Jill Stanek has a very moving report about the "Memorial to the Missing" created by the Mississippi Baptist Convention. The structure, set on the MBC grounds directly across from the State Capitol, now contains 50 million pennies representing the number of surgical abortions performed in the U.S. since Roe v Wade. It's an impressive and powerful statement to church members, passersby and the legislators across the street.The pennies have been collected over the last couple of years and put into a 13-by-7 glass house. The coins are now piled 6 feet deep.
It has been a profound experience for those involved and a dramatic symbol for those who see it or read about it.
"We just needed something to memorialize and help people see the magnitude of abortion over the last several decades," said the Rev. Jimmy Porter, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention's Christian Action Commission...
Now that the convention reached its goal of collecting 50 million pennies, it plans to invest the money in a fund dedicated to anti-abortion causes.
"I think it's been real effective," said the Rev. Clarence Cooper, who was president of the convention when the memorial was erected on Mother's Day weekend in 2006, "especially to those who have taken the time to read the large plaque that is there."
The plaque says the coins not only represent aborted babies but "the difficult process of decision-making, fear and loneliness" involved with abortion. It asks passersby to "stop, pray, consider what we are doing as a nation, ask God to forgive us, seek ways to help those who are struggling with the decision and look to the Lord to restore each of us."
Convention spokesman William Perkins said people often stop at the container to pray and insert their own coins into the structure's penny slot. "There are a number of stories we've heard about grandparents who walk by and saw it and read the plaque and dug in their pockets and put pennies in the memorial for grandchildren who have been aborted," he said. "It's been an interesting couple of years."
The Mississippi Baptist Convention is to be commended for its' creative and very effective "Memorial to the Missing." These pro-life servants can be thanked for their noble work right here.
