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Pro-Life Training Program Series

Deliver Message With Flair, Humor

By Janet Baker
Treasurer, Pro-Life Maryland, Inc.

The ninth of the “Ten Principles of the Offensive” is to “Exploit your successes with vigor and imagination.”  Quite frankly, this is a tactic at which the anti-life forces excel.  They do act with flair, sometimes very questionable flair.  However, it is possible for us to do the same, within moral constraints, of course.

If we are to attract the attention of people to our message, we must put some flair into what we do.  A local “case in point” is the visits of “Franci(e)s the Fetus” to various abortion mills.  Mike Corrigan of Lifeguard used imaginative street theater to get across the point that fetuses are people no less than toddlers, adolescents, etc.

To get additional ideas, read some imaginative books.  One excellent book is Joe Scheidler’s 99 Ways to Stop Abortion.  It is chock-full of imaginative ideas that can be tailored to suit individual circumstances.

Scheidler suggests reading anti-life “how-to” books to get some ideas, understanding that anti-lifers use tactics that they would hate to have used against them.

I would suggest an obvious caveat emptor to that.  Some tactics in those books are inherently immoral, and the ends never justify the means.

Case in point – Life Dynamics once put out a small comic book called “Bottom Feeder” and sent it to various medical schools to dissuade medical students from pursuing careers as abortionists.  It told jokes about abortionists – but the jokes were distasteful and downright pornographic in nature.  

Sorry – no can do!  As depraved as their lives may be, abortionists are still made in the image and likeness of God, and we must uphold that inherent dignity.  

I am pleased to report that I no longer see “Bottom Feeder” mentioned on the Life Dynamics website; it seems that they have discontinued it, to their immense credit.  I respect LDI greatly for that, and for all their other great work.

Brian Clowes mentions the importance of humor in pro-life work.  He is quite right.  The anti-life folks do lack a sense of humor, and often it will intimidate them.  It can be fun to tweak their noses a bit, but that can never be a goal.  The measure of success is not how many pro-aborts we irritate, but whether the message gets across.

The use of humor and panache does involve a bit of balancing and learning.  I think we as a lot do tend to be overly conservative, not willing to take risks, make mistakes and learn from them (Do what you always did; get what you always got).

We need to get new ideas, try new things, but always keep in mind our larger goals and Christian charity and morals.