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. 

A Little Perspective

By Sunday night, life had becoming more than a bit overwhelming.  Every light on my emotional dashboard was flashing red.  Every day was Groundhog Day.  Every duty had become drudgery.  I desperately needed a little perspective.

Fortunately, I found it in the cozy near north side Indy home (a.k.a. Urban Retreat Center) of some dear friends who were kind enough to welcome me on short notice.  Beth and Dave take "gracious hosts" to a whole new level.  Their beautifully renovated one hundred year old home made for the perfect retreat.  Their gentle spiritual direction gave me just enough guidance to get my life back on track, while allowing ample time and space for processing and renewal. 

I've often said that you cannot have a perspective you've never had.  Meaning, it's virtually impossible to see things from another perspective without assuming another position.  I read an article recently making the scientific case for the cerebral benefits of getting away...changing one's venue.  Doing so literally rewires the brain's circuitry, thereby enabling new ways of thinking about and new ways of seeing things...all things...a truly new perspective.

By getting my butt in gear during my 3 day urban retreat, I found some fun new gears in my brain.  For example, though I worked in downtown Indy during my early career, I had never perched myself on the steps of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument whilst enjoying a cup of coffee and people watching.  The brisk 2.5 mile walk to get there put my brain right where it needed to be.  And, my butt needed a rest.  I chuckled when I saw the young lady sitting on the wall reading a book right above the sign that read, "Stay Off The Walls".  She didn't really look like a rebel, but as she quietly ignored the rules, I obediently sat on the steps.

I'm still processing my retreat experience.  In fact, I'm still in the midst of it.  This is the morning of my third day.  I'm heading back to "the matrix" in just a few hours.  Last night, as I was getting ready for bed, the familiar anxiety began welling up inside.  My mind was getting a head start on the short journey home.  The gravitational pull of the matrix was telling me to retreat from my retreat and return to "reality".  I wasn't ready.  

So, I prayed an unusual prayer -- "Lord, if there's something I need to know, some additional perspective I really need to have, then please reveal it to me in my dreams tonight."  This morning I awoke in a panic.  I had just been fired by my employer, IBM.  They gave me four months of severance after thirty-five years of service.  At age 56, I still had significant obligations and needed to work.  And, I only had until Labor Day to figure out where.  What was I going to do?  I was terrified. 

My real IBM career ended in February of 1984 after five and a half years of service.  There was no severance, because I left for the opportunity of a lifetime.  I've been in the God-ordained world of entrepreneurial terror ever since.  And thanks to a little perspective  gained while sleeping on the job, I wouldn't have it any other way.  Back to the matrix!   

    



       

Human Life Is Always Legitimate

When Congressman Todd Akin went to bed Saturday night, he had a legitimate shot at becoming the "show me" state's next senator.  But Sunday was a comin' and with it came a firestorm set off by the Congressman's incendiary "legitimate rape" remarks made during a St. Louis TV station interview.  Akin's remarks may not only torch his senate campaign, but could also cause significant smoke damage to the Romney/Ryan presidential ticket.  Tampa, we have a problem.

The Romney/Ryan ticket may suffer some collateral damage from Akin's gaffe because last year Congressmen Ryan and Akin co-sponsored the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”.  This controversial bill introduced the term "forcible rape" in an effort to severely curtail the number of abortions performed on rape victims with taxpayer dollars.  Proponents were simply trying to avoid illegimate rape claims by women who were just looking for the government to pay for an abortion they couldn't  afford.  Reasonable enough from a pro-life perspective, but very difficult to legislate. 

Currently lost in the Akin firestorm, however, is the central issue that should outrage every American regardless of sex, race, religion or political stripe.  Namely, that human life is always legitimate, no matter its origin.  Yes, rape is tragic.  Impregnation by rape is a seemingly unspeakable tragedy.  But, it does not negate the embryological fact that a human embryo is just that --a human.  Though I think Congressman Akin's remarks were boneheaded and embarrassing to conservative Republicans, I do support the logic behind his closing comment on the rape/abortion subject --"The punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child".

People who are otherwise pro-life support the rape exception for abortion, believing it avoidsfurther punishing the victim for her perpetrator's crime.  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are in this camp .  It's a noble thought, though an illogical one.  Pro-lifers oppose abortion for one simple reason --they believe that an unborn child is a human being and that no one has the right to take an innocent human life...period.  It matters not from whence the life came.  The rape exception effectively says that the comfort of the rape victim is morally superior to the life of the unborn child.  This may be a safe political position to assume, but logically and morally it is fatally flawed.

With our nation's politics entering the ultimate silly season, I'm hopeful that the Akin firestorm will serve to purify the arguments on both sides of the abortion debate.  Because in a pure debate where logic is forced to support the moral foundation upon which one stands, I am confident that those standing on the pro-life foundation will prevail.    







             



          

 

    

Freedom For All But The Most Deserving

Today we celebrate the two hundred and thirty-sixth anniversary of our nation's independence. American flags appropriately fly over our gatherings of family and friends, as patriotic pride overshadows politics and social issue divisiveness on this --Uncle Sam's birthday.  Like millions of my countrymen, I too am proud to be an American.  However, when I read the Declaration of Independence, my pride turns to shame when I consider the ones whose certain unalienable rights have been denied them for nearly forty years now...the most innocent and defenseless among us...our unborn American children:          

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Since the fatally flawed Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, we've been living in a country governed by laws that often value animal, sometimes even plant life, above human life.  I’m reminded of this every time I go to my office.  The lake outside my window is home to a large flock of Canada Geese.  Come to think of it, the lake outside most office windows in America is home to a large flock of Canada Geese.  Although beautiful creatures, they are far less valuable in the eyes of their Creator than any human life ever conceived.

Yet, The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 affords geese far more protection than we give innocent unborn American children.  The penalty for destroying a goose egg in America today can be up to $5,000 and six months in jail.  The penalty for destroying an unborn child?  Sadly, there is none.  Seriously?

As you give thanks to the One who gives us true freedom this 4th of July, please add a special prayer for our country to restore those certain unalienable rights to those most deserving of it.  And, may every goose sighting hereafter prompt you to do the same until a woman's right to choose no longer trumps a child's right to live.   

Click here to read the full text of The Declaration of Independence.  

       

Compassionate Plea to Abortion's Living Victims

There are over 50 million living victims of abortion in America today.  By "living victims", I'm referring to the estimated 1 in 4 men and women who have been party to at least one abortion.  This purposefully compassionate reference to those who chose to terminate a pregnancy in no way diminishes the gravity of the choice they made.  Nor does it diminish the fatal fact that the ultimate abortion victims are the unborn children. 

However, those who exercised their legal right to choose deserve something beyond the condemnation so incessantly heaped upon them by far too many within the pro-life movement.  They deserve what anyone else deserves whose ever made a life-changing decision with oft times unbearable unintended consequences.  They deserve compassion.         

What they get instead, is heaping helpings of guilt and shame served up by self-appointed, pro-life judges. Jesus Himself saved His most excoriating critiques for such Pharisees who twist the Scriptures, while cloaking themselves in cliches like, "love the sinner, but hate the sin".  You won't find this in the Bible.  But, as Tony Campolo points out towards the end of this video, what you will find are numerous passages exhorting us to love the sinner, but hate the sin in ourselves.   

It's no surprise then that most living victims of abortion have gone underground with their abortion secret.  Amongst party-goers and church-goers alike, abortion is the ultimate taboo topic of conversation.  It's also one of the last secrets to be shared between even the most intimate of friends.  Therein lies the rub --a procedure performed in secret within a culture hell-bent on keeping it that way. 

If you have no regrets about your role in a past abortion, this post is not for you.  No need to gnash your teeth over the "living victim" moniker.  It's not about you.  It's about those who just can't seem to shake the memory of that fateful day.  To the woman who senses that she not only lost the life within her, but also a part of her very heart and soul.  To the man who wonders if anything less than begging his woman NOT to get an abortion then should prompt him to beg her forgiveness now.  I'm reaching out to such men and women because I believe they represent the vast majority of all living abortion participants.  As such, they also represent the key to ending abortion on demand in America. 

Forty years is long enough for America to wander through the abortion wilderness.  Nearly sixty million pure and innocent voices shout this truth from the halls of heaven.  They're saying it's time for the living victims to come out of their bunkers and hear the “Good News” that God has for them. 

You are not alone.  God is with you and the 25% of the American adult population who believed the "right to choose" lie.  No one has to convince you of the guilt of your abortion sin, but neither does anyone have the right to condemn you.  Knowing your own burden, imagine the devastating toll being exacted upon our nation by the combined burdens of your fellow living victims.  But, don't stop there.  Imagine being free of that horrible burden once and for all.  You can be...you need to be...our country desperately needs you to be.

But you say, “I don’t deserve forgiveness. I deserve to suffer for the rest of my life.” While it IS true that none of us deserves the forgiveness that God so freely gives, it is also true that without it, we can never be the person God intended us to be.  Could it be that God wants to set you free, so that you can help others avoid the same mistake? Could it be that God could use you, yes YOU, to end abortion in America in your lifetime?  Could it be that God led you to read this so He could tell you how much He loves you and how much He wants to have a personal relationship with you?  Could it be...?

Yes, it could be...and it could be today.  His name is Jesus, God's one and only son who died for you.  He died to set you free from the guilt of all sin, including the sin of abortion.  He proved His power to do so by raising from the dead after three days and then appearing to hundreds of people before ascending into heaven where He anxiously awaits you.  He's the Savior of the world and He can be your personal Savior. 

Jesus made it abundantly clear that His death and resurrection covered all sins past, present and future for all people.  He did so as he hung dying on the cross, looking down on those who put him there and saying, "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34)".  Today, Jesus stands between you and God the Father saying, "Father forgive <your name> for their abortion sin.  She/He knew not what she/he was doing."

Once you meet Jesus face-to-face, His focus is not on your past sins, but upon the sin free possibilities of your future.  So how can you meet this wonderful Savior?  For me, someone shared the truths within a little booklet called The Four Spiritual Laws when I was clearly ready to receive it.  I literally prayed the prayer on page 10 on April 13, 1975 and haven't been the same since.  I invite you to do the same.  After all, isn't it time to lay that burden down and be truly free?