See the photos

Much of the credit for the countless pages of discussion described by Mr. Carson belongs to the above-mentioned president of the Pro-Life Collegians, Camila Wright (cjwright@utk.edu), who did a wonderful job sponsoring GAP at UT. But not everyone appreciated her accomplishments. Consider the following E-mail from Mark Camara (mcamara@utk.edu):

Let me suggest that by using raw emotion and psychological terror as is clearly evident in your sponsorship and support of the GAP image campaign, that you have earned the moniker of “Fetus Fascists” and that you rename your group as such.

Back and forth went the ebb and flow of public reaction, from ridicule to accolade. Scott Cunningham (still no relation) sent us a second E-mail:

Your coming here was courageous and beautiful and though it was disappointing to see our peers acting the way they did, it deepened the issue in my heart. After the conclusion of this week, though pro-life before, I came away seeing babies as people. Before, perhaps intellectually I did also. But this week, they seem real to me. The babies are alive. They are humans, image-bearers. Real people whose lives are being murdered and taken away from them every day. That will stay with me for a long time.

An unnamed student E-mailed a note that was almost embarrassing in the praise it lavished on CBR:

I was really encouraged by CBR’s visit this week. I was also very blessed by being a volunteer and discussing the issue with passersby. The CBR staff was great; they really know their stuff. If anyone could listen to Mr. Cunningham speak and remain pro-abortion, they must be either indescribably cruel … or brain dead. His arguments were faultless and extremely logical…. Most people on campus did not want CBR to go home and most who did and who actually had the guts to come tell us, left with different attitudes.

Jarrod Cruz (jcruzl@utk.edu) wrote:

From reading their homepage, I got kind of scared but it was just a pleasure to stand out there talking with the [CBR staff] people for over an hour. It was also great to see the different cultures represented [among the CBR staff] behind the fence, especially when they compare it [abortion] to the similarities of civil rights…. This is a very powerful statement that they make …. I think what they are doing is great.

Another student (christnyou@aol.com) E-mailed us this uplifting little note:

Thank you ever so much for coming to the UT campus today…. Thank you for speaking out and standing up for the oppressed and innocent.

Camila Wright, president of the pro-life student group also experienced anxiety when first considering the GAP concept. She later E-mailed:

I am really excited about the whole thing. I was very nervous and scared at first but then I went up and just started milling around in the crowd. I joined in the conversation with everyone else and before I knew it I was supporting the group.

Nannette Baker (nbaker2@utkux.utcc.utk.edu) was another of our pro-life UT student volunteers and she wrote to say: “I want to thank you again for coming to Tennessee and bringing GAP, our campus will never be the same and our pro-life group really bonded and is even growing.” She added:

A lot of Christians came by [the GAP site] and were glad to find out that there was a pro-life group on campus and that there were people willing to travel across the country to give this message of life and hope to college students. I know some were skeptical at first … but after witnessing the love and patience of the CBR workers many accepted and supported them…. I thank God for CBR and all they do. I know God is with them because they have to look at those babies everyday and are filled with the love of God and are not consumed by hate.

So perhaps CBR isn't so "hate-filled" and "mean-spirited" as some might think.

A FINAL THOUGHT FROM A SEASONED VETERAN

Christine Lefebre has been involved in pro-life activism since 1970 – three years before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion nation-wide. She has seen it all. Here is what she says about GAP after helping us as a local volunteer at UT. Bear in mind that she says she once "resented" Gregg Cunningham " for espousing such confrontational tactics."

I will never forget the breath-taking moment when those hideous billboards were raised…. I had come only to observe, now all of a sudden, I was literally on the frontlines. It was a lonely, scary place to be. Within minutes two hysterical women came by screaming at us. One of them shook her finger in my face and cursed me. I wanted to run, but I didn't. I was riveted to that place. I stayed all that day and came back every day that week.

In thirty years of pro-life work, in nearly every area of the movement, I have never experienced 'confronting the culture' so explicitly, or so effectively, as during that week…. Two incidents stand out powerfully in my mind. A young woman with a shaved head, pierced nose and tight tee shirt sporting a pro-abortion bumper sticker across the front of it, confronted me that first day.

* * *

All of her experiences up until then, she said, made her 'pro-choice.' Then, as she gazed past me to the bloody images, her voice softened, 'But this experience… this I will have to think about for a long time. Maybe I've been premature in taking this position.'

* * *

The other incident happened very early that first day. I was standing alone, in my little cloud of doubt, when I saw a pretty, young black woman coming down the hill, walking purposefully toward the Humanities building…. She never took her eyes off the images, but as she started to cry, she whispered, 'It's just a word – Abortion! It flashes through your mind in seconds … I will never think about it the same way again!’ At that moment, my doubts disappeared. I am convinced that no one who saw those images that week will ever think about abortion in the same comfortable way again.

PLEASE SEND MONEY

Cable and satellite TV recently featured a Discovery Channel “educational science” program entitled “The Body Snatchers,” which described the human embryo as an “alien invader” which “takes over” a woman’s body. This adversarial analogy was compounded by the program’s comparison of human reproduction with an attack by a dangerous viral disease. The program has now been seen by millions around the world. Like the students at UT, most perceive the early unborn baby as a hostile blob. Anti-life propaganda of this sort constantly spews forth from the news, entertainment and educational media. Please help CBR counter this tide of fear and distortion. Please send us the most sacrificial check you can responsibly afford. We will never be funded by the corporate giants which sponsor main stream television. We have only you on whom to rely.

GAP is the only project of its sort in the country and CBR has now brought the indisputable truth about abortion to over 400,000 university students. Countless babies have been saved and will continue to be -- because the word abortion now means something to hundreds of thousands of students for whom it had been a mere abstraction. Because of GAP, as these young people move into positions of influence in our society they will now visualize the horror of abortion every time they hear that word. GAP may be gone from their lives but the pictures will remain in their heads -- for the rest of their lives. And some of those who didn’t have a functioning conscience when they first saw GAP will eventually develop a sense of right and wrong. And when that time comes, the pictures will still be there, ready to be seen in a new light – perhaps even the light of Christ.