Voice for Life

I may be prone to hyperbole, but I'm beginning to view Monday, January 26 as a watershed in my own life, or at least in my college life. The previous week in January was National Right to Life week, and through the course of the week I spent a considerable bit of time reading over a dozen blog posts on the topic and seeing links to more posts and sermons that I didn't have time to read. The more I read, the more grieved and horrified I became. Since abortion was legalized in 1973, 50 million babies have been killed in the US, and nearly 4000 abortions are performed every day. The picture below is of a monument in Minneapolis - in that glass structure there is one penny for every baby aborted since 1973.

By Monday, I wasn't just grieved, I was incensed that Wheaton has utterly failed to address the atrocity of abortion and the role of the church must have in defending the innocent unborn. Every year there are speakers brought to chapel to talk about the global AIDS crisis and sex trafficking and to encourage students to give of their lives and money to bring about an end to it. But abortion is never addressed in a similar manner, not even during National Right to Life week. Does Wheaton not care about social justice for the unborn - for the most vulnerable victim of all?

Passions aflame, I headed to the chaplain's office and shared my grievance with the chaplain's secretary. I think I half expected her to rush into Chappy K's office, as impassioned as I. Chappy K would listen to us gravely and would be convicted and ashamed that he had so thoughtlessly neglected the issue. That or a complete rebuff seemed the only reasonable response. Instead she thanked me, informed me that Chappy K was actually considering speakers for a chapel next year (for this, I rejoice!), and wrote down my suggestion of John Ensor as a speaker.

Over the next few days, I talked to friends about my conviction that abortion is the foremost moral issue of our day and that Wheaton and must not be silent any longer. I brought it up in small group on Tuesday night and learned that my small group leader (John Ensor's daughter) was actually president of a club called Voice for Life when she was a Wheaton student. The advisor of the club was my writing prof from freshman year, Dr. Beal. A couple days later, I ran into Dr. Beal in Blanchard, and she told me that VFL is actually still in existence, but clearly in need of some new blood. I made up my mind to find out who the officers of the club were, contact them, and become an active member, but school work grabbed my immediate attention and a few weeks passed.

Sometime in mid February, my friend Kara, a senior here, found out that Voice for Life actually chose not to resubmit their charter this year for lack of enough student interest in the club. I'm still a little hazy on the details, but somehow the two of us came into contact with another group of students similarly impassioned. With enough students to form a club, we submitted a charter and constitution, and somehow I, yet ignorant and inarticulate, became president of the new Voice for Life club.

One of Kara's roommates wrote for the Record before she graduated. When she found out that Wheaton has three environmentalists clubs on campus but didn't have enough student support to keep Voice for Life active, she phoned the editor of the Record. Then a couple days before spring break, the editor interviewed Kara and me for an article published the last day of classes. I'm glad for the publicity, but the article was a bit disappointing. I was optimistically hoping for a call to arms, a rousing "your brethren are already in the field, why stand you here, idle" sort of thing, but it was strictly factual and only mostly accurate. I am encouraged, however, that good has already come of the article. Dr. Huizenga, a Bible/theology professor, e-mailed Kara and me to say how overjoyed he was to read the article and that he would be glad to help in any way he could.

I spent quite a few hours over spring break working on becoming an informed and articulate spokeswoman for the sanctity of life. I am less ignorant, more horrified, and still sometimes tongue tied, but determined not to stay that way.

If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? Proverbs 24:10-12