This story is personal – one of them is my friend.  And that makes it all the more real.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the news, six Christian Pro-life advocates were found guilty and are facing more than 11 years in federal prison and $360,000 in fines.  The guilty verdict was announced on January 30, 2024, after a six-day federal trial at the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee.   Fortunately, they were not immediately taken into custody and will all be sentenced on July 2.   Only after sentencing can they file an appeal.

What were these Christians charged with? 

The FACE Act

They were charged with a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance (FACE) Act, an old law still on the books, enacted by Bill Clinton back in 1994.  The Biden Admin. is aggressively using this law to go after Pro-lifers by contorting the law so that prayer and singing is now considered an obstruction, etc.  A temporary obstruction can now be defined as almost any physical presence or protest. Republicans have been trying to get the FACE Act repealed, so far to no avail.  Penalty – 1-year maximum sentence and $10,000 maximum fine

Conspiracy

The DOJ is now tacking on a conspiracy charge, which is a felony. The DOJ dug up a very old federal law which was originally created to target Ku Klux Klan members after the Civil War and is using it against Pro-lifers to put them in prison for longer periods of time. Some of the Pro-lifers charged did communicate with each other about meeting up in Mt. Juliet.  The FBI rounded up the defendant’s computers and gave a timeline slideshow.  Apparently, communication is considered conspiracy.  Penalty – The maximum penalty is ten years in federal prison and much heftier fines in the range of $250,000.  

What happened

My friend, Coleman Boyd, and another man, Paul Vaughn (who has 11 children), were there for sidewalk counseling with women who had appointments to kill their babies at Carafem Health Center in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, on March 5, 2021.  As a side note, Carafem is a now-closed abortion clinic (Tennessee doesn’t allow abortions anymore).   While some were outside the building, like Coleman and Paul, others went inside the building and stood or sat in a hallway to pray and sing hymns.  Each defendant has had to hire their own attorney.  One attorney, who is with the Thomas More Society, said, “This was a peaceful demonstration by entirely peaceable citizens—filled with prayer, hymn-singing, and worship—oriented toward persuading expecting mothers not to abort their babies.”  The entire scene of prayer and singing lasted about 2 hours before the police came. Coleman took some video of those singing and praying in the hallway (as evidence of what took place) and live-streamed it on Facebook (apparently, this is considered conspiracy).

Not allowed to fully defend themselves

What hasn’t been said in the news yet is that the judge presiding over the case (appointed by Bill Clinton) would not allow video taken by the defendants to be shown, nor would she allow a whole list of words and phrases to be spoken in court, i.e., God, baby, etc., as she feared it would influence the jury.  As we know, the Biden Administration has weaponized the Dept. of Justice (or should I call it Dept. of Injustice now) as well as the FBI – against Pro-lifers.

Shock and awe against Pro-Lifers

You might remember that in the first week of October 2022, 100 days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Joe Biden held a highly publicized meeting with his so-called “reproductive rights task force” in the state dining room of the White House. At the meeting, Biden announced a plan to subvert the Supreme Court’s ruling to the extent that he could. He announced many things, but what Joe Biden didn’t announce is that, as he spoke, his enforcers in the DOJ were planning a “shock and awe” style raid designed to intimidate and punish Pro-life activists. Just hours after the meeting of Joe Biden’s “task force,” at 7:00 a.m. on October 5, 2022 (a full 1 ½ years after the event), a team of heavily armed FBI agents arrived at the Centerville, Tennessee, home of Paul Vaughn.  One of the agents apparently delighted in telling one of Vaughn’s children, who was waiting for him to drive them to school, that their father was going to jail. And indeed, agents arrested Paul Vaughn in front of his children and hauled him away as they refused to answer any of his wife’s questions.  See video.    Fox News interview with Paul.  Luckily, they didn’t come after Coleman Boyd in this way. 

Judas Iscariot

Before their trial began, the DOJ coerced one young woman who had participated in the peaceful hallway sit-in (both in Nashville and DC) to testify against the defendants.  The DOJ played on her deep fear of going to prison (for 22 years).  Those who were there told me she appeared to have been coached and consistently lied on the witness stand (of which the jury believed).  Whatever happened to “The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God”?

Apprehensive couple  

A young couple who served as witnesses for the DOJ claimed that they felt “intimidated” by the reverent singing when they stepped off the elevator, leading them to turn back. However, what the jury didn’t hear was that the couple did not go through with the planned abortion and now have a 2-year-old child. Are they not happy having a son?

Elderly people charged

Eva Edl, an 88-year-old woman, grandmother, concentration camp survivor, and author of her biography, “She Looks Like My Little Girl”, was sitting in a wheelchair against the clinic door.  The hallway was free for visitors to pass through; Eva could easily move out of the way.  No one ever touched or harassed visitors.   One employee, a witness for the DOJ, said she couldn’t get out of the building.  This was not true; open the door, and people would move aside if needed – start walking.   

“Show trial” 

Many believe this was a “Show Trial” where only one outcome was pre-determined by the Biden Administration, with the judge, DOJ, and FBI colluding together.  This trial, with its guilty verdict, was and is a warning to others.  

Protesting – Double Standard

When I think of protestors, I think of what happened in the summer of 2020.  The BLM rioting in Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, and other cities cost in excess of $2 billion in damage. Properties were burned and destroyed; people were killed and injured, massive looting and ferocious violence broke out.  Although some were arrested, many got off scot-free.  There is an obvious double standard.  When you see the DOJ prosecuting peaceful Christians praying and singing for two hours, you must stop and consider that our justice system is no longer just. 

Christian persecution is increasing

If you are thinking, “Well, this is just happening at abortion clinics, I don’t believe anything will ever happen to me.”  Really?  My dear Christian, you better think again.  Persecution against Christians and godly values has increasingly been on the uptick here in America, while persecution against Christians is accelerating all over the world. The silent and complacent church in America needs to wake up and stand up against the rising evil in our culture.  Many left-leaning leaders (and those in our culture) do not know right from wrong; they are calling good evil and evil good.  

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”  Isaiah 5:20

Abortion is cruel; millions of preborn babies are being chemically burned, cut to pieces, suctioned, starved, crushed, poisoned, or impaled in the womb. Pro-choice means only one choice for the mother, to kill it – it also means no choice for the baby. Laws made by men may have given women permission to kill their unborn children, but God does not, and the latter is where each person will need to answer to God one day. Since the passing of Roe v. Wade in the early 1970s, an estimated 63 million+ babies have been aborted, and the abortion industry rakes in revenue in excess of $4 billion in the United States alone. Abortion is murder, the intentional and forcible taking of a human life. If you are a Christian, Pro-life is the only position we should take – because it is God’s position.

“Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”  Ephesians 6:13

Pray. Please join me in praying for these six warriors who are facing years in prison. Several have large families who will be without a father and financial support. They are: Chester Gallagher, Paul Vaughn, Calvin Zastrow, Coleman Boyd, Dennis Green, and Heather Idoni (who is currently languishing in federal prison for being at the DC abortion clinic.   It is sickening what happened in DC.

The trial for the second group has not been scheduled yet.  Please pray for them.

For more info – the group has made a website including audio and video  www.stifledcry.com

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”  Matthew 5:10-12