ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Illinois, November 22, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Vandals defaced a pro-life banner at a student group’s abortion-victim memorial over the weekend — the second time it has been vandalized since being erected November 3.
In what looks like a repeat case of pro-abortion criminality, a person or people defaced a banner reading, “Abortion Takes Human Life,” which accompanies rows of white crosses representing victims of abortion on the lawn of the Christian Liberty Academy.
The crosses represent the 113 unborn lives taken by abortion-on-demand each day in Illinois, said Chris Iverson, a local pro-life leader and adviser to the Live Pro-Life student group at CLA. Abortion-victim memorials are set up periodically on the lawn at CLA, a preschool through grade 12 Christian school that is known by people of faith for standing up for life, marriage, biblical morality, and other politically incorrect causes.
Iverson said in the first incident some of the crosses were pulled out of the ground and knocked over and the banner was sliced with a knife or a key. In the recent incident, someone took paint and threw it on the sign — blocking some of its words.
“The students are saddened that people would do this, since all they’re trying to do is speak the truth,” Iverson said in a video. The pro-life group filed a report with the Arlington Heights Police Department. Calls placed to AHPD were not returned by deadline.
Iverson called for prayer for those guilty of the vandalism. “We want to respond in kindness. We don’t want to render evil for evil.
“This is a school where small children go. This is really an attack on pro-life … on free speech … on Christianity. It’s kind of an attack on the whole community,” he said.
Abortion memorials bring healing
Abortion-victim cross memorials have had a profound effect on consciences and especially women needing forgiveness for past abortions. Iverson pointed to Sandy Weir, Ph.D, who remembers a special abortion memorial at Christian Liberty Academy before Mother’s Day in 1995:
In 1995, I saw the 4,000 crosses on the lawn. I stopped by on a rainy day and had a quiet moment remembering Michael and David, the two sons I had aborted years ago. I wrote their names on the crosses to grieve their deaths. It was the beginning of healing for me. Seeing these signs vandalized today among the crosses honoring the children aborted in Illinois feels like an attack against women like me who want to come out of the shadows of the pain of abortion.
A pastor who won’t be intimidated
If pro-abortion activists were aiming to intimidate CLA with their attacks on the abortion-victim memorial, they picked the wrong Christian school as their target. Calvin Lindstrom, who pastors both the Christian Liberty Academy and its adjoining Church of Christian Liberty, told LifeSiteNews:
Christian Liberty is troubled that someone would deface a sign promoting life for the unborn. We pray for those who are responsible and for their repentance and salvation in Jesus Christ. We are certainly not going to stop promoting a message of life.
This is hardly the first time that Christian Liberty Academy has been victimized or targeted. On October 15, 2011, pro-homosexual activists threw two large paver bricks through the doors of CLA with a hate-note attached calling on followers to “shut down Lively.” That refers to Scott Lively, a pro-family writer and advocate who was scheduled to speak and be honored that evening at CLA.
Lively is one of the leading Christian activists in the world opposing the LGBTQ activist movement. Pastor Lindstrom was not intimated by the assault and Lively went on to speak at a banquet for the group honoring him — Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH). A leftist group published an online manifesto against Lively coinciding with the brick attack.
In another incident several years ago, CLA was surrounded by “progressive” activists favoring amnesty for illegal aliens because the school hosted an event for a conservative immigration group called the Minutemen.
Iverson said those who would like to help the Live Pro-Life Group at CLA replace its defaced “Abortion Takes Human Life” banner and its crosses can donate online HERE; or send a check (with a note on the check: “for Live Pro Life Group”) to:
Attn: Live Pro Life
Christian Liberty Academy
502 W. Euclid Ave
Arlington Heights, IL 60004