Thomas Umstattd Jr.

The Floor Champion fights on the congressional floor for the actual legislative change. While the Public Figure operates in the community influencing the opinions of the people, the Floor Champion fights in Congress. We need a Senate that will refuse to confirm pro-choice judges.

The revolutionary war had Floor Champions in every state. Richard Henry Lee served as a Floor Champion in the Virginia House of Commons. He and Patrick Henry played good cop/bad cop as Lee’s calm and eloquent oratories supplemented Henry’s passion and zeal. Henry activated the action via agitation. Lee directed that energy to positive change. Together they were unstoppable.

As for the British abolition movement, the Floor Champion was Lord Grenville. You are probably thinking, “What about William Wilberforce? I saw an entire movie that depicted him operating as the Floor Champion.” Wilberforce was the Floor Champion in the House of Commons. Wilberforce agitated for change for 3o years but it was Lord Grenville’s eloquent speech before the House of Lords that resulted in a 41 to 20 vote eliminating the slave trade.

President Bush signing the Partial Birth Abortion Ban. There are no women in this photo.

Once Grenville’s abolition bill came before the House of Commons, it passed in a 283 to 16 landslide. Wilberforce provided the energy. Grenville breached the wall of opposition. What the Abolitionist movement needed was an articulate member of the Nobility to back up the movement. Once the aristocracy came onboard the opposition dwindled away.

So far, men have implemented most of the pro-life action and provided much of the energy behind the movement. Men are right and their arguments are good, but this is not enough. We need someone from the House of Lords to pop the bubble. We need to elect female Floor Champions.

Successful movements often have a Public Figure who represents the movement as a whole. For example, Dr. Martin Luther King served as the public figure for Civil Rights.

Olaudah Equiano acted as the Public Figure for the British abolition movement. After attaining his freedom, Equiano devoted his life to traveling around England speaking about the realities of the slave trade. His autobiography, which depicted the horrors of slavery, sold thousands of copies. When the British thought about slavery, they thought of this eloquent man who stayed out of politics.

The Public Figure operates in the arena of ideas convincing the people to change their minds. The problem with the pro-life movement is that we have no Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to represent our cause. Instead we have dozens of somewhat influential people who have only a mediocre following.

Ideally this public figure would be an attractive, eloquent and diplomatic woman. She is the type of person people listen to even when they disagree with her because she is so engaging. When she is on CNN, viewers stop changing the channels to listen to her speak.

I am convinced that a man cannot serve as an effective public figure. Could MLK have led his movement if he were white? Men have less authority to speak about abortion because the ramifications only affect them indirectly. Part of what has hurt the Pro-Life movement is that its primary leaders have been mostly men. I don’t want to discount their heroic accomplishments, but they need to allow a woman to surpass them if we want to reach new heights.

From the archive.

Set Me Aflame

Lord, set me aflame for You.
let not my fire grow dim.
keep my flame from the quenchers.

the cares of the world press me into the ground

the spiritual rain that comes not from You

crackles and pops on the embers of my heart

make my soul so hot that the waters from the world

turn to steams of praise rising to Your name.

may my life burn as a living sacrifice for You

shining Your light throughout the earth

Why is lying wrong? Because it hurts people or because God said not to do it? Read the rest of this entry »

#1 Regular People Wear Costumes

At SciFi conventions people dress up like emotionless visitors from another world with amazing abilities and power. At GOP conventions people dress up like  amazing visitors from the grass roots with amazing abilities and power. 

The hippies shave their beards and come their hair in the classic political swoosh. In both conventions most people pretend to be something they are not.  Sometimes the dress up to make a point.

George Washington Read the rest of this entry »

What would the pro-life movement look life if William Wilberforce were still alive? History tells of times when radical and sudden political reform rocked the world. If we study world changers we can learn to imitate them.  This is their story. We hope it will be our story too. Several Patriot Academy alumni have worked with me on this strategy including Sarah Coburn, Hannah Hill, Jennifer Lackey and 
Jacque Otto. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by wili_hybrid .

An old man and a boy were fishing on the shore of a great lake. As they listened to the sound of the birds and the whispers of the wind the old man started to tell the boy stories. He talked of how he had grown up and how some things had changed and some stayed the same. He talked of how he had seen the land on the other side of the lake.

“What are you talking about Grandfather?” The boy interjected. “There is no land on the other side of the lake.”

“There surly is for I have seen it.” The old man replied with a smile. “Even though I have never set sail on this lake I have seen the land with my own eyes.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Grace and I live about an hour away from each other. Grace works in Austin an hour from her home and mine forming a giant one hour triangle of doom. I call this triangle of driving "a middle distance relationship." We are to far to see each other daily and to close for week long visits. This causes unique challenges. Read the rest of this entry »

Its the first of the month. Another post from the archive.

My Idolatry of Evangelism
I have a confession to make. I have made an Idol out of Evangelism. Sin is a two-sided coin with unrighteousness on one side and self righteousness on the other. Idolatry is unrighteous and idolizing evangelism is self righteous. I have taken something good and substituted it for the best. I now see in my life the “fruit” of self righteousness. Read the rest of this entry »

Warning: gross generational generalizations. Please post your exceptions and disagreements in the comments section.

The Baby Boomers and Generation X both loved the telephone. As teens they spent hours chatting away but their children do not. The relationship between young people and the phone has fundamentally shifted. Read the rest of this entry »