Abortion activists vandalized an “Abortion Takes Human Life” banner raised next to rows of white crosses dedicated to abortion victims on the lawn of the Christian Liberty Academy (CLA). The display was erected to bring honor and recognition to unborn children.

“The crosses represent the 113 unborn lives taken by abortion-on-demand each day in Illinois,” said pro-life leader Chris Iverson, who serves as an adviser to the Live Pro-Life student group at CLA.

Attack on Christian principles

Peter LaBarbera, who heads Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), says the attack not only goes against the murdered preborn children, but against Christians and their beliefs on morality and the sanctity of human life.

“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,” LaBarbera explained on LifeSiteNews.

Several crosses were pulled out of the ground and knocked down during the first incident earlier this month on November 3, when the vandals slashed CLA’s pro-life banner, according to Iverson. He noted that the second act of vandalism involved paint that was splashed across the sign to block some of the pro-life message’s words.

“The students are saddened that people would do this, since all they’re trying to do is speak the truth,” Iverson expressed in a video depicting what happened.

A spirit of mercy … not retribution

Even though the pro-life group filed a report with the Arlington Heights Police Department, Iverson expressed no animosity toward the perpetrators and called for prayer for those responsible for vandalizing the memorial.

“We want to respond in kindness,” Iverson stressed. “We don’t want to render evil for evil.”

Iverson emphasized that he and the school do not take the attack personally and that they must act responsibly – especially taking the children at the school into consideration.

“This is a school where small children go,” the pro-life leader impressed. “This is really an attack on pro-life … on free speech … on Christianity. It’s kind of an attack on the whole community.”

The reasoning behind abortion memorials

LaBarbera reminded Americans about the intent and significance behind abortion memorials across America, which he says bring healing and awareness.

“Abortion-victim cross memorials have had a profound effect on consciences – and especially women needing forgiveness for past abortions,” the conservative activist informed.

Showing the effect such memorials have, Iverson remembered what Sandy Weir, Ph.D., said more than two decades ago on Mother’s Day in 1995, when she visited a special CLA abortion memorial.

“In 1995, I saw the 4,000 crosses on the lawn,” Weir recollected. “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.”

She was grieved to see what recently happened.

“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,” Weir lamented.

Won’t back down …

LaBarbera insists that pro-abortion activists will not have their way by attacking abortion memorials at CLA.

“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,” he insisted.

Calvin Lindstrom, who is a pastor at both the Christian Liberty Academy and its adjoining Church of Christian Liberty, harbors no animosity toward the vandals – only compassion and a yearning that they come to know Christ.

“Christian Liberty is troubled that someone would deface a sign promoting life for the unborn,” Lindstrom expressed. “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.”

LaBarbera maintains that the latest desecration of an abortion memorial is by no means an isolated event.

“This is hardly the first time that Christian Liberty Academy has been victimized or targeted,” the pro-life advocate asserted. “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. A leftist group published an online manifesto against Lively coinciding with the brick attack.”

As one of the foremost Christian activist across the globe spreading the truth about the LGBTQ activist movement, Lively spoke at a banquet sponsored by AFTAH that honored Lindstrom.

LaBarbera also mentioned another not-so-distant attack on CLA.

“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,” LaBarbera recounted.