This is why we are elated to tell you about the most recent project being led by the National Black Pro-Life Union. Day Gardner, the president of the organization has written:
Too many churches and too many black ministers close their eyes to the 15 million deaths of black children lost to abortion since 1973. Many pastors are not only afraid they will offend congregation members who have had abortions, but also afraid they may offend many family members—wives, sisters, mothers and daughters who have traveled down the road to abortion providers.
Gardner is correct. For as long as I can remember, in the many ways American Life League has tried over the past 27 years to involve black community leaders, we have consistently encountered a brick wall built of apathy and cemented in place by the very fear she is writing and talking about. I can remember black members of our staff coming back after trips to the inner city in Chicago, Philadelphia and elsewhere with disheartened faces. Nobody seemed to have the solution to the problem of motivating black Americans so that they would rise up and decry this violent attack on the most innocent members of their race.
And I recall the early days of Pastor Johnny Hunter and the LEARN organization. It was his goal, regardless of the slow progress he made, to motivate and excite black America. We stood with him during those early days and we stand with him now that the field of leaders has grown stronger and their message is finally reaching the American public.
I honestly believe the tide is turning thanks to the persistence of people like Pastor Hunter, Day Gardner, Dr. Alveda King and others. On February 28th a coalition of black Civil Rights activists will host a press conference in Washington, DC and from the offices of the Family Research Council they will march and pray at key locations in the nation’s capital. As Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., says about the meaning of Black History Month (February):
We take one month out of the year to remember the tragedies and celebrate the triumphs of African Americans in history, but the struggle for civil rights is not yet over. We are the underground railroad of our time and it’s up to us to make abortion a thing of our historical past.
Pastor Johnny Hunter echoes those sentiments, and tells us that,“Like lynching, this must come to an end. Through prayer and repentance, justice will prevail.”
I am so proud of these leaders and their goals. It is my fervent prayer that their efforts, focused on this major press conference and the march that follows, will be covered by the national media, reported from one end of this nation to another. I look forward to the time when black Americans rise up and speak with one voice in defense of their babies and the tragic violation of civil rights that occurs each and every time a preborn child is torn from his mother’s womb.
Please pray for these leaders and their historic effort.
