Opinion

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Our development manager, Jon Fidero, has come to appreciate the great challenge of convincing more people to donate to LifeSiteNews. There are reasons for this and it’s definitely not because we aren’t doing a very good job.

Let me explain.

I recently had a conversation with a prominent U.S. pro-life leader who greatly admires our work and depends on it for his own work. He said, “you know, I have to tell you there are times when I find it hard to read LifeSiteNews.”

We get that a lot.

This leader and many thousands of regular readers understand the implications of what we report, and it is painful to be constantly confronted with the ‘heavy’ news that must be dealt with. Nevertheless, this friend knows LifeSiteNews must continue to do what it does – for everyone’s benefit. (Click here to further our mission)

Many of us in the pro-life movement began by being concerned primarily about abortion.

However, after involving ourselves on the international scene, we encountered astonishing new information about what we were up against.  See our very popular document The Inherent Racism of Population Control and our NSSM section.

We learned that the abortion issue was only one of a large number of connected issues being manipulated by powerful forces in an international de-population push that is at the heart of the assault on our entire Judeo/Christian civilization.

For example, the Philippines has been a major target of these forces for decades and now they finally have been overcome with the passage of the RH bill this week. Ireland is also on the verge of being forced into the Culture of Death with legalized abortion.

At LifeSiteNews, we recognized that many pro-life, pro-family activists had little knowledge of the immensity of what they were fighting. We knew we had to try to convince the pro-lifers, through first-class news reporting, that they had to also become aware and concerned about homosexuality, pornography, sex-ed programs, legalization of prostitution, de-population programs and even environmental extremism and more.

Many leaders constantly thank us for helping them to understand all the connections.

We also realized that most pro-life organizations have for years experienced a devastating lack of support, and even direct undermining of their efforts, from church leaders – who are crucially needed allies in this war.

We had a serious obligation to report on that issue as well, we realized, or the cause of life and family would continue to be lost.

If we just stuck to reporting on abortion and what is normally considered to be “pro-life” there is no doubt, given the faithful and talented writers I’m privileged to work with, LifeSiteNews would have been far easier to grow.  Raising money, having prestige and on-going access to leaders in the Church, politics and high society could have been realized.

But our consciences would not allow us to take that relatively safe or institutionally acceptable road.

Consequently, there has been a price to pay.

We lose a lot of subscribers, on-line readers and donations because of our extensive reporting on the homosexual issue. The threats this issue poses to a culture of life are still very poorly understood.

We have also endured loss of popularity and donations over our extensive coverage of pornography and other ‘ick-factor’ issues.

Our reporting on the very damaging moral dissent, even among those within leadership in Christian denominations, and shockingly weak church leadership response to the moral issues of the day, has also exacted a heavy price.

But these are key issues in the culture war.

Very few are willing to take on these issues because they know the inevitable flack, loss of status, and support they will incur for doing so. We do not report to criticize and our aim is to fight scandal, not to cause it.

When private means to end scandalous situations are unsuccessful, shining public light on the matter has shown itself to be effective time and time again.  As we have learned so painfully from the Church sexual abuse scandals, the far greater scandal is that so many situations are kept hidden and unresolved.

We report to bring about resolution and correction of these ills, and through our more positive stories to present examples of heroism, right leadership, and necessary action.

Donating to LifeSiteNews does not earn a plaque on a building or a hospital device or a photo-op that some would want to show around. It is something that some donors would be reluctant to boast about to their friends, the media, or in their organization or company newsletters. Many donors prefer to avoid association with controversy and “divisive” issues.

And yet, there are few heroes throughout Christian history who were not controversial.  Jesus Christ and his closest followers spoke things so controversial that He and many of them were killed for their words. Christ warned that His teachings, His truths, would cause serious division.

Were Christ and his saints all fools? Should they have done things differently to avoid any personal offence so more would have supported them?

As a result, we find ourselves in a position of needing to pay for a $170,000 defense bill – and that is only what it has cost us to this point for our defense—against a self-described ‘pro-choice’, gay friendly Catholic priest who wants to punish LifeSiteNews for reporting his many public actions to a wider, international audience.

We get threats of lawsuits from others for the same reason.

In addition, we endure severe defamation by certain groups and individuals, sometimes even those in prominent positions in politics and religion. Unfortunately, many believe such unjust disparagement without bothering to talk to us for our side of the story.  This has damaged our reputation and cost us in other ways, just how much I don’t think we will ever really know.

These assaults from every side cost and cost us. But they do not deter us.

We have no choice. We have to do what we are clearly called to do.

We know that someone must do it, and for whatever reason, we have been called to this task – regardless of the consequences.

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So, because of all this and much more, we have to beg more than some and must run these quarterly campaigns to cover the many costs associated with our mission.

At the moment, we absolutely need to raise a minimum of an additional $85,000 towards our Christmas campaign goal. (This does not include the additional $95,000 – which we don’t have – in still outstanding bills owed for our current legal defense costs).

If you have not yet done so, please contribute whatever you can and perhaps mention our needs to others who are pro-life and pro-family who may wish to help. (Click Here to Support our Campaign)

We have so many readers that it would not take much from a relatively small percentage of them to cover all of our current costs and much more.

Thank you for your support,

Steve Jalsevac
Managing Director
LifeSiteNews.com

P.S. – Only 11 days remain in our Christmas campaign.

  Your donation today, large or small, will help us reach our goal.  (Click Here to Support our Campaign)