never have an abortion.” He was not pro-life; he was referring to the fact that as a male, he could not get pregnant. But the female student with him whapped him good. He retorted, “What did you hit me for? I’m pro-abortion.” She explained, “Well, I’m not!” This was not an anomaly. Recent polling shows that in most circumstances, men favor abortion more than women (by a slight margin).
Post-abortion healing. Of course, many of the students who see GAP have already had an abortion. One 30-something told us, “I pray for [my aborted son] every day.”
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Abortion apologists are desperate to insist that genocide is something that other people do. Another place. Another time. Genocide can’t possibly be something that we ourselves do. Not here. Not now. Can’t be us. Can it? |
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Negative ≠ negative. Mark Baker related to us some of the comments directed at him after GAP. He wrote,
Some of the negative comments were fairly harsh, but at the same time, not discouraging. One girl who I knew came up to me, very mad, and said, “What is this?” … Before I could respond she stormed off and said, “Don't ever talk to me again, Mark.” I am not discouraged by that kind of reaction, because it means something is going on in her heart, which is the road to healing.
Another friend of mine gave me the silent treatment. I said hello to him one day and he responded, “Why are you talking to me. I hate you. I f****** hate you!” … These people we must let Jesus change their heart because we cannot do anything.
(You can read his entire letter about GAP by going to http://www.abortionno.org/GAP/utcscl.html.) We are heartened to see the courage and wisdom of this young man. Not all “negative” reactions are truly negative. Mark had the sense to realize that those who are most angry are often people who need to get right with God about abortions in their past. GAP can be the catalyst that God uses to get that process going.
Thank you! Thanks to all of you for your prayers and financial support. You are making a huge difference in the lives of others, including the preborn and the already born!
To arrange your automatic monthly bank draft to support our work:
1. Download and print the Electronic Gift Transfer Authorization:
http://www.abortionno.org/...GiftTransferSE.pdf
2. Fill out the form. Make sure you designate the gift for "CBR Southeast"
3. Enclose a voided check or deposit slip bearing the account number of the account we should draft.
4. Mail the Transfer Authorization form and a voided check (or deposit slip) to CBR Southeast, P.O. Box 20115, Knoxville, TN 37940.
Please pray that God will raise up others to help you support this life-saving work!
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