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Pro-Life Training Program Series

Pro-Lifers Must Stay On Offensive

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

The fourth of the “Ten Principles of the Offensive” is to “retain the initiative.”  Once a pro-life group has gained momentum, it must never let up.  It must make the opposition react to its initiatives, not vice-versa.  Defense, as a posture, will at best only lead to the temporary avoidance of loss.

Let us recall the Lord’s promise to us, “and the gates of hell will not prevail against you.”  We as Christians are supposed to take the initiative, to take aggressive action against the strongholds of Satan and his anti-life minions.  The scenario in that passage is that hell is under siege, not the other way around.  We must use bold, innovative and aggressive action against anti-life weaknesses, achieve surprise and exploit their errors.

Momentum is relatively easy to achieve initially, while the opposition is unprepared.  We must maintain it and continue to apply pressure to keep them off-balance and induce them to expend energy in defensive postures.

We must retain control and not surrender it.  We need to be able to react decisively and quickly to changing conditions, to be able to think quickly on our feet and to have contingency plans ready to go.

The most important time of the planning phase is in the very beginning.  We want to plan completely.  However, we need to keep the plans simple and make very certain we assume nothing; always have a backup in place.

Sometimes plans will fail, but when that happens, we must take it in stride, but also we must examine what happened so that we can learn for the future.

The fifth of the “Ten Principles of the Offensive” is to “specialize.”  Each individual has his own skills, talents and temperaments that make him suitable to a few select facets of pro-life work.  Moreover, each person has only a limited amount of physical, emotional and mental energy he can expend on pro-life work.  We must honestly evaluate where we can be of most use to the cause of life.

Sidewalk counselors and other front-line activists have been known to state that their work is “the most important.”  Some have gone so far as to disparage the efforts of those who engage in other facets of pro-life work, such as political activity.  Often, the converse has occurred.

All that is dangerous, divisive, hell-spawned balderdash.  To those guilty of such egotistical bravado, I suggest a careful study of I Corinthians 12 and 13.  The “most important aspect of pro-life work,” as set above other aspects, simply does not exist.  It is all vital.