Taking a Stand for Life

Taking a Stand for Life
By Carlotta (Printed in the Seminary newspaper "Around the Tower", November Edition)

Are you ready for some really scary numbers? Every year there are approximately 1.37 million abortions in the United States. To give you an idea of how huge that number is, I’ll give you the death toll for all of World War II (for the United States), which was 418,500. But these are not just numbers. They represent hearts that have stopped beating way too early. Did you know that abortion is the most common surgical procedure in America? It is certainly nothing to be proud of. It is one of the cruelest things that anybody could do.
On Sunday, October 7, 2007, 35 people, including 18 kids, came together for a Life Chain event. We were standing at the side of Clayton Road, holding up signs, and silently praying for an end to abortion. The signs read “Abortion Kills Children”, “Jesus Heals and Forgives”, “Abortion Hurts Women”, and “Pray to End Abortion”.
You are probably asking, “What is Life Chain?” Louis Hintz, age 10, provided this answer: “Life Chain is an organization that helps stop abortion.” Life Chain organizes silent and prayerful public gatherings against abortion in the U.S. and in Canada as well. I also asked Louis if he thought it was good for kids to attend the gathering. His reply was, “Yes. I think it was good for kids to attend because abortion kills children and when we’re there, it shows [the people driving by] how cute we are.”
While we were standing, we heard quite a few honking cars, some thumbs up, some thumbs down. One lady drove past two times, honking, and sticking up her middle finger.
Jeremiah Tiews, age 7, said, ”I think that it was good for them [the kids] to be at the gathering because the people driving by were probably shocked that kids know what they’re doing to the little babies.” He also said that his favorite thing was climbing up on the Concordia Seminary (now Washington University) wall, holding up the signs for all to see.
Mariam Tiews, age 4, told me that “My favorite thing was the brownie and cookie table afterwards.”
I think that it was really good to set aside an hour of our time and pray specifically for this tragedy of abortion that is happening all over the world. In our hurried life style, we very often don’t get to take the time to reflect on it.
We sincerely hope that you will join us at the next Life Chain event to help save America’s babies.
Plans are being made for a “Round-table” discussion in late November or early December. For more information check http://nationallifechain.org//