Here are some of my thoughts and reflections from the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) event at Appalachian State University on April 5,2018. I had a great time at the event. I have not had such a natural and effective way to share the gospel in a long time if ever. I spoke with many people and observed many things but here are some of the things that stand out in my mind: An athletically built white male student (possibly a faculty member), who looked perturbed by the display, questioned a GAP volunteer saying, "I know you don't need a permit to be here but who was the student how sponsored this?" Thankfully, our fellow volunteer did not know. College is supposed to a place where we are exposed to various world-views and to gain a greater understanding of the world we live in. This man did not seem interested in engaging in debate but only silencing it. So much for furthering ones education. Another young while female student called out from a distance: "Excuse me sir, do you have a uterus? Then don't tell me what to do with my f-ing body!" And then she stormed off. I found it remarkable how a student at a school which promotes transgenderism so readily recognized my masculinity due to my anatomy. I don't suppose that if I had "identified as a woman" it would have made any difference to her. She drew a clear distinction between male and female on her own accord. Had she stayed, she might have come to realize that half of aborted babies are female with a right to their own body as well.
As to overpopulation, the young man explained that the quality of life will be damaged because of excess population and melting ice caps. I asked him if someone causing him to have a lower quality of life was justification for taking a life, he answered "no." He then asked me what I thought of "factory farms" where animal's genetics are messed with to produce food faster, even though the process is cruel to animals. I asked him if he thought that treating animals like that was okay and he said "no." And so I assured him that he certainly could not approve of abortion in that case which involves dismembering a creature. The pictures really kept us anchored when the conversation became to philosophical and hypothetical. When I pointed at the pictures and asked him "are you saying THAT is ok if the child will lower your quality of life?" He stared at the pictures and said, "No, I can't deny that's a baby. I can't deny that is wrong." He then said that while he thought it was bad, he wouldn't stop someone else from having an abortion but then he stopped himself and said aloud, "I guess that makes me selfish... I guess that makes me a bad person." I really loved this young man. He shook my hand and thanked me several times for having a "respectful conversation".
Another young white female spoke to me for roughly an hour. She said that she had been raped by two men for five hours and she was so relieved that she was not impregnated by the violations they committed. She was a big advocate of birth control and I assured her that we were not condemning birth control so long as it wasn't killing a conceived life. She often said "I can see your point." She wanted to know how I would counsel a rape victim who had become pregnant as a result. I assured her that I would never counsel a woman to further her injury by getting an abortion. She said that she was against late term abortion but she compared the mass of cells that make up a human being in the early stages of life to cancer cells. I gave her a brochure from GAP which documents multiple scientist who identify life as beginning at conception. She received the pamphlet and I believe she will read it. She said that she had seen the display a year or two earlier but was so angry that she didn't want to come up and engage in debate. She said she was afraid of being screamed at. But she thanked me because the conversation was respectful and not what she had expected. The only people screaming on this day were those who wanted to justify abortion. Praise the Lord! I know seeds were planted for the truth!
Finally, there was a young white man with an eye-brow piercing who declared that something good comes out of everything that happens, like worms getting to eat our bodies when we die, and therefore it doesn't matter what people choose to do. Asked him if what Hitler did to the Jews was okay and he quickly changed his tune. "Well, not everything is ok." I challenged him to be consistent.
Three things are clear to me after this long, yet fulfilling, day. Pictures can be powerful tools for truth, human beings are often determined to live in a state of denial, and the Satan would have you believe that people are only animals so that you will dishonor the image of God by acting less than human. Don't believe it. Lives are at stake. Humanity is at risk.
Please connect with the Genocide Awareness Project and see how you can help speak the truth and bring life into our broken world. You can also learn more by listening to the podcast below:
Comments