Dear Partners and Friends,
As you may be aware, the vast majority of our time this year is being spent on the Key States Initiative (KSI), which is in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Ohio, even as I write this newsletter. Before Election Day, we will have driven in or flown over more than 20 key states. More about that later. This month, we want to tell you about our GAP trip to Purdue University. As always, it was a huge success. We thank God (and you) for allowing us to use the reality of death to bring a message of life.
GAP Leaves Pro-Aborts Boiling at Purdue University
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A good location at the epicenter of campus guaranteed a steady stream of students on all sides of the display. |
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On April 13-14, 2004, we visited Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. We were hosted at the Purdue campus by the Students for Life.
A quiet campus. Purdue was on the quiet side. No big crowd of pro-aborts ever materialized; there was no organized opposition from any campus or community pro-abort group. This is similar to most of the land-grant universities to which we have gone. I’m convinced that most of the engineering and agriculture students at these places bring a little common sense from home, moderating the influence of the left-wing extremists that tend to dominate on other campuses.
Purdue: Leading the way into the 1970s! Of course, the conservative schools are a little slow to pick up on the latest trends. Nearly 30 years late, the streaking craze finally caught up with Purdue. As fads go, it wasn’t much, just one guy covered with a well-placed sheet of paper that read, “Shock Value is Worthless”. Purdue’s version of a “progressive.”
GAP works! No matter whether the pro-aborts show up or not, GAP works! Thousands of students saw our signs, a large number of them took our literature, and debate was initiated all over campus. Mary Kathryn Dickmeyer, President of the Purdue Students for Life, wrote this:
For many years, our student pro-life group did not feel comfortable hosting the Genocide Awareness Project. I now realize that this refusal was not lead by sound judgment, but instead by fear. We had become comfortable with hosting speakers, praying at Planned Parenthood, and helping out with the local crisis pregnancy centers… While all of these activities were beneficial and have their place in our witness for life, none of them exposed the full truth about abortion as explicitly as GAP did… [GAP] definitely stirred up some much-needed controversy on campus. Our apathetic campus had its conscience stirred, and weeks later, the letters to our school newspaper regarding the project are still appearing on a daily basis.
The Genocide Awareness Project not only educated the student body through the pictures and debate that the team provided, but our student group learned a lot as well. The volunteers were very helpful, and the training session that was held the night before the display went up gave us the confidence to talk with our peers about this life-or-death issue. I would recommend this project to anyone who wishes to share the truth with a population that is trying everything in its power to mask the reality of abortion.
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While Jane answers questions from this student, our sign explains to all passersby that the pictures are authentic and have not been altered in any way. The posting invites students to inspect our copy of The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, a popular textbook on prenatal development. |
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Fletcher Gump likes to say (very slowly, to get the right accent) that “GAP is like a box of chocolates; you never know watt yore gonna gayet.” By the way, look at Jane in the upper left corner of the photo; she’s getting a real eyefull! |
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Useless eaters must die! Our favorite stories always come from Michael Spielman. He operates our website (www.abortionno.org), and he is one of the best GAPers on the staff. As Michael explained the facts of life (literally) to one male student, this student's desperation finally led him to the comment that abortion should not be illegal, “until [the unborn] starts looking like a person”. Standing right in front of our human development sign, Michael quickly asked him the question, “Where in this sequence do you think the embryo or fetus looks human?” He knew he was cornered so he retreated to the comfort of, “I don't know”. But it was too late. The answer is obvious. By six weeks after conception (before the vast majority of surgical abortions can be performed), the embryo has the unmistakable form of a little human being. Michael showed him the picture, and he was stuck grabbing at straws once again. He finally declared, “It's not murder because they can't even breathe, they have to get oxygen from their mother.” “Would you suggest then,” Michael asked, “that it's OK to kill someone connected to an oxygen machine since they're not breathing on their own?” His response: “I wouldn't have a problem with that because those people are just raising my taxes.” It’s the old “useless eaters” argument that Hitler made famous. With that absurd rationale, he rode off, but we trust the damage to his shaky position will prove fatal.
Religious issue? Another conversation began when an angry young woman approached the display and yelled, “You know what, I'm really sick of all this religious crap being shoved down my throat!” To which Michael softly responded, “Where, in this entire display is there any ‘religious crap’?” She backed up, looked across the length of the signs and found nothing. A little embarrassed she stammered, “Well, why are you here, then?” A long and full dialogue ensued. Her “religious” comment indicated two things. First, there are “non-religious” students out there (probably many) who justify their support of abortion on the assumption that the only reasons for opposing it are built on “religious fanaticism”. GAP is very good at blowing that notion out of the water. Secondly, and on a much deeper and more subtle level, this student realizes that abortion is a religious issue. It's a glory of God issue, and her conscience is pricked. That understanding should prove very beneficial. Abortion isn't just an assault on innocent people; it’s an assault on the One who made them.
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Fletcher and Mick Hunt (Asheville, NC) constructed all of the GAP signs in a week, but it took several months to acquire all of the equipment necessary for a professional GAP display. |
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Full-Time GAP Program Now Dedicated to Southeastern US
For the past several years, CBR Southeast has partnered with CBR Midwest to take GAP to 24 schools in the eastern US. These schools had combined enrollments exceeding half a million students. To reach more and more students with this life-saving project, we will now be conducting our own separate GAP program out of the Southeast Region office. In fact, we have already stepped out in faith and purchased all the equipment we need for a complete GAP display. We are ready to go! Lord willing, we’re a lean, mean, life-savin’ machine!
Of course, the equipment wasn’t free. All-told, we must recoup nearly $15,000 to pay for all of it (25 new signs, aluminum pipe, fittings, radios, security camcorders, crowd-control barricades, tools, etc.). That just buys the stuff; actual deployment will cost 1,000 $/day (truck rental, travel, literature, documentation, storage, etc.). We need to ask your help. Would you consider digging deep and sending a special one-time gift? Your investment will reap huge rewards!
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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