2006 National Pro-Life Chain in Freeport
The Life Chain in Freeport is over. Sunday, October 1, was a beautiful fall afternoon in Freeport. About 50 Pro-Life Christians gave of their time to stand up for life by lining up on Stephenson and West Streets to pray and be a witness for God’s unborn babies. They held signs that said “Abortion Kills Children” and “Jesus Heals and Forgives”. This seemingly small group was not alone. This scene was repeated all across North America in over 1,200 cities. We were pleased to see people from many different denominations and were grateful for their participation.
We would like to have a special acknowledgement to Pastor John Hollis and members of his congregation of the Church of the Nazarene. Pastor Hollis had the largest group of Christians represented from one church. Thank you, Pastor, for your extra efforts and your fine example.
We would also like to thank our good friends John DeVita , and Joe Gulotta, author of the book, “Pro-Life Christians” for coming over from Rockford to participate in our Life Chain.
Pray every day that soon this evil of abortion on demand will stop. Let us never forget that not so long ago in our history, the crime of slavery was once declared legal by the Supreme Court. Thank God this immoral law was stopped. The hideous act of abortion was also legalized by the Supreme Court. They were wrong in the case of slavery and they are wrong now in the case of abortion. Pray that God will be merciful to our nation, for as a nation we are all guilty of this barbaric act. If we men and women of faith do not speak out against abortion, then for our silence we will be judged with the wicked.
May God our Father richly bless all who did participate in the Life Chain. May He bless your families and may you all grow in love for each other as well as for God, our Father.
Below is the press release for the national life chain sent out by Royce Dunn. He has some interesting comments on why he feels the Life Chain is an extremely important pro-life activity. Please read what he has to say.
National Life Chain Sunday 2006
October 1 (2:30 - 3:30 in Each Time Zone)
Contact: Royce Dunn, Director of Life Chain 3209 Colusa Highway Yuba City, CA 95993 Phone: 530-674-5068
With the word "terrorism" embedded today in America's psyche, National Life Chain will line sidewalks in over 1,200 North American cities and towns Sunday afternoon, October 1. Committed to the sanctity of human life, participants will stand silently and pray, while holding signs that include Abortion Kills Children; Adoption: The Loving Option; Lord, Forgive Us and Our Nation; and Abortion Hurts Women. As the signs imply, the event is devoted to repentance, peaceful public witness, and ultimately to ending legalized abortion—which has mutilated and killed far more innocent preborn American and Canadian citizens than have decades of foreign terrorist activity.
Said Royce Dunn, Life Chain's director: "Adult America equates terrorism with brutal beheadings and heartless bombings perpetrated by radical Islamists; but if tens of millions of our fellow citizens could speak to us, with their questioning eyes piercing our hard hearts, they would recall fellow Americans who mercilessly suctioned, dismembered, tore and cut, crushed, burned, and starved them to death, while no institution in their culture defended them with serious resolve. Instead," said Dunn, "denial ruled the day. Denial by millions of Americans who advocate abortion but would never say they support the killing of preborn boys and girls. Denial by a citizenry who esteem America for her civility when in fact, notwithstanding our Judeo-Christian heritage, America now ranks among the earth's most violent nations. And denial by an institutional Church that claims to be prolife but has yielded much of its heart and integrity to self-indicting rhetoric, passivity, and hypocrisy." Anti-Nazi leader and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted that no civil law compels the Church to defend the innocent and helpless, but God's moral law surely does.
Thus Life Chain believes God still judges nations and that legalized abortion is closely linked with the prevailing terrorist threat America faces from abroad. The 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington did not equal one day's killing in U.S. abortuaries. Nor is terrorism America's only threat. Today our culture is sinking beneath abortion's bond with aggressive homosexual demands, with unabated pornography and sexual addiction, with illegitimacy now producing one-third of U.S. births, with STDs at epidemic level, and with cohabitation and divorce's assault on traditional marriage and family.
Inasmuch as America's and Canada's most influential leaders are their clergy—and preborn children's hope for survival rests strategically with the Church, Life Chain urges pastors to lead their congregations and parishes to an hour of sidewalk prayer on October 1. Said Dunn, "The future of our nation will be determined by church leadership. Our clergy control the privilege and power of our nation's pulpits and thereby, to an eminent degree, the moral climate in which our government functions. Surely pastoral accountability before God is heavy."
The Life Chain sign Abortion Kills Children is joined by Jesus Forgives and Heals and the joyful reality that God forgives repentant hearts and that He heals abortion's living victims who seek His forgiveness.
Life Chain is interdenominational and open to everyone who believes human life is sacred and will defend it peacefully. Participants follow the Life Chain Code of Conduct, which stresses a prayerful spirit and forbids frivolity, casual conversation, and negative responses to criticism. To date, over 12,000 Chains have been built in North America, plus Chains in several other nations, and no report has reached the national office of any participant being cited for an illegal act.