Speaking on Behalf of Those Who Have No Voice

Today I leave for my excellent adventure, first to my folks and then on to NYC for my book signing extravaganza. I am grateful for the trip particularly in light of the very hard day at the abortion mill yesterday. One woman chose life for her baby through our efforts, but there were some difficult heart breakers.

One young man waiting on the front porch listened to me on the sound system and then came storming over. He was dressed in my least favorite style of today's youth -- with pants that drooped halfway down his hips so that his underwear was fully exposed. It is a miracle people can walk in those pants with the crotch at their knees. It is a style that brings out the worst in me, just to warn you. If you thought my Halloween rant was bad, don't even get me started on this ludicrous pants-drooping-around-one's-knees style.

"Are you going to pay me $60,000 to have the baby?" he screamed, "If not, you have no right to be here. Are you going to pay for every woman in there [pointing to abortion clinic]? If not, you have no right to be here, you "#@$%%##@ER!!D$%^#@&^%%$##@@**&a^%#!!;p;." (This is my best attempt to capture his vitriolic and vicious spew of eyelash-curling obscenity.)
He continued, "Are you going to get me a job? If not, you have no right to be here."
"Why don't you have a job?" asked my fellow counselor.
"Because I'm black," he said.
I think he said something about being in prison also, and I suspect that doesn't go over big with employers but I had another theory. I told him I thought he would have a better shot at getting a job if he pulled up his pants. That didn't go over well.
"I got three kids and can't afford them cause I have no job."
"Did you have a job when you conceived those three kids?" I asked.
"No, I never had a job."
"Then why are you having sex which makes more kids?" I asked.
He didn't like that comment much either.

He got two inches from my face, poking his finger at me, and letting loose a stream of invectives that may have suggested a vile spirit, were one to conjecture about that sort of thing.
I turned away. Whatever argument I attempted to raise to counter his tirade, he screamed over me. Frankly, I was a little concerned that he was about to punch me in the face, and that would not be good right before my book signing adventure in NYC. (Nor, incidentally, would that ultimately help him in his job pursuit because make no mistake, if I lived, I would press charges.)

Then he went after my co-counselor, again with his finger jabbing inches from her face. Since I am the team leader, I decided it was time to intervene. My team that day was made up of me, another lady in her 50s, and a spry 86-year-old. As the spring chicken still 7 years away from Senior Discount Status, I had to take action.
"If you don't back away now and stop screaming your obscenities and threatening us in our face, I am calling the police," I said, pulling out my phone.
"She'll do it, too," warned the Abortion Mill bouncer, who up to that point had been silently watching. (He is there for the safety of the people coming to kill their babies. Not for the people with their Bible verses trying to stop them through the dangerous word of God.)

The angry man stretched out his arms, looking heavenward, and shouted, "Why isn't your God raining thousands of dollars down upon me?"
"How can you defy His commandments and then expect him to bless you?" I asked. That set off another string of expletives but he backed off and returned to the front porch.

Then I got on the microphone and addressed every false issue and Godless conclusion he had raised. It is not the first time we have heard various permutations of his arguments. The decision to abort is never their fault, their situation is never their fault, everyone who speaks out on behalf of the baby is a self-righteous, rich person, God will understand why they must disobey His command and yes it's wrong but He will forgive them, society owes them a living because life is hard, lifestyle choices never have anything to do with why they are killing their child...etc, etc.

One couple emerged from the death chamber and told us they didn't do it. They had chosen life.
The angry man shouted for a little while after returning to the porch, but then quieted and listened to me in silence. My counselor friend whispered, "He's listening. You have his attention." (It did appear that way, but it could be he was just deciding if another bout in prison was worth what he really wanted to do to me and my sound system.) After a few minutes, he went back into the abortion center.

I don't know if anything I said entered his angry, defiant heart. I sincerely hope he pulls up his pants in more ways than one, and decides he has worth and dignity before God and acts accordingly. I pray the women in the abortion mill heard our pleas to love God, follow His commands of purity, self-sacrifice, and understanding of the sacredness of life, and ultimately chose to take the first step of righteousness out of that place. I know that after nearly two straight hours on the microphone speaking on behalf of the unborn, I was completely spent.

"Well," I told my fellow counselors, "I have shot my wad. I have nothing left. It's up to them now."
We packed up the sound system, put away the bag of baby gifts we had hoped to be giving out, and saw a woman I had talked to for quite some time come out of the mill. She had been crying as she stopped her car to talk with me earlier. She knew what she was doing was wrong, and her heart was already breaking. She had taken my literature and seemed to be honestly considering my pleas. I had been so hopeful that she would choose life.
"Have you decided to let your baby live?" I called out.
She put her purse in the car and returned to the abortion clinic without speaking to me.
************

Luke 16: 19-31

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰ And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.The rich man also died and was buried, ²³ and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. ²⁴ And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ ²⁷ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”