September 21 update

In Swansong (from pro-life leadership) #1 the following was written: “The post election fires of purgation still burn brightly in Kansas, and some of my former associates are yet being thrown to the lions and under busses there.”

Here is the update on that … a career headed to the stake.  More are likely to follow in short order.

In a related story, the same watchdog reports the following hint of a plethora of investigations ongoing in Kansas …

Slow Processing by the Disciplinary Board. The McGraw and Weber cases were [deemed] “old” and [ones that] should have been brought to the Supreme Court months ago. Several of the Justices quizzed the Deputy Disciplinary Administrator why the cases were only now being brought. The explanation was that one of the investigators became ill and resigned. The justices didn’t seem to understand why that should cause a delay of 18 month so more.

Of course, the above may also reveal a desire on the part of some on the court to quickly move forward with investigations still in progress.  But that is mere conjecture.

September 22

Operation Rescue is breaking a story(and likely  sharing expert opinion/insider information) on a subject that they have tracked for many years.   They have stood with Phill Kline through thick and thin — they could teach a lesson on such fidelity in spite of difficult factpatterns, in fact.

We add only this:  Hatred and vendetta are not detered by state boundaries, and can travel across our nation as easily as interstate commerce.  Especially when fueled by the dogma of political correctness, and especially in the legal profession.

September 23

Eric Rucker, former Chief Deputy under Attorney General Phill Kline, has now shown up in news reports about ethics charges in Kansas alongside former Assistant Attorney General Steve Maxwell and former Attorney General Phill Kline.

Here is the reporting from a Culture of Life newsource.

And a Fox affiliate

And Topeka’s mainstreammedia.

The comments to the latter reveal what could be deemed “high negatives” in the Topeka market.

As I (Bryan) stated in the last post, one of the three major 2008 objectives of the Institute have gone unfulfilled.

This is not meant to detract from the great work that has been accomplished in 2007 and 2008, as the posts on this website and the daily prayer at the remodeled abortion clinic attest. Much as been accomplished! I will have more to say on who and how in the posts to follow.

We have done well on the ArchAngel Raphael directives. Click on the above tile. Most 2008 goals have been met. The former clinic is restored and a post abortive woman now staffs it.

We have set up the studio and completed some recordings on the ArchAngel Gabriel Division. It is ready to go and more sessions are contemplated.

While the ArchAngel Michael Division has been quite productive – perhaps the most productive — much of it is hidden from view. Much of it was me (Bryan) interfacing with the Indiana and Kansas authorities. A book’s worth of materials have been produced and may soon be published.

The post election fires of purgation still burn brightly in Kansas, and some of my former associates are yet being thrown to the lions and under busses there. Here are some posts on that subject. And some more.

And here is a recent KS Supreme Court case on the topic, (here is Time Magazine’s story on the case) and here is where even more fireworks will take off from in a few days from now. There is powder yet to be touched off in this whole Kansas affair. I predict it will make national news a few more times before all is said and settled. And some will lose much more than has already been lost.

Good men and women who served under my command in Kansas have been put to the stake, in some cases merely because they rode with me and Phill Kline. I have attempted to aid those whom I could. Sometimes with good results, sometimes with bad results. One young man has been, like me, blacklisted and blackballed through the politically charged process.

But all of that legal activity did not translate into the major 2008 goal of the ArchAngel Michael Division being met. That major goal should have been an easy one – get my admission moved from Kansas, where I had been an attorney for 11 years, and even a chief law enforcer for four years, to Indiana. It should not have been that difficult.

But it has been, and partly by my own fault. I am, at the end of the day, much like another Hoosier you know. Click here.

And so a consequence should follow. And it has. Economic resources were drying up last summer, at which time I decided to forgo a salary in order to continue building the Institute. I then told my lovely wife that something awaited us, something good, on the other side of the Feast of the ArchAngels. That Feast was our launch. Here is the post on that launch.

A new assignment arrived for me on October 2, 2008 – the Feast of the Guardian Angels. We had prayed for deliverance during the all day prayerathon during our September 29 launch. The Heavens moved and I have been re-assigned. And the new assignment is a full time commitment, and then some.

I actually had stepped off of the ArchAngel Board six months ago, allowing it to take off and establish itself without me. Click here. This was healthy and productive. It has also opened up the Board and ArchAngel to fresh ideas, so if you are interested in getting involved now is a great time to do just that! Merely email us at archangelinstitute@gmail.com to volunteer.

I am now prepared to take the next step in turning the Institute over to God’s appointed leaders. It is the logical consequence of my inability to become licensed in Indiana and my new assignment. I have resigned my commission as Executive Director of the ArchAngel Institute, effective January 13, 2009. After that date I shall enjoy no perks or insignia of leadership with the Institute.

The date of January 13 is an important one in the timeline that is my life in the pro-life Movement. Details to follow in a series of personal, final posts from me. I plan to post to this website up January 13 and to then take a well deserved sabbatical from “the Movement.” This will allow the ArchAngel Institute to grow however the Lord God Almighty wishes – without my direct input or oversight.

Stay tuned for more of my swansong. After having spent 20 years on the Front I do have a few things to say at my retirement party.

In this previous post I introduced the reader to Professor James Duane. He was not only my favorite prof at Regent University School of Law (Virginia Beach), but he was also one who pulled my proverbial bacon from the bureaucratic fire. Here is the how:

I was a full time pro-life “community organizer” in Wichita after leaving the Fort in ’91. The abortion industry (i.e. Susan Hill and Ulrich Klopfer, with the help of the NOW and ACLU) had pretty much run me out of Fort Wayne on a rail, and I threw myself into pro-life work in Wichita with reckless abandon and good results. Our group, Godarchy Productions, hosted Christian concerts, managed security for sidewalk counseling, continuously confronted the infamous serial killer George Tiller and ran a very successful boycott against the University of Kansas’ abortionist training program which operated out of an HCA hospital (formerly Wesleyan-affiliated) there. When the controversial (I received numerous threats of violence, including death threats) boycott succeed one of Wichita’s three abortion clinics closed up shop for good.  (The Market Street clinic, formerly known at “the crypt.”)

I made more than a few friends in Wichita and many, many high placed enemies. This initial post puts much of it in historic perspective.

Come November, 1992, my father, John R. Brown, challenged me to continue my quest to become an attorney. I had done quite well on the LSAT and been seated in law school at Indiana University twice. In both instances my work in the Movement had caused me to forgo attending law school. In November of ’92 my Dad sprung for tickets for me to attend a Regent University preview weekend, where I met Professor Jim Duane and attended a session similar to the one presented at the end of this post.

I was more than favorable impressed with Jim, with the Dean Herb Titus and with Regent in general. I applied once I returned to Kansas.

I was accepted and received a scholarship for my community organizer work. (Obama and I really need to have lunch and compare notes sometime.) I started my schooling at Regent in August, 1993. At the end of the first year of law school I caught up with Professor Jim Duane at an after hours party and he shared this story with me …

One day in January, 1993, Professor Duane happened to drop by Professor Doug Cook’s office. Cook was on the entrance committee and had two piles of applications on his desk. One pile was destined to receive a letter of acceptance to Regent, the other a letter of denial. As fate would have it, I was on the top of one of those piles when Jim wandered into Doug’s office. I was in the rejection pile.

Jim vouched for me to Doug and asked why I was being rejected. Doug shared that while I had fine credentials, Dean Herb Titus has determined that my many arrests and lawsuits would cause too many state bar committees to look unfavorably upon me and thus deny me entrance. Professor Duane had studied my file, realized that I had prevailed in most all of those situations through my own pre-law school lawyering, and informed Professor Cook that he was vouching for me. Professor Duane then picked up my file and moved it into the acceptance basket.

Seven months later I was at Regent and Dean Herb Titus was not. He had been fired, ostensibly because he, like me, was too outspoken and had battled the Left too hard in his days at the ramparts.

I took to law school pretty well. I married Anne Walker between my first and second year, one of my best decisions ever, and worked with Jay Sekulow’s American Center for Law and Justice through most of my time in Virginia Beach (mostly writing copy for publications with Keith Fornier). I graduated law school summa cum laude, second my my class of about 100, in May, 1996 … without a single prospect for employment.

It seemed that pro-life community organizer on the resume was not nearly as helpful as Mr. Obama’s pro-labor community organizing turned out to be. That is a reprise that could be played over and over when viewing my “career path.”

More on that later and how my family’s prayers for post-law school employment were answered at 11:59 pm on the clock of Fate. For today’s post we have to end on this note:

I applied to three state bars right out of law school. Indiana, Kansas and Montana. Seemed like three good states to go move to, without a job, and start my search for a mission. I had spoken only to one Indiana attorney, and he was the kind of pro-life attorney that the Indiana bar loves. He told me that he would not hire me were I the last attorney on Earth due to my pre-law school pro-life activism.  

Like that Indiana pro-life attorney, the Indiana bar resisted admitting me in 1996. Rather like they did in 2007. But I get ahead of myself … That is the subject of tomorrow’s post.

I thank God for Jim Duane, for it had not been for him speaking up for me when I was in the wrong Tidewater out basket I would not have been able to have the great experiences that awaited me at Regent and beyond.

More on those to come as I finish my swan song.

As I said in yesterday’s post, I applied to three state bars right out of law school way back in ‘96: Indiana, Kansas and Montana. Montana accepted me without question, despite my “colorful” history in civil disobedience. Kansas did not deign to interview me, they also accepted me “as is.”

Indiana was much harder sledding. Much harder. Thus when Kansas bid me to come on in, I dropped my pursuit of an Indiana license and just moved to Kansas for the bar. I had, just days before that move, landed a dream job … more on that later. This post focuses on my reentry into Indiana.

Indiana has a rather quirky kind of “old boy network” bar admission procedure. Most states have professional staff dedicated to processing and approving applications. Indiana instead has a decentralized system where the applicant chooses a county and the bar then sets up an interview with an attorney of their choice in that county. Note: of the bar’s choice. That phrase occurs quite often when dealing with the Indiana bar … . It has been my finding that they like to control all aspects of the evaluation.

Now, some would worry that such control could become a great tool for political correctness if and when ideological concerns trump due process and constitutional governance.

Not that that could ever happen in a state ruled by the Ku Klux Klan for a decade not so long ago! (A very interesting hyperlink that is!)

Not that that could ever happen in a state where Planned Parenthood is so bold as to offer Christmas coupons!

(Note: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Compare the above two “nots” with this story that seems to tie both together in one Christmas bow. Wouldn’t David Curtiss Stephenson have loved a local PP to aid him in covering up his child molestation?)

Not that that could ever happen in a state that gives frontier justice judges, er, or something like that the slightest slap on the wrist for seemingly major ethical breaches or a mere three day suspension for a judge who curses citizens while in his robes — after having demonstrated a history of such outbursts

Nah, unconstitutional governance, violations of due process and such cannot happen under the enlightened government we have in Indiana.

So breathe easy, comrades. There is simply no need to worry that old boy networks might be used as tools for advancing political correctness or political connections in slavish service to improper considerations here in Indiana. Any dissident who thinks otherwise must be crazy, or at least labeled with some disorder to shut them up.

I digressed. Back to the post.

So I had to choose a county to practice law in back in ’96. As stated, I had no offers in Indiana. Here is how I choose my county: I called Dad and asked him to number the counties of Indiana from 1 – 92. I cut up 92 pieces of paper, prayed, and tossed them into a fan. I had laid a Greek Orthodox icon of the Blessed Theotokis on the floor and stated that whatever number hit the icon would reveal the county that I would claim. (Hey, Martin Luther would approve. Click here.)

I told Dad the number, he told me the County: Jennings. Very small, very rural, very southern. It was as good as any, I guessed. I walked forward in Faith.

The bar chose the attorney in Jennings County with whom I was to meet. She greeted me, closed the door, and said this: “You do not know how fortunate you are to have me as your evaluator. I am the only woman in this firm, and all six of my peers are pro-choice men. They would have eaten you alive given your history,” she matter of factly stated. She continued, “I have read everything in your file and believe you to be man of moral principle who will make a fine addition to our bar, you have my highest recommendation,” or something close to that. We then chatted about the Lord of life and parted.

For 95% of Indiana bar applicants that is the beginning and the end of the moral character and fitness review process. It was not for me. I was instead summoned to meet with the entire Board of Law Examiners. This was a rare event, and I was told that they had questions about my past. This was a mere five years after most of my arrests for civil disobedience and only two years after the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Bray v. Alexandria that mothballed the use of 42 USC 1985 against pro-life protesters. (Click here for details)

I scanned the list of attorneys and judges on this august board that wanted to hear from me and noticed a name that sounded familiar from Fort Wayne.  I called Mom and asked her why the name sounded familiar. She replied, “Why that is the abortion clinic’s new attorney.”

Kansas notified me about that same time that I was cleared for their bar. I had a job prospect there and was closing the deal on an even better one 12 hours south of Fort Wayne. Thus I cancelled my meeting in Indianapolis and threw everything toward Topeka. Not because of the fact that Susan Hill and Ulrich Klopfer’s personal attorney was on the Committee, but I must admit that having such a seeming conflicted person on the Committee that would decide my fate in Hoosierland certainly did not sweeten the deal for me. 

***10 Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: 12 Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.

Hebrews 12 (New International Version)

1Therefore, having so vast a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, and throwing off everything that hinders us and especially the sin that so easily entangles<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>[a]<!–[endif]–> us, let us keep running with endurance the race set before us, 2fixing our attention on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith, who, in view of<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>[b]<!–[endif]–> the joy set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The Father Disciplines Us

3Think about the one who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you may not become tired and give up. 4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>[c]<!–[endif]–> blood.

I ask it again: At the end of the day could such twisting be normative for Christians in our present social order? I close with this encouragement written to Christian vets of the first century:

Hebrews 11:32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:

33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.

34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

Today’s swan song post (the posts began here) is about boots walking all over political dissidents. Of which I, bjb, am one. As are most pro-lifers – especially given the recent churning of the political seas.

It is ironic that my detractors attempt to devalue me because I allegedly violated a handful of poorly crafted ordinances and lesser laws while they often minimize our most important organic documents, the very foundation for our entire legal order.

Here is an interesting hypothetical: Which would strike more at the root of our social order, me engaging in principled civil disobedience to save prenatal human life or some government bureaucrat (or government contractor) engaging in ultra vires acts in order to protect some state’s legal system from my admission – based, in large part, upon my resolve to give uncompromised voice to my religious ideology and/or chivalrous concerns?

We live, thanks be to the Founders, in a constitutional republic. King George’s boots were unable to trample the rights of Americans after 1776 … but tyranny never sleeps. Those same monarchical boots fit neo-fascist feet just as well.

A constitutional republic is defined as a system in which the political power resides in elected representatives of the people, elected official who must govern according to existing constitutional law that limits the government’s power over citizens.

A constitutional republic differs from a pure democracy in many ways. While we elect those who represent us in the republic via the democratic vote, we do not pass legislation, decide legal causes of action or do away with unwanted dissidents via democratic vote. I thank my lucky stars for the latter, for given the power of the media those of my ilk could be put up against the wall by popular vote – or at least voted off the island. (It appears that such may yet be my fate in the land of my birth.)

I have no doubt as to my fate, and the fate of most of my compatriots, should Planned Parenthood and their comrades in the media succeed in rendering this nation into a social order in their own image and likeness. Of course, it looks like such might be the plan of the new administration. Click here for a secret government memo. Click here for a Hoosier tie-in to the subject matter of that memo.

As Mel Gibson cynically asked in The Patriot, is it better to exchange one tyrant 3,000 miles away for 3,000 tyrants one mile away?

Our Founders wisely created constitutional republics designed to keep up from the tyranny of 3,000 neighbors and the ideological biases of government bureaucrats.

We elect those who are to represent us, that is rule over us, and then tie their hands so that they can act only as the federal and state constitutions permit. They are supposed to delegate this power to govern only to those who pledge to respect the constitutional limitations of their office. We are, on our best days, a nation of laws and limited government. But many fear that our best days are behind us, and a new breed of governmental bureaucrat now exists, a generation that respects no governmental bounds.

Our federal government is (make that once was) defined by the federal constitution. The original thirteen states refused to pledge allegiance to the power created by that social contract without some assurances that they would not be forced to give up their basic identity as sovereigns. Those assurances are the original Bill of Rights. They originally operated only against the federal government, protecting the citizens of the states and the state governments from federal interference.

One of the byproducts of constitutional law attorneys, and especially those conlaw attorneys representing religiously motivated clients, has been the Incorporation Doctrine. This doctrine has moved the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) to apply the federal Bill of Rights to the state and municipal governments as well, including those with whom they contract for services.

Every worship manual that I edited while active in the Rescue Movement contained more than a smattering of case law and constitutional language. We realized that it was our bulwark against arbitrary government and police harassment. We found that it worked like garlic against vampires when government actors drunk on their own power attempted to hammer into submission the unbending nails. As I stated yesterday, the pro-life movement is one of the most vibrant centers of civil dissent in the nation. We were breathed into life by the raw judicial power of Roe v. Wade, a decision of the SCOTUS that violated more than a few tenets of constitutional law and federalism. We tend to know more about constitutional law than the average bears. We simply have to.

We are the Freedom Riders of the Age of Obama.

Not everyone can appreciate constitutional lawyering. Many view arguments based upon the Fourth and Fifth Amendments as suspect, and many on the Right decry “technical arguments” that result in the exclusion of evidence under the “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine. Liberals tend to celebrate the holding of Miranda v. Arizona and the vast protections that decision affords criminal suspects.

Liberals also tend to celebrate constitutional law cases brought by the ACLU and other such Leftists – cases that seek to remove every vestige of Christianity from the public schools, public ceremonies and public squares. But liberals are often found oh so hypocritical when it is the Right who is found advancing their agenda via constitutional litigation. They seek to minimize or even decry constitutional cases (such as Bray v. Alexandria) when it is their ideological ox that is gored. Click here for one such example of such pro-abortion hypocrisy in a Yale publication.

Shifting gear oh so subtly, I have recently received yet another report on my past acts and present psyche from one of the Indiana bar’s handpicked experts. This state-affiliated counselor noted that “[Mr. Brown] has been clever and legally aggressive in fighting his charges so he has had few, if any, convictions.”

I must concede that my “cleverness” was not all that profound. I did end up with a conviction or two. Aggressive? What, for wanting to win cases brought against me? I would think passivity would be a concern in such instances, not assertiveness. (Assertiveness being the most polite synonym for the loaded term “aggressive,” which was probably employed to make me sound as scary as possible.)

Aggressive? Heckfire, I merely raised basic constitutional arguments when arrested or was otherwise detained due to my religious expression. Had I done so after arrests at an AIDS Die-in or to save baby seals or while standing against the Iraq War I would probably be regarded as most virtuous by the Left. Their ox would be stroked rather than gored.

I stood on constitutional principles to defend my standing in the doorway of a late termabortionist and the Left will never forgive me such trespasses against the abortion industry.

I cannot give Randy Terry, Pat Mahoney or the others in the leadership of Operation Rescue credit for encouraging constitutional lawyering by rescuers in the courtroom. They simply did not. They were often quite ready to cut deals through high profile attorneys. This tactic was quite shortsighted on their part and probably did as much as anything to short circuit the Movement. Such lessons should be studied and should inform any future tactics, just as the Southern Christian Leadership’s strategies are studied. The Rescue Movement racked up an impressive 50,000 arrests over a few short years, many more than the race based civil rights movement in twice the time. Imagine if every arrest under Operation Rescue’s banners had been handled as a constitutional challenge?

I will start this study of tactics by presenting my own cases in Wichita from 18 years ago. I was arrested five times in about as many days while worshipping in the area surrounding the “facility” of late term abortionist George Tiller. He kills inutero children well into the third trimester. Operation Rescue’s attorneys worked out a sweet compromise with the city — pay $25 per arrest and all would go away. I did that once, but it felt like, well, a compromise. Rather than taking the deal that OR worked out through its attorneys on the remaining four, I pled not guilty and showed up in court. The prosecutor immediately offered me a sweet deal if I would only plead guilty to two of the four. I turned him down and he immediately dropped one of those anyway – he did not have the necessary police officers present. Nice bluff, glad I called it.

I then faced two trespass charges and loitering charge, all three of which could have been discharged for a mere $75. The trespass charges were the more serious; the loitering charge was akin to jaywalking. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.) I was tempted to not roll the dice on the more serious of the three, but just could not stomach another compromise. As the prosecutor and I discussed these two cases before trial (I had not yet attended law school, but that did not stop me from having a fool as a client) I asked how he planned to prove that I was actually on the clinic’s property when the trespass charge was leveled against me. I was prepared to testify that I was not on Tiller’s property, but in the public area adjacent to it. (As I was.) The prosecutor admitted that short of my admission he was having some problem with his evidence. I told him that even if he prevailed I would seek an appeal and request a trial by jury, which was my right. He then decided to place all of his eggs in one basket and merely go forward with the loitering charge. (It allowed me no trial by jury.)

I went from four charges that Operation Rescue advised me to barter away for $100 to one charge by merely asking for the process that was due me as an American citizen.

I then gave the judge my opening statement, which was somewhere between Billy Graham and my best Perry Mason. I threw out a few federal constitutional law cases, preached America’s eminent doom due to the rejection of our Christian heritage and then called upon the municipal court judge (who was not even an attorney) to repent for the crime of Roe v. Wade on behalf of all of this brothers on the bench. It certainly felt Spirit led.

His honor was incensed and gave it all back to me in spades, his face flush with anger. His only regret, he said, was that he could not order me incarcerated for trespass since the city had chosen to go forward only with the loitering charge. His honor threw the book at me – a $500 fine. I took it all in stride, calmly notifying him of my desire to appeal his ruling. I paid $100 in refundable appeal costs and got a docket date in the county court system.

When I rose for a reprise in a more professional setting the state court judge (an actual legal professional, how refreshing) asked me if I would consider stipulating to the facts of the loitering charge and arguing my constitutional case on paper. I took him up on the gentleman’s wager. He used none of the legal argumentation that I spent so much time authoring, instead penning a simply brilliant 13 page decision that was based, in whole, upon the Kansas constitution. Judge Paul Clark’s opinion held that all of the Summer Mercy arrests in Wichita that were processed against the city’s loitering ordinance were violative of the Kansas constitution and must not be continued. This case then not only mothballed Wichita’s prime ordinance for threatening pro-lifers with arrest, it stood for the proposition that more than half of the about 2400 arrests made in Wichita during the Summer of Mercy were violations of the constitutional rights of the religiously motivated protesters!

The City of Wichita was incensed and immediately noticed up their appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court. They, no doubt, wished that I had taken the sweet deal to “make it all go away” that had been offered to, and taken by, most all of my fellow 1600 arrestees that summer.

To make a long story short, the city lost. They got spanked by the High Court for filing their appeal one day out of time. Quite the embarrassment given that their briefing was about an inch thick and I did not even file a brief! (Not very legally aggressive of me, now was it!) The case is The City of Wichita v. bjb, 253 Kan. 626 (1993). Click here for more details.

So how did I do? Was I all that clever? Was I all that aggressive? No, not really. I merely stood on faith and constitutional principle and left the results up to Heaven. Proverbs 3:5&6 has guided me since my tender years and guides me still. My counsel to my fool of a client also lined up well with the advice of one of America’s most respected and “legally aggressive” community organizers:

One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Not to mention being clever and aggressive!

In this swan song #5 I bequeath the above analysis and this advice to those who might follow in my footsteps: Know your constitutional rights. Know them, state and federal, backwards and forward. Know them and stand on them, even if your detractors accuse you of being too “clever” or too “aggressive.” And if you take a stand that falls under the ambit of the Bill of Rights, then be “aggressive” in defending yourself by drawing upon that great repository of the Founder’s wisdom. They are among your only protectors when the goose stepping enforcers of political correctness decide that it pleases them to walk all over you. This is most germane because I fear that those may be jack boots that I hear coming our direction. I know that they have stomped all over me. True patriots usually bear such boot scuffs. Click here for details.

Today’s swan song post could be dubbed sympathy for the devil. One of my former pastors, a man I respect and honor for his service to the Lord and heart for Jesus, is Ron Allen of Harvest Community Church (formerly The Vineyard). Ron has a saying that is all too true: “The devil can best use you only after he first wounds you.” I have found this to be true in life. As a pro-life activist those who have been used against me most mightily have usually been wounded by abortion themselves or somehow served as an agent of the abortion industry. (A useful idiot, as real Marxists would call their Leftist cousins in America. Click here for more on that.)

Speaking of pain, I have been through quite a process these past 27 months. My “sifting like wheat” started with the political ad campaign that even a Wichita Eagle editorial board member found over the top and manifestly unfair. Click here for that. It was October, 2006, and I clearly recall the day that the clouds turned dark. I was driving home to Topeka after attending the funeral of Elizabeth Horan. Click here to meet this wonderful woman who had quite an impact on my life. The political reelection campaign had begun, but I had not yet taken front and center in it. All of that changed 48 hours after we buried Elizabeth as the airwaves of Kansas filled with the “two minute hate” directed at yours truly. From that public flogging flowed my termination at the hands of a pro-abortion politician who was the love child of a pro-abortion political machine that was backed by millions of pro-abortion dollars. More on him soon, he is on the stand in Kansas this week. (Monitor this website for eyewitness reports.) And then, after that, came a general abandonment by GOP forces that I had served diligently for a full 48 months. And then came a Hollywoodish blacklisting and blackballing as I gathered a wall full of rejection letters while on a quest to support my family of six, all four kids being under 10. Even Christian legal associations would not interview me – I had a fine resume for the work but had been rendered too controversial by the Left’s savage attacks against me and the former Attorney General Kline and, probably more than that, my former civil disobedience. (Yes, even Christian and pro-life groups tend to be controversy adverse and politically correct these days. This post seems to apply.) This family man literally twisted in the wind. But God took care of us through it all!!! More on that later.

I fell from the frying pan into the fire when I attempted to become a licensed attorney in Indiana. I naively thought that my eleven years as an “officer of the court” elsewhere would grant me some “peerage” with my Hoosier colleagues. Such is not the case, I was dead wrong on that front. It may have had something to do with the founding of the ArchAngel Institute in the ruins of the former abortion clinic that sued this poor goober out of existence two decades ago, but, as God is my witness, that was not my idea. Blame Him. More on that later.

The almost two year processing of my motion to join the Indiana bar has been quite eventful, albeit almost all of it taking place in secret and behind the scenes. While it is likely that those convicted of crimes far greater than mine — mine are loitering, interrupting the police while they roughly arrested an 83 year old pro-life great-grandma and maybe an ideologically motivated trespass — sailed right through the licensure process. I would bet many who were involved in crimes seeking a financial advantage have sailed through the process that is intent on maligning me and starving me out. My few misdemeanor convictions of more than 15 years ago and the civil judgment incident to my pro-life activism are causing the Indiana bar quite a problem.

All of that said, I must admit that I have not made my plight any easier by just being my good ole’ communicative self. To thine own self be true is a fine maxim, but it you are up against government agents who want you to be someone else entirely then the sledding can get more than a bit rough. I have spoken out against seemingly clear cases of government overreaching, refused to deny my Christian Faith and attempted to rescue those who, like me, were being thrown to the wolves in Kansas. All have caused problems through the process. One of the many counselors that the state ordered me to see says that I am my own worst enemy. We quibbled on that theological point, me naively believing that I have at least one enemy that loathes me more than I do. I wanted to make certain that the Devil got his due, but I was evidently speaking to one who found such a concept far too old fashioned for his tastes. It would seem that he had no sympathy for either me or the Devil.

He did me and my family much harm. May the Lord bless Him.

Add to all of this that those of a feminist persuasion would love to see me dropped in a shallow grave with one through the head and two through the heart. One of their own has also visited much harm upon me through this arduous journey. May the Lord bless her, too.

I am blessed with a plethora of counselors, many of whom were chosen for me by the all loving, therapeutic, Nanny State. One has recently criticized me for a seeming lack of empathy toward – are you ready for this — the losing plaintiffs and attorneys in this case. (I kid you not, one just cannot make this stuff up!) Now, those losing plaintiffs and attorneys were, from my perspective, the shock troops of the Culture of Death who were caught with their hands in the wrong cookie jar. They advance everything that my Catholic faith causes me to label as evil. And I am supposed to have sympathy for them?

Now, I may be too judgmental, but as I read the history of the case the abortion industry and its well healed attorneys had suffered a reversal because the Highest Court in the land concluded that they had misused the law to drive powerless goobers like me into economic destitution – and in my case even out of the land of my birth after losing almost EVERYTHING – but I, so the counselor opines, I was supposed to feel sorry for them when they lost on appeal! My failure to feel their pain reveals, so the theory goes, some defect in my character. Perhaps one so glaring as to render me unfit to license — despite having held a license in Kansas for 11 years and having argued before half of the federal appellate courts in the nation!

Wow, I need to dwell on that one for a moment. I have a character fault because I do not feel sorry for the abortionists when they lose a case persecuting me and my friends before the United States Supreme Court.

Well I say let those who draw their sustenance from the violent termination of preborn human life (literally ripping them limb from limb and then crushing their little, decapitated heads) go first. Let them first send me a “we are so sorry to have turned your life upside down on a bad legal theory” sympathy card. I might (might) then find it much easier to send them, in return, an empathy card. “Sorry you paid your attorneys to waste your money on a bad legal theory, but I did tell you so.” (Oh, and I see that you sent out fundraising letters to have fellow pro-aborts pay your attorneys, so where, exactly, is your loss?)

Perhaps Frank Avila should send Susan Hill an empathy card in light of her losing the case that killed Frank’s wife, Phyllis due to the stress of it all? Click here. Yes, poor Susan and her attorneys, suffering dismissal at court while Frank and the Avila children skated by with the mere loss of their beloved Phyllis. Frank, are you interested in saying you feel sorry for Susan yet? I think not. (If so, only because she faces potential eternal damnation for turning her back on her Christian upbringing to serve, much like Judas, the culture of death. Click here.)

Well, I do not want to be found less than gracious, not being a widower (in so many words) like Frank and all, so allow me to demonstrate how I can reach across the aisle to make amends. Unknown to the authorities, I have already reached out to my previous adversary Ulrich George Klopfer.

That post is tomorrow’s installment of this ongoing swan song, which will continue until my twentieth anniversary on the front lines of the Culture War, which is January 13, 2009. Follow the links backwards to get to the beginning of this retirement monologue.

Oh, I realize this is all controversial, but that is what Free Speech is. You did not think the Founders died for the freedom to speak about sports, the weather and tame politics, did you? Our free speech rights protect vibrant discourse. The Left shows theirs off all of the time, often through pornography and blasphemy, and we are all supposed to celebrate that freedom. Well let us celebrate mine, shall we?

Or will it instead result in yet another denial to join the Indiana bar?

This post takes off from where the last post ended. Thus we are still discussing Ulrich George Klopfer, who has dedicated his adult life to performing first and second trimester abortions. Search for this site for more articles on this man, who I got to know through my pro-life activism and who sued me out of existence about 19 years ago. He brought much pain to me then, but as a powerful German once said, that which does not kill us makes us stronger.

I retire from my 20 years on the Culture War front strong and impoverished.

I have been slammed by a state ordered counselor (actually a contracted cleaner) for failing to have enough empathy for dear doctor Klopfer. She must have missed this testimony and this testimony in the Indiana statehouse earlier in the year. Or maybe not. I has been my finding that those who are slavishly devoted to the regime ushered in by Roe v. Wade are quite willing to overlook women with their guts ripped out by men like Klopfer. Their goddess, Choice, does demand a few adult human sacrifices now and then. It was once about ending back alley abortions. It is now about keeping backalley abortionists in storefront operations. What a noble cause!

Seven month ago Dad and I were at Home Depot buying flooring for the ArchAngel Institute. As we pulled a heavily laden cart toward checkout an older man and middle aged woman passed us by. They ended up just ahead of us in line. The man was on his cell phone speaking loudly in a Germanic accent. Dad had recognized him and his female escort just moments before and tipped me off. As he rang off the call I looked him square in the eye and asked “George, don’t you recognize me?” He did not. It was a seemingly chance encounter that seemed to be ripe with destiny. And so I stepped up to the plate and invited George Ulrich Klopfer to please come visit me at the ArchAngel Institute.

I offered to take abortion off the table and discuss only Mr. Klopfer during the visit. “Let’s talk about you!” I said. I asked him to come into the ArchAngel Gabriel studio and cut an interview with me. He then cursed me, quite loudly, and shared with everyone in the front of the store his low opinion of me. He claimed that I could did not care about human suffering (the empathy thang again), and especially when whole cities were burned to the ground. My Dad looked him in the eye and said “you are talking about Dresden, aren’t you George.” “Damn right I am,” Klopfer responded. “I saw it burn.”

What a moment! Stop the presses! Was George Klopfer wounded by the Devil? Is that how he could be such a faithful servant of the ancient murderer (see John ch.8) for most of his adult life?

If you do not know of Dresden then you do not know of America’s darkest hour in WWII. Click here for some insight into that violence that drives Klopfer’s destructive hand.

Undaunted by his initial refusal to come and visit me at the Institute I mulled over the coincidences and then sent a letter off to my old nemesis. The text of that letter may prove to be controversial. Some might think I offered too much. Some might read it as me compromising. Some might even find it “empathetic.” But probably not those who hate me for my Christian worldview.

Memorial Day weekend, 2008

Dear Mr. Klopfer,

I truly appreciated seeing you once again (last Thursday) after all these many years. The years look to have been kind to you. I believe that I have aged more than you have.

Sir, I do not much believe in chance, and do not believe that our seeming chance
encounter in the checkout lane at Home Depot was by mere happenstance. Consider the
timing and circumstances: Were my Dad not with me I probably would not have recognized
you or Ann; we arrived at the same checkout lane at the very same time; I was in the
process of buying new flooring for your previous offices; I had discussed Dresden and the
uneven historical record as to WWII with a South Bend attorney just a week prior. What
are the chances of us so meeting by chance on a Thursday afternoon? The odds are quite
long.

I also appreciated the topic of our brief discussion. I have long considered Dresden to
be one of the least explored chapters in this nation’s history, and one of the darkest
hours in the Allied Cause. Many are now in the process of rethinking World War II, Pat
Buchanan among them. The generation that witnessed that fratricidal act is not long
among us now is the time to better study such topics as the firebombing of Dresden.

I have enclosed the art that first introduced me to the topic of Dresden. I was not
taught of Dresden in school or college – no surprise there. Pink Floyd’s leadman, Roger
Waters (one of my favorite artists) lost his father at the Battle of the Bulge. (Waters
was of tender years then). He has often allowed his own pain and doubts about WWII come
out in his lyrics. He did so in the 1980 award-winning release The Wall. His followup
to that fine album was even more moving and quite cynical. It received no awards and
little air play. In The Final Cut, Roger Waters fully vented his pain and rage,
including these profound lines, which he places on the lips of a Lancaster bombardier:

The Hero’s Return (Roger Waters, 1982)

Jesus, Jesus, what’s it all about?

Trying to clout these little ingrates into shape.
When I was their age all the lights went out.
There was no time to whine or mope about.
And even now part of me flies over
Dresden at angels one five.

Though they’ll never fathom it behind my
Sarcasm desperate memories lie.
Sweetheart sweetheart are you fast asleep? Good.
‘Cause that’s the only time that I can really speak to you.
And there is something that I’ve locked away
A memory that is too painful
To withstand the light of day.

I have enclosed the compact disc of The Final Cut as a gift from me to you so that you
can hear these lyrics in the context of this quite moving concept album.

After our”chance” encounter I asked a Germanophile attorney (double German
descent) … to consider joining you and me for a no-holds-barred discussion
of Dresden in a studio interview. He views Dresden as a war crime for which Churchill
and others should have been tried. He is [a military man] willing
to risk further career advancement to speak out about Allied War crimes.

The goal of this interview would be to explore the topic of injustices against the
Germanic people using firsthand accounts – yours, among others. The end would be a piece
for radio and internet play that lays out the case against the Allies as to Dresden and
other acts of state-sanctioned terror. We would then invite a response that attempts to
defend what Churchill and Roosevelt ordered. I am open to having your own experts join
us in studio or on the telephone for this series, which I hope to follow up with a
similar series on similar acts which have taken place in the Middle East since WWII.

Your own profession and professional activities of the past 40 years are of no import to
this series and will not be brought up by me or anyone else on my team. I will call you
Mr. Klopfer, George, Ulrich or, if you prefer, Dr. Klopfer during the interview. You may
know that I have rarely offered the latter to anyone in your profession. I even risked
contempt of court to deny the same to Mr. Tiller more than a decade ago. I offer it to
you, now, as a showing of my good faith. I seek common ground and I seek a first hand
accounting of the firestorm over Dresden. I seek a robust discussion of the horrors that
followed that international injustice. War is my focus not a woman’s choices during
peacetime.

You will be accorded the respect due one who lived through the bombing of his ancestral
homelands.

George, decades have passed since we last “tussled.” I have matured much in
the intervening years, and see the world quite differently now. Your litigation had a
devastating effect upon my life, and it yet pays off in negative dividends. But it has
paid off in many positive rewards as well. Had I not left the Fort I would have never
met my lovely wife, Anne. Had I not met my lovely wife I would not have four beautiful
children. So, in a strange way, I owe you a debt of gratitude. Thank you.

To elaborate further, I am concerned about the tone of the national debate over the
“social issues.” I confess that my earlier work has added more heat than light
to the problem. I have been involved in communications that tended to demonize men such
as yourself. I have been involved in communications that demonized you. For that I
tender my apology to you.

Please help me make amends. Please help me produce a recording on the horror that was
visited upon Dresden and, in the process, help humanize you for those who fail to
appreciate that you are a man who has been subjected to war crimes and, I would guess
from my own research, unspeakable childhood pain. I have studied what the Allies did to
Germany after the war. We yet decry the injustices placed upon Germany by the terms of
Versailles but refuse to admit to the greater injustices done to the German people from
1944 – 1949.

Dr. Klopfer, I am one hundred percent sincere. This is not a setup, you have my word on
that. You can bring anyone that you wish along with you into the studio. Abortion will
not be brought up unless you bring it up, and it will not then be discussed unless you
want to discuss it. You would be included in the final production process and have the
ability to edit out any content that was not to your liking. You will be given copies of
all interviews and be given the ability to oversee the erasing of any copies that you do
not want on file.

I simply and sincerely seek your aid in preserving a record of Dresden and WWII from your
very unique perspective. Forget our combative past. Let’s try to work together to get
the truth out, and in so doing send a message to those on both sides of the abortion
debate — the message that common ground can be found if both sides are willing to seek it.
In search of true history,

Bryan J. Brown
Executive Director,
The ArchAngel Institute

Dr. Klopfer failed to respond to my letter. Who is the ungracious party now, counselor?

As Ron Allen says, one must be wounded to be best used. (See previous post)

I bequeath, on this, the seventh post of my swansong as the Executive Director of the ArchAngel Institute, the above knowledge to those who will come after me. George, the offer yet stands. Come let us reason together.

p.s. Klopfer certainly is a German name. Check out this post. And this post. And this post. (Those who know Ulrich may spot a certain familiarity of face.

Once when I walked Ulrich toward 827 Webster Street (where he killed thousands of babies and where the ArchAngel Institute is now located) I asked him why he was an abortionist. He replied, a his thick German accent, that he “removed population pollution.”

Is the Indiana bar yet feeling sympathtic toward the plaintiff Klopfer? Probably not. Amazingly, I still am. But then I would, since I have a much higher tolerance of political incorrectness than the Indiana bar.

It is your move, George. I say let’s talk history.

“Mammon is a term that was used to describe riches, avarice, and worldly gain in Biblical literature. It was personified as a false god in the New Testament. The term is often used to refer to excessive materialism or greed as a negative influence.” Wikipedia

Webster’s dictionary defines ‘Mammon‘ as: 1) the false god of riches and avarice. 2) riches regarded as an object of worship and greedy pursuit; wealth as an evil, more or less personified.

Mammon has corrupted Western Civilization, of that there can be little doubt. Now that the god of this age is shaking and falling, what will you do? Learn to live without this golden calf or fall at its altar, worshipping riches in a bid to revive the idol.

It is easy to point to the abortion industry as a golden calf. After all, it turns little people into economic interests. In the middle ages the dream of the alchemists was to get rich spinning straw into gold. The abortionists get rich spinning the preborn into shekels. But it does not stop there … Hollywood moguls get rich spinning sex into entertainment dollars … modern governments spin debt into paper money to bailout the present at great cost to the future … and … are you ready for this … the Christian Right gets rich spinning yarns into giving units.

Back in the days of Rescue the nationals used to have a saying. You did not hear it unless you were close to the inside. It was something about not beginning to believe your own press releases. The underlying assumption was that press releases tended to exagerate the truth of the matter.

For money, for power, for fame.

Yarns spun into giving units. It was the sad result of direct mail, which is the lifeblood of the Christian Right. I should say was the lifeblood, since reports from all over have been that this strategy, proven to bring in the geld since the 80’s, is now failing.

The Christian Right and its mailing lists were born during the Reagan years, and it is a little known fact that the men behind the letters got really rich. Not only many of the leaders, but also many of the ghost writers. Those men who added the red ink, the person touches, the exaggerations. (Don’t make the mistake of beginning to believe you own fundraising letters.)

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

When I was putting ArchAngel together some nationally recognized pro-life leaders gave me advice. One pulled me aside and whispered this:”Do not do your own fundraising letters, hire professionals. Realize that they will have to take a healthy cut and go over the top at times with the appeals.” I felt sick to my stomach. I was then told such was the way things worked in this business, and if I were to succeed I would have to accept that fact. Another prominent leader advised me against focusing upon Fort Wayne. “I have found,” he matter of factly stated, “that you bring in much more money if you keep a national focus, even if operating only locally.”

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

On another occasion I was speaking with a pro-life promoter who told me of a pro-life team that bought an abortion clinic and evicted the owner. I corrected him, stating that I knew the facts and that the abortionist had moved out before the clinic was bought out by the ‘lifers. I was told that I needed to realize that there was nothing wrong with embellishing the story for dramatic effect.

Well color me old fashioned, but I think there is something very wrong with all of the above.

Whatever happened to the doctrine of Mammon? Can one serve God and money? Can one live by direct mail and do the Will of the Father? Does an embellishment here and yarn there soon end in a butchered conscience?

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

It was all too much for many who watched from the sidelines long ago, even before the pitches got fevered. Consider this social commentary by Queensryche:

“Religion and sex are power plays
manipulate the people for money they pay
selling skin, selling God,
the numbers are the same on the credit card.”

The ArchAngel Institute was not born of Mammon and has not pursued Mammon. We have tried to walk by Faith and live on just what God supplied. We have seen doors open that seemed locked. We have witnessed strange occurrences that strike us as miraculous. Retta just reported another one tonight, look for her to post some good copy next week about a trip to Michigan — just as soon as I finish my swan song.

My views of Mammon and faith were kick started hard back in ‘91, when Susan Hill and George Klopfer’s attorneys relieved me of almost all of my worldly possessions and my career. I wandered west to Wichita, were I learned to live on faith. I had no dependents and it was easy to just look skyward and say “what’s next, Lord?” I did not worry about money and wanted for nothing. I did not live a champagne lifestyle — it has been my experience that God is more proletarian than bourgeoisie in his tastes. He likes us more poor than rich. He knows the lure of Mammon.

As the years passed and the kids came I became more complacent, less faith filled, more trusting in salaries and my career once again. Than, thanks be to God (that was not easy to say) the Left hit me very hard once again. This time I had a wife and four kids. I was again privileged to walk forward in faith. Not relying on a career. Not relying on a salary. Relying on God. He did not disappoint. But it was a great challenge.

Could it be that we are now all, all of us Americans, facing this haunting specter? Could it be that the golden calf of the American economy is falling so that those who call upon the Name of the Lord can come out of a sick world system to walk by faith?

Are you ready for that?

Tonight I bequeath to my readers this advice: Do not fear a walk by Faith. He really is there, He really will hold you aloft. He may want you poorer, that is true. Poor is dependent upon Him. But He can be trusted to see you through.

A depression may be coming. It will not be new to me, I have lived in one since January, 2007, and been persecuted by my government at the same time. Blacklisted and blackballed. But He has met my family’s every actual need. Is our 501 c-3 packed up tight? No. Is our retirement planned? No. Have we lived on less than we thought we could? Yes. Could God be trying to set our priorities aright? Yes, I think so.

Consider our Saviour’s words:

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully;

And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.

The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.

Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?

And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?

If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?

And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Don’t hear these preached often do you? Could it be that we have become “of the nations?” Even the Christian Right?

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

As I step down from the ArchAngel Institute we are financially solvent by the Grace of God. But we do not have treasures stored up in barns. Like the children of Israel we have just enough manna for today, and trust in God that more will come when needed. That more manna needs only be enough to keep the lights on, rent paid and Retta given a retainer to staff the Institute.

We need less than $900 a week to keep this ministry open as a beacon of light and hope. Just this week Retta has entertained two women working through the pain of past abortions at the Institute. Stop and imagine that! A former abortion clinic being used of God to bring healing to those deeply wounded by abortion.

We are seeking first the Kingdom of God, as best we can. Pray that we remain true to that High calling. Pray that we always butcher golden calves rather than our own consciences.

I pledge to you in this swan song that the ArchAngel Institute has not given into the temptation to spin yarns into giving units. Not for money, not for power, not for fame.

Bryan

p.s. Here is tonight’s rock and roll nexus. It pretty well sums up my 20 years on the front.

Here is a great American of days gone by saying much the same as I did above.

I have protested abortion more than a few times and represented protestors in state and federal courts. I have stood in the docket myself for numerous acts of protest and represented protestors who were up on criminal charges, who were being sued and who were doing the suing. I have argued protestor cases before judges, before juries and before appellate courts. I have argued protestor cases in more states than I can remember without my files, but they at least include Oregon, Arizona, Montana, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico. I have argued protestor cases before the Second, Third, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal.

I might be considered somewhat of an expert on protesting.

One of the reasons that I walked away from representing protestors to take up the Consumer Protection crusade in 2003 was the caliber of the protestors I was dealing with. While many were principled, too few seemed to be doing anything other than offending people with six foot dead baby signs.

This needs to be put into some historical context. (Click here for the Fort’s history in a nutshell.)

The “pro-life movement” was born in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade. First as a religious expression of dissent mostly among the Catholic bishops. Then, as abortion clinics came out of the back alleys to hang their neon signs on sidestreets like Webster, pro-lifers were attracted to them like bugs to light.

Some of the best of those bugs were actually pro-life nurses. I am willing to be corrected, but I think that Fort Wayne was one of the first places where such nurses were sued for protesting. Thanks to Phyllis Morken, the late Phyllis Avila and Concordia Lutheran Seminary.

All these “bugs drawn to the light” did to get sued was stand on the sidewalks adjacent to abortion clinics, in their white uniforms, offering abortion bound woman a choice. “Choose Life” they softly offered. And for that they were sued $750,000 by the so-called “pro-choice” champions.

Note that they had a communicative reason (to abortion bound women) to be at the clinic.

As the 80’s droned on the “pro-choicers” became more aggressive on overruling the “choose life” option. They crowded around the abortion bound women as “clinic escorts,” singing loudly to drown out the “choose life” message of the nurses and those that had taken their place. The escorts even began getting a little rough with the sidewalk-stationed “pro-life counselors.”

The abortion industry had, through its useful idiots, upped the ante. The pro-lifers answered in kind, kinda. We began gathering at the clinics en masse to support the sidewalk counselors. It was a show of force, a show of Christian resolve, unified Christian resolve, to stand opposed to the abortion clinics that were proliferating across America.

More escorts showed up. As our masses grew theirs became more desperate. Sidewalk counseling became impossible as rings of escorts rushed abortion bound women toward the doors of fate covered under blankets with music blaring.

Then, in the late 80’s, a tipping point was reached. Some pro-lifers began to stand in the doorways and block access. The cry went out – if abortion was really murder, act like it! What would you do if they were killing one year olds? What is the difference between one year olds (conception plus 21 months) and one month olds (conception plus one month)., The logic seemed inescapable. The Rescue Movement was born out of pro-life angst and collective guilt.

One of the byproducts of the Rescue Movement was a tri-fold division of labor at the clinics. We had the “rescuers” who would block doors, the “counselors” who would approach the clinic bound women and the “pray warriors” who supported the other two by corporate worship onsite.

As a manager of such events it was always the latter group that seemed the least Biblical. The sidewalk counselors had a message to share. The rescuers were engaged in civil disobedience in pursuit of the doctrine of interposition. But the Prayer Warriors were, in my mind, possibly unbiblical.

Here is why …

“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven…

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Well lawsuits, aggressive arrests and Congressional action (The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, FACE) pretty well shut down the rescues cold. Threats of the aforementioned and the ravishes of time has worn down the sidewalk counselors. But the prayer warriors have now recently reemerged, only without rescuers or counselors to support. They have now become an end in themselves. And the above verses yet give me pause.

I simply do not comprehend, given the ground rules, a communicative reason (other than public prayer) to be at the clinic. If it is merely to pray in public in close proximity to sinners, then I fear that the above red may apply in full.

Especially when said prayer gatherings attempt to supplant liturgical seasons from the ancient past, such as Lent.

Another recent strain in the protest movement that gives me pause is the advent of the six foot dead baby posters. (And now even truck mounted 10 foot dead baby posters.)  They were not prevalent back in the day of my protest activity. They seemed to spring up once FACE shut down rescues. They strike me as a desperate (and even crass) attempt to create social tension. I have never been comfortable with their use in the general public and have often worried that they simply serve to further coarsen an already too-coarse culture. Think about it … if you were murdered would you want your lifeless body displayed on six foot panels for five year olds to view?  If your wife was torn assunder would you march about showing her most tortured moment?

I turned down as many cases involving these giant posters as I took on when I worked for the AFA Center for Law and Policy. Too many of the protestors acknowledged, even boasted in, their sign’s ability to enrage viewers, and then inexplicably used the same in school zones, along busy highways and in places where families gathered.  It seemed to be all about the impact, and to be, at times, done with a vindictive spirit.

I often asked the sign wielding protestors how they would feel if someone who viewed their signs became visibly shaken or enraged and drove their car into innocent persons. Most of the zealots replied that they would not feel responsible. I wanted to represent only those who clearly understood their responsibility to be responsible protestors.

Finding few, I traded in my constitutional law perch for a position in the civil service. Being pro-life must mean more than holding giant pictures of decapitated babies and praying in public for others to repent of their sins.

How does one best protest the Culture of Death responsibly? How does one protest the Culture of Death with the greatest impact? How does one protest the Culture of Death most biblically?

These are fine questions. As my final bequeathing to the Movement that I actively served these past twenty years I will end this swan song series answering these fine and pressing questions.