During the “Preparing for a Post-Roe World” event at the recent Wilberforce Weekend, Jim Daly described how the Focus on the Family team displayed the truth about preborn babies right in the middle of Times Square. The event not only made a powerful case against abortion, it showed how courage is contagious, and how Christians can be emboldened to speak the truth in love even in difficult situations.
Here’s Jim Daly, explaining what happened in Times Square before the pandemic:
“What the Lord put on my heart was “Show them the baby.” Isn’t that just like the Lord to make it real simple? Show the baby! So, we applied for the permits and everything. Six months, eight months out, they’re not showing up. We got the permits at 7:30 the morning of our event.
But the Catholic cops were awesome. Tip the hat to the Catholic cops in Times Square. They called and said, “Hey, we like you guys. We’re going to do all we can do to help you out here in New York, OK?” That’s a true story. We’re like, “Awesome. We’ve got the cops on our side.”
But anyway, we get there, and there was a stage, we had 20,000 supporters that came in. 20,000. We were only permitted for 10,000, but they came in, and then we had all the bystanders. It was real simple.
We had a couple of speakers, and then we showed them the ultrasound right in Times Square. Now, the big ABC and all the big jumbotrons when we were eight months out [we asked] “We want to buy inventory for those jumbotrons.”
“Sure, there’s plenty of inventory. What do you want to show?”
“A preborn baby.”
“You know what? We’re all out of time.”
That is a true story as well. That’s exactly what they said.
The team came to me and said, “OK. Let’s just bring in our own jumbotrons.” So, we did, and we showed that baby…. Oh, whose baby was it? Abby, Abby Johnson’s baby in the back of the mobile (ultrasound) unit that people were spitting on and cursing at. And Abby’s in there, and her baby goes across Times Square and that baby’s heartbeat. Bum, bump, bum, bump. And everybody stopped. It was like this amazing spiritual silence. I mean it just stopped everything.
Everybody was looking. People were crying. I think one of the things that we need to do is show that emotional connection. These people know what they’re doing. They absolutely know what they’re doing.
About two weeks ago I had a broadcast recording that we’re going to air in a couple of weeks with Winsome Sears, Lieutenant Governor in Virginia.
So, these are her words to me. I could never say this, but she did, and I’ll repeat them. She said, “Planned Parenthood has been far more effective at killing black babies than the KKK ever was.”
She went on to say 6% of the population is African American women but 40% of the abortions. And we don’t think Margaret Sanger, the eugenicist, succeeded? Oh, she succeeded. Planned Parenthood just doesn’t admit it.
I had a Planned Parenthood executive tell me that. I said, “I’m a business person. I came from international paper. I didn’t go to seminary.” And I just said, “What is it that drives you?” She said, “Cash flow.” Cash flow. And I said, “That’s a very honest answer.” And one of the things we’re looking at— pray for us—because I said to her, “If it’s cash flow, what if I gave you—what’s an average abortion?” She said $600. I said, “What if I could pay you 1,200 for an adoption placement?” She said some clinics might do that.
So, I’m working behind the scenes right now—not so much now—to find some clinics that might be willing. Let’s turn them into adoption clinics. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
I’ll end with this. Again, I think for us in this century to look back to the first, second, third century: What did the Church do? That’s the blueprint, and what it is is action: Telemachus going to the gladiator events on January 1, 404 A. D. He went down to see what this thing was all about. He saw men killing each other in the colosseum. He jumps onto the floor of the colosseum in his robe and says, “You shouldn’t be doing this. You’re destroying people made in God’s image, each one of you.” And they killed him. But that was the last day they had gladiator events because it made an impression on the empire.
So, how do we make those impressions on the empire, that even hard hearts might crack open, and they might say, ‘Maybe it is life?’”
That was Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family at our “Preparing for a Post-Roe World” event from the Wilberforce Weekend. Focus on the Family will be hosting its annual SeeLife conference on June 14 at 7 p.m. Though this year’s event won’t be hosted in Time Square, it will be livestreamed and something you won’t want to miss. For more information on the SeeLife conference, visit: focusonthefamily.com/seelife22/
Publication date: May 26, 2022
Photo courtesy: Pixabay/Public Domain
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.