Life at All Costs: An Anthology of Voices from 21St Century Black Prolife Leaders

By Dr. Alveda King

GENERAL READERSHIP

Edited by Dr. Alveda King and Dr. La Verne Tolbert, Life At All Costs: An Anthology of Voices from 21st Century Black Prolife Leaders (Xlibris) includes chapters on abortion's impact in the black community, personhood, the genocidal roots of Planned Parenthood, personal stories from post-abortive women, family values, parenting and adoption, the new healthcare mandate, comprehensive sex education vs. abstinence, STDs, and more! This impressive volume concludes with a message for young Christians.

PARENTS, TEACHERS, MINISTERS, YOUTH LEADERS

Here's a new resource just for you! Life At All Costs: An Anthology of Voices from 21st Century Black Prolife Leaders (Xlibris) answers the tough questions kids ask about abortion, contraception, sexual activity, homosexuality, and more! Learn how to defend traditional values from a biblical perspective by reading this collection of essays and articles written by prolife leaders across the United States. Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dr. La Verne Tolbert edited this volume.

SEMINARIES, UNIVERSITIES

Life At All Costs: An Anthology of Voices from 21st Century Black Prolife Leaders is an excellent new resource for churches, seminaries, and universities. Ethical, social, and moral issues are evaluated from a biblical perspective. Finally, here's a chance to "hear" the voices of leaders in the black prolife communityvoices that are often muted by the media. Life At All Costs is edited by Dr. Alveda King and Dr. La Verne Tolbert.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469185057

Dr. Alveda King

Dr. Alveda King is a Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a grateful mother and grandmother. She is a former college professor, author, mentor, stage and screen actress, Georgia State Legislator and presidential appointee. She has been “honored” and “blessed” to sit on several boards, and has received numerous awards and honors. Through her ministry of King for America and her vocation as Director of African American Outreach with Priests for Life, she devotes her God- given gifts and talents of writing, singing, song writing, producing and directing media projects and other gifts “to glorify God in the earth”. Tony Smith, Illustrator Extraordinaire is perhaps best known for his entertaining caricature gifts. When watching Tony draw, you can tell that he enjoys what he does; making people laugh! They keep him smiling! After attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Tony started entertaining with caricatures and has been doing so since 1983. His talents also include portraiture and illustrations.

Book preview

Copyright © 2012 by Dr. Alveda King and Dr. La Verne Tolbert.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2012904966

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4691-8504-0

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4691-8503-3

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-8505-7

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To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

We Are Prolife

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

We Are Pro Family

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

Chapter 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

Closing Words

APPENDIX i

APPENDIX ii

APPENDIX iii

APPENDIX IV

Bios

Contributors In Alphabetical Order

(By Last Name)

Lift ev’ry voice and sing,

Till earth and heaven ring.

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise,

High as the list’ning skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chast’ning rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet,

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,

Out from the gloomy past,

Till now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,

Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who has by Thy might,

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,

Shadowed beneath thy hand,

May we forever stand,

True to our God,

True to our native land.

—The Black National Anthem by James Weldon Johnson

Open your mouth for the speechless,

In the cause of all who are appointed to die.

Open your mouth, judge righteously,

And plead the cause of the poor and needy.

(Proverbs 31:8)

Acknowledgments

image001_.jpg

On our cover is a photo of prolife political activist and legendary leader, Mildred Fay Jefferson (April 4, 1927-October 15, 2010). Dr. Jefferson helped launch the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and served as its Vice President (1973), Chairman of the Board (1974), and President (1975-1978). In addition to being a founding member of the NRLC, Dr. Jefferson launched Black Americans for Life and served on the Board of Directors of more than 30 prolife organizations.

Dr. Jefferson’s passion for saving the lives of the unborn may have been inspired by her education and subsequent career as a physician. After receiving a B.A degree summa cum laude from Texas College in Tyler, Texas and a M.S. degree from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, she entered Harvard University in 1947 and became the first African American woman to graduate from Harvard’s Medical School in 1951. She continued with a string of firsts . . . she was the first woman to be a surgical intern at Boston City Hospital and the first woman admitted to membership in the Boston Surgical Society.

Her interest in medical ethics and jurisprudence and their impact on law and public policy led her to the White House. President Reagan credited Dr. Jefferson with changing how he viewed abortion and wrote, You have made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is the taking of a human life. I am grateful to you.

And we are grateful, too.

Along with Dr. Jefferson, considered to be the mother of the black prolife movement, we acknowledge the countless leaders—men, women, grandmothers, grandfathers, pastors, and politicians—who lobbied for life in their families, churches, and communities. This legacy inspires Life at All Costs: An Anthology of Voices From 21st Century Black Prolife Leaders. Our prayer is that we will ignite passions in generations to come.

Rescue the unborn. Restore the family.

Dr. Mildred Jefferson’s Bio was retrieved on March 7, 2012 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Fay_Jefferson#cite_note-youtube.com-4

and http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1251

Introduction

This collection of articles, essays, sermons, and research papers from the multi-faceted voices of the National Black Prolife Coalition sounds the alarm. From pastors and ministers to post-abortive women, activists, authors, physicians, professors, and political activists, the black prolife movement exposes the truth about life issues that for too long have been silenced by the media.

But we have not been silent. Whether in the classroom, sanctuary, crisis pregnancy center, bus tour, or billboard, we have sounded a warning that abortion is murder and challenged America that it has to end. Our collective experiences are powerful witnesses to the horrors and falsehood surrounding this issue. No white lie is big enough to cover up what God has revealed. In this anthology, we share His truth.

Preserving the Author’s Passion

Co-editor Dr. Alveda King summoned the troops to submit their work. My task was to organize and to compile these submissions. In so doing, I resisted the temptation to line edit in order to preserve each author’s passion, style, and voice, but I did add subtitles to make reading easier along with very minor changes that unify this anthology so that we speak with one voice.

Throughout this book, you will be astounded by the numbers of children who have been aborted. Figures may vary from chapter to chapter due to the source of the information and/or the date of the original writing. Pick a number, any number—15 million, 15.5 million, or 20 million—you decide. No matter your choice, you must agree that abortion’s death toll in the African American community is nothing less than staggering.

And so is the death toll in other communities, as well. Our concern is not just for black babies, although African American preborn children die at astounding rates. Our concern is for all children, no matter their ethnicity. Yes, abortion primarily targets blacks, but the blood of the mutilated also flows in the streets of Hispanic/Latino communities, Caucasian communities and in the neighborhoods of the wealthy and affluent as well as in the poor.

We affirm the founding principle of this great nation—the guiding force of our forefathers—which is the Word of God, the Bible. Each author in this anthology adheres to this Christian heritage and writes from a biblical presupposition.

Scripture passages in this anthology are from the New King James (NKJ) or the New International Version (NIV). Designations are not specifically noted unless the quotation is from the Amplified Bible.

Easy Reading, Profound Impact

Because most chapters are brief, reading this volume is easy. Nevertheless, you will be profoundly impacted by what you discover between these pages. It is our prayer that this anthology speaks for the speechless and pleads the cause of the poor and the needy. It is our hope that convictions are challenged, minds are changed, hearts are healed, and prolife passions are refueled.

In publishing this volume, we humbly acknowledge that these are not all of the voices in the black prolife movement. There are many who share this legacy. Would that we could include everyone who has lobbied for life and against abortion!

From state to state and city to city, in neighborhoods, churches, and on street corners, there are millions more voices that join with ours to champion the cause of life. May our cries echo with theirs to raise high the banner! And as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often quoted, Let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream, (Amos 5:24).

—La Verne Tolbert, Ph.D.

We Are Prolife

An Africa proverb says,

No one knows whose womb holds the chief.

An African customs asks every expectant mother,

Are you the one?

CHAPTER 1

History of the National Black Prolife Movement

And the National Black Prolife Coalition

Dr. Alveda King

And now abide faith, hope and love. The greatest of these is love.

I Corinthians 13:8

In the early beginnings of the 21st century, a group of valiant yet war torn prolife African American individuals began to coalesce around a common goal. This phenomenon had occurred before in the history of America, and it is a blessing that such a group has emerged yet again.

Before we came together as a network, many of us believed that we were laboring along, as voices crying in the wilderness. As we begin to meet and work and pray together, we discovered unity in numbers.

While each individual in the movement is a leader in his or her own right, each agrees that there is strength in unity of purpose. So, this body of warriors is uniquely fitted for such a time as this, to tackle and attain victory for their common cause.

Many of the 21st century warriors would tell you that their gathering together came to be due to mighty and miraculous acts of God. They all generally agree that faith, hope and love work together in their group to bring about a certain unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.

Today, this group is known as The National Black Prolife Coalition (www.blackcoalition.org). In part, this is our history, which is yet in the making. Below is the original mission statement of the Black Prolife Movement and the current mission statement of the Coalition:

21ST Century Black Prolife Movement

Vision Statement

It is the vision of the National Black Pro-life movement to promote traditional family values and to produce strong and healthy families where babies are safe and able to reach their full potential in life.

Mission Statement

It is the mission of the National Black Pro-Life Movement to promote a culture of life through divine guidance.

Core Values

1. We believe God is the Author of Life and states have the authority to affirm life.

2. We believe children are essential; they are the lifeline to the survival to the human race.

3. We believe the cycle of life is continued through the fundamental marriage of one man and one woman.

4. We believe the community is the visible expression of life.

5. We believe the viability of a nation is connected to the value of human life in all stages.

National Black Prolife Coalition

Who We Are

The National Black Prolife Coalition is a network of prolife and pro-family organizations committed to restoring a culture that celebrates Life and Family cultivating Hope in the black community.

Vision Statement

To end abortion by restoring a culture of Life and the foundation of Family in the black community.

Mission Statement

We will promote traditional family values from a Biblical worldview to produce strong and healthy families where babies are safe and able to reach their full potential in life. Through education and awareness media campaigns, community events, political action, lobbying and coalition building of prolife and pro-family advocacy groups, we will restore Life, Family and Hope in the black community.

Core Values

We believe we are all deliberate creations, of one blood, made in the image of God.

We believe children are essential and deserve protection, personhood, nurture, and love in the womb and throughout childhood.

We believe the foundation of a stable and healthy society is rooted in the marriage of one man and one woman.

We believe the community is the visible expression of life.

We believe the viability of a nation is dependent upon its value of human life in all stages.

Genocide in the Bible

Pharaoh, seeking to abort God’s deliverance plan ordered the midwives to kill the babies when the mothers went into labor. This order for partial-birth abortion in Genesis sought to kill all baby boys of Moses’ nation to prevent the liberation of a people. The midwives refused to kill or abort the babies, because they feared God! Today, there are battles in the state legislatures to help doctors and nurses make the same choice for life.

Molech and Baal worship: During child sacrifice ceremonies, children were killed or burned alive. God forbade idol worshippers to pass children through the fire. Abortion clinics kill babies and burn them in incinerators today.

When Jesus was born, the king ordered all baby boys up to age two to be killed. Again, this genocide was planned to abort the liberation of a people. Today, Planned Parenthood and other eugenics advocates like Dr. Peter Singer advocate abortion. Singer writes that a baby is not viable until age two, leading some to consider post-birth abortion.

Consider! The sexual revolution is a demonic disaster! Fornication, adultery, rape, incest, abortion, same gender cohabitation all lead to a breakdown of the family!

Satan hates virgins, thus a sexual revolution that flies in the face of God!

Behold, a Virgin shall conceive . . . Satan hates virgins and babies, thus genocide, fornication, adultery, homosexual same sex sex, pornography, lust, and incest . . . and all kinds of vile sins.

And yet, procreative marriage, between one man and one woman eliminates all of the above. Jesus is Lord over all! And His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Price of Peace, The Everlasting Father, and His Kingdom shall have no end!

Connecting the Dots

1450-1800’s—Between 1450 and the end of the nineteenth century, slaves were obtained from along the west coast of Africa with the full and active co-operation of African kings and merchants. (There were occasional military campaigns organized by Europeans to capture slaves, especially by the Portuguese in what is now Angola, but this accounts for only a small percentage of the total.)

In return, the African kings and merchants received various trade goods including beads, cowrie shells (used as money), textiles, brandy, horses, and perhaps most importantly, guns. The guns were used to help expand empires and obtain more slaves until they were finally used against the European colonizers. The export of trade goods from Europe to Africa forms the first side of the triangular trade.

Across the Continents, Two Battles Raged

Wilbur Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. In later years, Wilberforce supported the campaign for the complete abolition of slavery, and continued his involvement after 1826, when he resigned from Parliament because of his failing health.

That campaign led to the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire; Wilberforce died just three days after hearing that the passage of the Act through Parliament was assured. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to his friend William Pitt.

President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War championed the abolitionists’ movement in America to end slavery. Three-thousand (300,000) white soldiers died fighting in the Civil War to end slavery. Blacks sold Blacks to white slave traders. Some Blacks even owned slaves. There were cruel white masters. There were white abolitionists. The battle was not white against black, but good against evil.

Slavery in the United States

Slavery in the U.S. began soon after English colonists first settled Virginia in 1607 and lasted until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865.

Before the widespread establishment of chattel slavery, much labor was organized under a system of bonded labor known as indentured servitude. This typically lasted for several years for white and black alike, and it was a means of using labor to pay the costs of transporting people to the colonies.

By the 18th century, court rulings established the racial basis of the American incarnation of slavery to apply chiefly to Black Africans and people of African descent, and occasionally to Native Americans.

In part, because of the Southern colonies’ devotion of resources to tobacco culture, which was labor intensive, by the end of the 17th century they had a higher number and proportion of slaves than in the north.

From 1654 until 1865, slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of the present United States. Most slaves were black and were held by whites, although some Native Americans and free blacks also held slaves. The majority of slaveholding was in the southern United States where most slaves were engaged in an efficient machine-like gang system of agriculture.

According to the 1860 U.S. census, nearly four million slaves were held in a total population of just over 12 million in the 15 states in which slavery was legal.

Of all 1,515,605 families in the 15 slave states, 393,967 held slaves (roughly one in four), amounting to 8% of all American families.

Most slaveholding households, however, had only a few slaves. The majority of slaves was held by planters, defined by historians as those who held 20 or more slaves. The planters achieved wealth and social and political power. Ninety-five percent of black people lived in the South, comprising one-third of the population there, as opposed to 2% of the population of the North.

The wealth of the United States in the first half of the 19th century was greatly enhanced by the labor of African Americans. But with the Union victory in the American Civil War, the slave-labor system was abolished in the South.

This contributed to the decline of the post-bellum Southern economy, though the South also faced significant new competition from foreign cotton producers such as India and Egypt, and the cotton gin had made cotton production less labor-intensive in any case. Northern industry, which had expanded rapidly before and during the war, surged even further ahead of the South’s agricultural economy.

Industrialists from northeastern states came to dominate many aspects of the nation’s life, including social and some aspects of political affairs. The planter class of the South lost power temporarily. The rapid economic development following the Civil War accelerated the development of the modern U.S. industrial economy.

Twelve million black Africans were shipped to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Of these, an estimated 645,000 (5.4% of the total) were brought to what is now the United States. The overwhelming majority were shipped to Brazil. The slave population in the United States had grown to four million by the 1860 Census.

Evil Fruit from a Wicked Tree

There is an ancient enemy to the human family that seeks to divide and conquer among the villages and communities. This enemy wears many different faces, but underneath, the motives are the same—to destroy the human family. From Bible days to the present 21st century, we can see that ancient idolatry and child sacrifices were part of the strategy to destroy the human family.

Genocide remains a major tactic in bringing about the destruction of the human family. Bible examples of such include the idol worship of Molech and the practice of child sacrifice. Another example is Moses who was spared from the partial birth abortion. And during the time of Jesus’ birth, baby boys were massacred.

As we enter more modern times, we can see that the western transcontinental modern slave trade where Africans sold Africans to Caucasian slave