Game changer

By Christopher Mann

In 2010, Darren* was like many elite high school athletes. He could handle coaches, scouts, parents and other athletes. But a new baby—that was a game-changer.

“Just take care of it,” he softly lobbied his then-girlfriend, as they contemplated her news. Rachel* held her slightly swollen abdomen, knowing what he meant. Both wanted this mistake undone, and Darren could not understand why she objected.

Anger. Shouting. Blame.

Darren bolted, cursing the mistake and the young woman. Dreams of college, a plum draft pick, endorsement contracts, adoring fans and ESPN commentary gigs were imperiled. By a baby.

“This is undoable,” Darren preached to himself, “and I know just who could help me make Rachel open her eyes. Fonz is a pro. He’ll know.”

Indeed, Fonz is a pro, and in more ways than just his athletics credentials. But to understand Fonz, you need an introduction to a guy named Bernie Lacy.

Bernie Lacy

Some might dismiss businesses like Litho Press of “wearing religion on their sleeve” but the Indianapolis-based printer might quibble; faith is ubiquitous at the company, and co-owner Bernie Lacy is neither brash nor shy about why.

“Even if it was not ‘working’ in monetary terms,” Lacy explains, “honoring God is the right thing to do. We’re not perfect, but yes, we’re pretty upfront about our faith.”

In 2003, Litho Press hired a corporate chaplain to provide spiritual and personal counsel to its employees. Lunch-hour bible studies ensued, prompting a “high number” of commitments (and some re-commitments) to receive Jesus Christ as Savior. Employees are not required to participate, but the programs are popular. This, plus access to the company gym and other benefits, Bernie says, have resulted in helping lift the company morale and, incidentally, hit another “high number.”

Since 2003, Litho’s sales from clients like Delmonte, Budweiser, and Lancome have more than quadrupled from $4 million to $18 million. 

The money obviously helps the company thrive, but for Bernie, success in business means more personal margin to help men recover from something that greatly impacted his life and that of his family—abortion.

As a young man in 1985, Bernie’s then-girlfriend got an abortion. Two years later, a different girlfriend got an abortion. “They were very selfish decisions,” Bernie laments. “I felt like life was over. Today, I might have a son or daughter in their late 20s.”

Today, Bernie leverages something personally painful into something personally gratifying by volunteering to
counsel other men who are recovering from their own abortion experiences. Lacy says that men are often shell-shocked to learn about a girlfriend’s pregnancy and feel powerless to help the abortion-minded mother choose life.

Alphonso Bailey

In 2005, Bernie invited Alphonso Bailey to his Saturday morning bible study sponsored by the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Indianapolis and hosted at East 91^st Street Christian Church.

“I didn't want to go,” Alphonso said, but his wife encouraged him to give it a try, and he says that the meeting changed his life.

“So I was sitting there and they were talking about abortion, and it hit me,” Alphonso recalls. “When I was a junior in high school, 1978, my girlfriend had an abortion, and I was trying to talk her out of it. I wanted to keep the baby and I was trying my best, and I was so crushed. Before this meeting with Bernie and the guys, I never had talked about it, and all of a sudden I’m getting really emotional. I realize how old my son or my daughter would have been at this time. I never thought about the baby that was aborted in 1978. I never thought about it. I never had healed from it. When a girl gets an abortion, the guy thinks, ‘That’s her. That’s not me.’ But that was me, that was part of me in there, you know?”

 I realize how old my son or my daughter would have been at this time. I never thought about the baby that was aborted in 1978. I never had healed from it. 

In 1979, Alphso Bailey embarked on a rocky road as a stand-out college athlete, to drugs, violence and prison and then eventually to commercial success as a professional boxer. In 1989, Alphonso “Fonz” Bailey got married and settled down in Indianapolis to start a family.

Bailey eventually founded the prison ministry Down But Not Out, which leverages his fame and legacy as a professional boxer to reach prison inmates and inner city men for Christ. In 2005, Bernie helped Alphonso apply the grace and forgiveness found in Jesus Christ to the pain of his abortion loss. In 2010, Alphonso got a call from a young man who apparently knew a lot about his athletic legacy, but evidently had not heard about his abortion story.

 “So, this kid—I’ll call him Darren—is telling me about his predicament,” Alphonso recalls. “He’s got a bright future as an athlete and this baby is the way, and he’s like ‘Fonz, what do I do?’ He’s trying to get her to do an abortion and I’m like, ‘Man…you don’t want to do that. That will be one of the worst things you’ll ever regret.’”

“I shared with him my experience, and the pain I felt afterward for 36 years. I said, “Man, you’ll always remember that that was your son or that was your daughter. Don’t do this. You’ll never forget that.’”

“About a year later, I remember seeing him with his little daughter. That was cool.”
                                                                                                                 

After researching this story, I followed up with a call to Bernie to learn if he was aware of the impact he had on Darren. Bernie had just been whooped by his tennis buddy one of the year’s first cool summer evenings and was primed for something encouraging when he took my phone call.

“Bernie,” I asked, “when you met Fonz at that men’s counseling meeting at East 91^st Street Church in 2005, did you imagine that you might be playing a role in saving a baby in 2011?”

“No, never,” Bernie said without pause.

“An elderly man recently came to me to confess that he has his wife agreed to an abortion in the 1960s, before it was legal. These people are pro-life stalwarts but they have not shared this secret with anybody. They are living like we used to—in prison. Jesus died to set me, Fonz, Darren and this elderly couple free from guilt and shame.”

Psalm 32

1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

    whose sin is covered.

2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,

    and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away

    through my groaning all day long.

4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;

    my strength was dried up[b] as by the heat of summer. Selah

5 I acknowledged my sin to you,

    and I did not cover my iniquity;

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

    and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

6 Therefore let everyone who is godly

    offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;

surely in the rush of great waters,

    they shall not reach him.

7 You are a hiding place for me;

    you preserve me from trouble;

    you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

    I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,

    which must be curbed with bit and bridle,

    or it will not stay near you.

10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,

    but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,

    and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Darren and Rachel are real people, but their names and circumstances have been modified in order to protect their privacy. For more information about Bernie Lacy or Litho Press, visit www.LithoPress.com. For more information about the ministry of Alphonso “Fonz” Bailey, visit http://dbno.org.

Christopher Mann is the editor of In Business For Life, an online journal chronicling the lives of businessmen and businesswomen who leverage their resources for the defense of the preborn. Questions, comments and suggestions for future stories are welcome at InBusinessForLife@gmail.com.