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GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Activism
Activism is the most vibrant way to expand the size and influence of the
conservative base. A goal is to organize broad grassroots activism in all
67 Pennsylvania counties. We do not merely seek to work for political
campaigns or lobby, but to build a grassroots base to generate political
clout in Harrisburg. We need to prepare society to go beyond Roe toward a
society in which violations of human life are unthinkable. Activism is a
way to prepare the next generation.
The Big Picture
Socializing our children and grandchildren is the most important
responsibility of civilization. All moral conservative issues are vital
to socializing the next generation. Society is always only "a generation
away" from anarchy.
Moral and conservative issues work together and comprise an entire way of
life. Religion must "turn the heart of the fathers to the children and
the heart of the children to their fathers"(Malachi 4:6). Limited
government allows the family to socialize the next generation; home
schooling asserts parental authority over education and socialization.
Unity is required. A house divided against itself cannot stand. The
virulent vices of sexual impurity, homosexuality, pornography, gambling
and drugs destroy men's souls and create the black market for egregious
violations of human life in daughters kidnapped or sold for prostitution,
sexual slavery, abortion, organized crime, terrorism and "souls of men"
(Compare Rev. 18:10,11,13).
Vices are urgent issues. Yet the debate over nominees to the U.S. Supreme
Court is over abortion. While defending each issue one at a time is
necessary to try to hold the moral ground, abortion emerges as THE
battlefield on which the entire way of life will stand or fall, be won or
lost. Liberty and Constitutional rights cannot be maintained without a
Christian worldview, but a Christian worldview requires an abiding respect
for human life created in the image of God. "Abortion rights", "a woman's
right to choose" not only destroys the right to life, but marriage, family
and the rule of law. Thus there are strategic and pedagogical reasons for
all conservatives to continually relate their issues to each other and
especially to the right to life to work together synergistically.
Teamwork and Synergy
A house divided against itself cannot stand. The coalition would foster
teamwork among conservative activists and groups that the whole may be
greater than its parts.
A Statewide Pro-life and Conservative Coalition
A coalition strong enough in the pro-life cause to serve as Statewide
Pro-life Coalition with an urgency appropriate for matters of life and
death. Scripture demands responsibility. Our own lives are at risk if we
know but do not rescue those who are perishing (Proverbs 24:11-12). |
VISION
WHEREAS there has been a lack of conservative influence in Harrisburg, an
umbrella coalition to facilitate teamwork among a broad range of
conservative activists and organizations will help overcome this
deficiency.
In a blue state like Pennsylvania, conservatives have a difficult time
influencing policy. A vision for a successful coalition would include the
kind of widespread grassroots influence that caused the recall of state
Supreme Court judge Russell Nigro which forced the Legislature to repeal
its pay raise in 2005. A coalition would endeavor to:
i) facilitate communication among conservative factions enabling them to
team up on issues and spread action alerts across a broad range of
activists and organizations.
ii) to increase the size of the conservative base, its vitality and
influence by organizing grassroots activism in all 67 counties of PA.
WHEREAS we support political unity, nonetheless, widespread
dissatisfaction exists with pro-life advocacy in Pennsylvania. Among
other things, the Pennsylvania Pro-life Federation opposes ending state
tax funding for "family planning" for organizations like Planned
Parenthood that promote "safe sex", contraceptives for children, that
conceal and facilitate statutory rape and other criminal activity and
which perform or procure abortions. Indeed, a nationwide decline in
private donations to Planned Parenthood is being made up by increases in
government funding. In contrast, ending state funding in Texas and
Mississippi has been followed by closing of abortion facilities.
While government funding of a public school curricula like abstinence
education is appropriate, government funding for pro-life advocacy is
structurally flawed and creates a dependency on the government
bureaucracy. Freedom is essential for healthy advocacy.
Dissatisfaction exists with pro-life advocacy that discredits the urgency
in matters of life and death. Approaches that advocate saving lives
incrementally; with advocacy that discredits and neglects the First
Amendment right to public assembly established the founding fathers,
thereby undermining the ability to mobilize the kind of public pressure
sufficient to stop homicides like that of Terri Schiavo.
Dissatisfaction exists with pro-life advocacy that aids abortion by
discrediting and suppressing graphic images. Graphic images, verbal and
visual, are a historical tool of moral education. They are the most
effective way to show why abortion should be criminalized. If there are
to be laws criminalizing abortion in the cases of rape, incest in all
fifty states, the proper use of graphic images will be instrumental in
gaining public support. As the 13th Amendment prohibited slavery
following the Civil War, and if there is also to be a Life Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution protecting human life from conception to a natural
death, graphic images must find their way into the public consciousness
and legislatures.
They must be used in support of arguments, facts and testimony. If laws
against abortion are going to be effective, graphic images must become a
part of education for future generations.
The effectiveness of graphic images has been proven. Partial-birth
abortion diagrams used in Congress changed public opinion about abortion
by focusing on the procedure. Graphic images used in the New Jersey
Legislature resulted in the passage of a state partial-abortion ban. That
graphic images save lives is manifest in the babies saved by the steady
trickle of women
who cancel plans for abortion after seeing graphic images.
Graphic images even affect abortion advocates. After seeing the remains
of a 10-week old pre-born child in a medical tray, Verlin Klinkenborg
wrote in Harpers Magazine, "I felt a profound and unmistakable kinship
with the foot and hand in the tray... there was the imputation of
innocence". His ability to sympathize with the abortion patron decreased
precipitously.
Abortion advocates are terrified by graphic images that show what they
freely advocate and force them to defend it.
THEREFORE, a meeting is called for activists, members and representatives
of organizations that support the pro-life and all conservative causes -
pro-family, pro-decency, Constitutional rights: the Second Amendment,
religious liberty and free speech, limited government, home schooling,
minorities, student and young adult, etc... In order to organize a
statewide conservative umbrella coalition dedicated to teamwork among
conservatives, growth of the conservative base and TO BE strong enough in
the right to life to serve as a statewide pro-life coalition.
Contact us at
steve@palifevote.org or Bill Depner at
william@palifevote.org |
