by Bob Sullivan
As you drive through Nebraska, you commonly see billboards and signs which encourage you to “Choose Life,” “Protect Life,” or several other pro-life messages. Some of these signs and billboards include the Divine Mercy image brought to us through St. Faustina.
When I’m driving between Wahoo and Hastings, I know exactly where three of these large billboards stand, and they often act as a sacramental, reminding me to pray or at least think of God’s mercy and how grateful I should be for it. How many people notice that sign on the North side of I-80 near Seward and briefly turn their mind toward Jesus?
A while back, I was giving a talk in a public library. The topic was Planned Parenthood’s effort to get a foothold in rural Nebraska.
I had attended a Planned Parenthood talk at a church (of all places) a few weeks earlier. Afterward, I felt compelled to help people come together and fight to keep Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry from expanding beyond their small patches of dirt (bloody dirt) in Omaha and Lincoln. Originally, my talk was supposed to be a debate with one of the Planned Parenthood executives. I had invited them to join me for a debate, but they declined. Therefore, I just turned the night into a talk.
Planned Parenthood and other groups and efforts of the politically liberal bent have a pattern they have followed for many years, and it is a very successful pattern of behavior. They are like the velociraptors in the movie “Jurassic Park.” In that movie, writer Michael Crichton and director Steven Spielberg portrayed the velociraptors as calculating and cunning creatures who would intentionally come into contact with the electric fence which kept them in a certain area, in order to look for weaknesses. I am not portraying abortion advocates as reptiles, this is just an analogy to help illustrate how the abortion industry looks for new markets. They know there is a barrier, but they like to test the barriers from time to time in order to see if there are any weaknesses.
In the case of the talk at the church (thankfully not a Catholic church), Planned Parenthood was testing rural Nebraskans to see if there were enough “takers” for their deceptive message and their services. They found out that there were no weaknesses. Planned Parenthood soon closed up their small experimental office in Grand Island, and retreated. That was after my talk at the library, but I don’t think my talk caused them to retreat. The real reason was the efforts of the many pro-life advocates.
The reason I mention my talk is the fact that right before my talk, an abortion advocate happened to be hosting her book-signing in the very same room where I was scheduled to give my talk. Her book was a sort of blueprint on how to turn Nebraska into a politically liberal state. Her theory was that many people in rural Nebraska are actually liberal, they just need to learn more about liberal politics in order to start voting the ‘right’ way.
As she and her supporters exited the room, I began setting up for my talk. The author and I know each other, but apparently she was too busy to stop and chat. After all, she had several people waiting for her autograph. However, just as I was about to begin my talk, one of her helpers walked in and handed me an autographed copy of her book. I thanked him, put it in my backpack, and gave my talk.
The next day, I paged through the book. In her autograph the author wrote, “Bob: We can and need to stand together.” I thought that was an interesting statement since she didn’t bother to come to my talk after her followers departed. I sent an email and called her office later that day, but she never responded. Maybe the autograph was a forgery.
In the middle of her book, she wrote about abortion and claimed that the Midwest’s pro-life billboards have decreased in number over the years, and those that do remain are fading and sun-bleached. While I’m not sure where she’s driving, I have not observed the same thing. I could write 10 more columns on the other inaccuracies in the book, but my purpose of this column is to simply remind everyone that people are watching what we do.
The billboards matter to those of us who are pro-life, those who are not, and those who don’t know whether they are or not. The abortion advocates see weathered pro-life signs as an indication that Nebraskans are warming up to abortion advocacy.
As the American culture drifts further and further away from its Christian roots, the visible signs of faith, which often act as sacramentals, will be even more important than they are today.
These public signs and images sometimes outlast all critics. I have seen this in Rome and London, where statues of our Blessed Mother and other Catholic symbols still stand high above intersections and sidewalks of what are now very secular cities. Millions of people walk under these statues each week, most of whom never look up to notice that a sacramental has been 20 or 30 feet above them, as a reminder of their Catholic roots for decades or even more than a century. This is also why some governments such as Turkey and China, forbid Christian symbols in public. Sometimes they even build large buildings or walls in front of Catholic churches.
Planned Parenthood tested the fence and retreated, but they will be back. Will they find as much resistance next time? I pray they will. Visible signs of our faith and our pro-life efforts will play a big role in that.
