An estimated 150 students at Westmont College in Santa Barbara walked out of a planned event on February 6 featuring speaker Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action. Rose’s pro-life speech —encouraging students on the Christian campus to speak out and work against abortion —was part of the school’s chapel service,a thrice-weekly, mandatory worship service for students.
“This was definitely one of the most well-attended chapels ever,” a Westmont student in attendance told Live Action News.“I think almost every student was there so that would have been about 1200 students, and then we probably had 150 faculty, staff, spouses of staff. So my guess would be there were about 1400 people in the room and about 150 got up and left. The majority of people stayed.”
The walkout was preplanned and a social media post had been shared to invite students to join in the “Reproductive Rights Walkout.” The post claimed the walkout was “[i]n response to Lila Rose’s (and Westmont College’s) blatant sexism, disregard of women’s basic reproductive rights, anti-woman and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, and lack of empathy for human suffering.” (Abortion is intentionally caused human suffering.) In addition, an email mimicking a college communication was sent out signed by “some students,” criticizing Rose for things like “sharing the stage” at summits where she, along with a variety of others sharing varied opinions, was invited to speak about the pro-life view. The email read, in part:
… [W]e believe that Mrs. Rose does not represent Westmont’svalues of love and fair discourse…. The decision to host Mrs. Rose as a chapel speaker is deeply disappointing, and we fear that it will create a permanent stain on the reputation of the school. Mrs. Rose represents the kind of bad-faith, conservative Christian activism that currently plagues our politicsand reflects poorly on many other followers of Christ…. Mrs. Rose’s entire living is seemingly made weaponizing Christianity for political gains.
According to the pro-life student, at the start of the event, campus pastor Scott Lisea spoke briefly about why he is pro-life before Rose was introduced and took her place at the podium. As she did so, students began to exit the room.
Rose held her speech until those in protest had left, and then spoke about the Christian call to be actively pro-life, encouraging students and staff and reminding them that the Bible is clear that abortion is wrong.
“Our God is a God of justice,” said Rose. She went on:
Jesus, throughout the Gospels, is weeping over suffering and death. He weeps at the death of his friend Lazarus. He weeps when he looks over Jerusalem. The Gospel includes many of these scenes, but there is a particular kind of suffering that God hates. That God hates. And that is the suffering which is caused intentionally from one person to another. Human choice. Injustice. As a woman, as a mother now of two very beautiful young boys, as a feminist, as a Christian, it has been painful and infuriating for me to watch the popular narrative that’s being announced on news media, stations across the country, by powerful politicians, by our own governor — the popular narrative that we as women need abortion to be free. Killing a child is not freedom.
I do not, as a woman, have the right to kill, including a child totally dependent on me. Turning against our own flesh and blood kills part of us too. We must do better as a society. We must demand better as a society for mothers, for fathers, for women, for children. Both our faith and the moral law require that we pray, speak, and act against injustice, especially injustice against the most vulnerable and on behalf of fathers, mothers, and children.
Rose invited those in attendance to be active in their pro-life convictions, sharing three practical ways they can help. The first is to speak unapologetically against abortion. “Just as we are unapologetic against unjust police slayings, against poverty, against compromising those that are vulnerable, we must be unapologetically Pro-Life. Have zero tolerance for the killing of innocent human beings. That means speaking out against their deaths,” she said.
She also encouraged students to share resources with others and be a part of the solution to abortion by volunteering at pregnancy resource centers and organizations that support low-income families. She also suggested sharing post-abortion healing resources with women — because regardless of their decision to have an abortion, they are human beings who deserve compassion.
“And finally,” said Rose, “join the Live Action Ambassador program. […] Join the pro-life movement. This is a fight. This is the human rights battle of our day and it needs all of us.”
Rose’s speech was the first time that Westmont College has taken a Biblical stand on such a controversial issue in her time there, according to the pro-life student in attendance. “It was really powerful, I think for a lot of people who had just been feeling silenced,” she said. “I heard a lot of students who said they felt they couldn’t say anything about this issue, but that they are really thankful that she came to campus because she brought the truth.”
While the students who walked out stood against Rose’s presence for reasons that did not necessarily include her stance against abortion, the parent of a student in attendance emailed Live Action with gratitude following the event.
“Thank you for speaking at Westmont College today! My daughter is a student there and was heartbroken that many of her friends were choosing to walk out for “reproductive justice,” she wrote. “Please know that there are students at Westmont who also want to dedicate their lives to advocating and protecting the most vulnerable in the world — my daughter being one of them. I have an 8-year-old whom we adopted whose birth mother tried to abort her. Although her abortion attempts failed, our daughter’s brain is permanently damaged. It has not been an easy journey, but this ‘issue’ of abortion became personal for our family and it’s very personal for my other daughter who attends Westmont. She is passionate about vulnerable children, life inside and outside of the womb, moms is crisis, etc.”
She added, “I also want you to know that other moms of Westmont students have been praying for you. I can’t imagine the discouragement to see kids who label themselves as “Christian” not caring and even supporting the killing of our most vulnerable and most marginalized humans. Thank you for continuing this painful, difficult, and yet purposeful fight for life. God has equipped you and strengthened you and the world (and future world changers) are watching!!!!”
Rose concluded her speech with a call to pro-life action: “St. Thomas Aquinas said, ‘The things that we love tell us what we are. The things that we love tell us what we are.’ Are we a people that can love our neighbor? Are we a people that can love the least of these? Are we a people that can love life? I challenge you to be that people.”
The post Christian college hosts Lila Rose speech as group of students stage ‘reproductive justice’ walkout appeared first on Live Action News.
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.liveaction.org and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.