Pro-life Spider-Man Scales Buildings to Save Babies
While some pro-lifers volunteer at crisis pregnancy centers, run in 5K fundraisers, or show up in the local capitals or even DC for the annual March for Life campaigns, one pro-lifer takes his support of the pro-life movement to new, uh hmmm, heights.
Meet Maison Des Champs. He’s a 22 yr old rock climber and finance student at the University of Nevada. He’s also passionate about saving babies. When he’s not in school, he’s climbing skyscrapers a la free solo style. That means he does so without safety nets, ropes, or harnesses.
He calls himself the Pro-life Spider-man, and his goal is to help non-profits raise money and awareness for pro-life programs and causes.
"The charities I'm raising money for provide housing, they provide health care services, they provide ultrasounds and adoption services to women who are abortion-minded in an effort to try to prevent them from going through with an abortion …”
He has climbed such buildings as San Francisco’s 1,070 foot high Salesforce Tower and, most recently, the equally tall New York Times Building in Manhattan, among others.
He carefully chooses the buildings with great consideration of the risks involved, and takes each climb in little increments, rather than charging to the top without caution or care. As explained by the NPR,
“During the climb, [he] picks out a spot to stop and rest every 10 feet or so. He doesn't view the climb as a 1,000-foot endeavor, instead, he sees it as many small accomplishments.”
He’s been arrested on several occasions, but deems his efforts worth the risks and the costs.
Click here to view his final ascent of the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. Police were awaiting him at the top to take him into custody.
I love Des Champs' perspective that he doesn’t see the ascent of a skyscraper as one, giant 1000 foot climb, but rather as small increments of accomplishment.
We might not all have the super power to climb skyscrapers in our efforts to save babies, but we can all do something.
What small part can you do?
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6, ESV).
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:13-26, ESV)
“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Exodus 21:22-25, ESV).
Dehumanizing The Humanity Around Us
Russell Moore writes:
Social media lit up during this year’s Super Bowl over the abortion lobby’s outrage about a chip commercial. Doritos aired an advertisement depicting a husband and wife proudly looking at an ultrasound of their unborn baby. Suddenly, the baby begins motioning for the Doritos chips that her dad is eating. Dad then begins moving his bag of snacks around his wife’s belly to get his baby to follow it, which the baby does.
In response, NARAL, a national abortion rights lobby, posted on Twitter, denouncing the ad for “using [the] #antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses.”
... The abortion lobby responded this way to a commercial that wasn’t in any way directed at them. It wasn’t about abortion at all. The outrage was because any hint of personhood inside the womb is the beginning of the end for a culture of death.
Moore concludes:
We cannot “humanize” what is already human, but we can certainly dehumanize the humanity around, or within, us. The abortion lobby wants the “fetus” to be thought of only in clinical language, as though he or she were merely an “it,” tissue to be disposed of.
Those who oppress the poor want them to be thought of merely in economic categories, as drains on the “system,” not as image-bearers of God. Those who want to “consume” pornography want to think of those on the screen as images, not as people with stories and hurts and families.
... When we sin against one another, we want to see the other person as something less than a person. We want to ask as the lawyer did to Jesus, “Who then is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29).
When those we dehumanize are seen, despite our best efforts, as human, we either repent or we become angered.
Shout Your Abortion or Shout to the Lord
The HUFF POST reports:
Activists Lindy West, Amelia Bonow and Kimberly Morrison started the #ShoutYourAbortion hashtag on Sept. 19 [2015], in response to the news that the House voted to defund Planned Parenthood. West asked people on Twitter to use the hashtag to share how their lives have been impacted by safe, legal abortion. Women who have had abortions told their stories, and allies used the hashtag to show support for a woman's right to choose.
Some representative Tweets read as follows:
My abortion was in '10 & the career I've built since then fulfills me & makes me better able to care for kids I have now. #ShoutYourAbortion
Honestly, my abortion at 20 was one of the first responsible, non-self-destructive, grown-ass choices I ever made. #ShoutYourAbortion
I've had 2 abortions. I don't have to justify or explain them to anybody. My life is more valuable than a potential life. #shoutyourabortion
My abortion was in '07. I didn't want kids then and still don't. I'm managing my own wellness. #ShoutYourAbortion
I've never wanted to have children, so I had an abortion. I'm thriving, without guilt, without shame, without apologies. #ShoutYourAbortion
I haven't needed an abortion yet, but I don't know of ANY regrettable ones. If you need a ride to yours, let me know. #shoutyourabortion
Not all the Tweets have been in support of the abortion boasts. In fact, many have used the hashtag to counter it:
Destroying Sea Turtle eggs: Felony. Destroying Eagle eggs: Felony. Destroying a Fetus(Human): Get high fives on Twitter. #ShoutYourAbortion
I kept my baby. Because her divine right to live trumped my selfish desire not to take responsibility for my choices. #ShoutYourAbortion
Abortion does not make you unpregnant. It makes you the parent of a dead child. #ShoutYourAbortion
Instead of using the hashtag#ShoutYourAbortion why not drop the PC language and say #IKilledMyBabyAndImProudOfIt?
Perhaps one of the more balanced responses came from one tweeter who said, “Regardless of your stance on abortion, why can't we all agree it's not something to brag about? Why is #ShoutYourAbortion a thing? Ugh.”
Indeed, why is #ShoutYourAbortion a thing? Not only are we sinners, but we are proud sinners. While we should be mourning our sin, instead we revel in it. As one internet blogger put it, “The idea seems to be that boasting is magical -- it can turn even the most shameful atrocities into good deeds worthy of praise. What a disgraceful delusion.”
All the boasting in the world cannot magically transform sin into sanctity, or murder into morality.
We must guard our own hearts, however, from the equally dangerous delusion of boasting in our own righteousness. The Apostle Paul was quick to point this out to the Corinthian believers who, rather than dealing with the gross immorality in their midst, chose instead to be proud of themselves for being so much better (1 Corinthians 5:2).
Long story short, there is only one cause for boasting: “Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord'" (1 Corintians 1:31).