Join us this Wednesday for our monthly Campus Face the Truth Tour. We will be at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois, Chicago Campus. For information call our office or see our itinerary online.
Campus Truth Day Wednesday
It would be a great Holy Week experience, especially if pro-aborts come out to try to counter our truthful posters showing what abortion looks like. It’s a great way to see first hand what its like being mocked by those who hate the truth. You’ll also meet people of good will who appreciate our showing the public the reality of the culture of death.
Debate over Graphic Images in the News
It has been an education following the debate going on in the newspapers as a result of the pictures of the massacre of four Americans in Fallujah, Iraq. Leon Lazaroff writes in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that, as often happens with horrific images, some readers and viewers express outrage at such graphic pictures. He says also that the images may be so powerful that they leave the viewers hungry for more explanation.
Editors have had a hard time determining which pictures to use. ABC-TV and CNN-TV showed video of the bodies hanging from the bridge. The Chicago Tribune, New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer showed still shots of these bodies on the bridge. The Chicago Sun-Times used a picture of a burning car. A CBS-TV video blurred the bodies on the bridge. One editor said it would be wrong to soft pedal the reality of what happened, while NBC said it was wrong to show the pictures during the dinner hour.
Some networks used still pictures of the bridge hangings. While each outlet made its own determination, most local stations did show the bodies hung from the bridge. One caller to the Tribune said the story could have been told without the photo.
Using Graphic Images to Fight Abortion
So the argument goes on. Take the debate over The Passion of the Christ — too graphic for some! With our pictures of aborted babies on our Face the Truth tours, this debate continues, and there is probably no answer to cover every situation. We use warning signs ahead of the display. But with some professionals calling it a disservice to the public to sanitize the image and soft pedal the truth, and others saying it’s wrong to shock, and be ghoulish, take your pick.
We think serious truths need serious graphics. We are a visual society. We saw horrific pictures of the holocaust, of the lynchings, of children doing hard labor, of many atrocities. We’ve been shown the truth of injustices, and changed some of them. So why shouldn’t we let the truth be told about abortion, especially if something can be done to stop it?
That’s where we stand. The more people see how ugly abortion is, the more they will be moved to oppose it. Nationwide, people must look at the graphic pictures of aborted babies or the holocaust of the unborn will not be stopped, and we’re willing to pay the price of hostility and ridicule to put this truth before the American public — not to shock but to show the truth about abortion in the hope that their good will and inherent sense of justice will bring about the action needed to end abortion.
Stand Up for the Truth
We tell people that if they don’t like the pictures, then help us stop abortion and we’ll stop showing what it looks like. We’d like nothing better.
We hated the picture of Americans being hung on a bridge in Fallujah. But it happened that way, and it needed to be seen. We hated seeing Christ scourged and crucified in Gibson’s The Passion, but that’s what it looked like. At least the Pope thought so.
So come join us on the street Wednesday. It’s the right thing to do, and it will make your Holy Week more holy.