A group of protesters, who claim to be artists, are boasting about a pro-choice statement they made Thursday after hanging a banner from a Jesus statue in Arkansas that reads “God Bless Abortions.”
Indecline, an activist art collective started in 2001, draped the 44-foot sign across the Christ of the Ozarks statue in Eureka Springs as a “direct response to the dramatic attempts being made in Arkansas and throughout the South, to ban abortion services to women in need.”
KNWA News reports that the group dressed up to resemble construction workers, then snuck onto the property to hang the banner.
“We think Jesus would understand the concept of a difficult decision,” Indecline wrote on a social media post. “He supposedly had to make a few of them and understood sacrifice very intimately. The Christ of the Ozarks is visible from miles away, so we just treated it like a billboard.”
Randall Christy, curator of the monument, says he’s disturbed by the move and the message.
“Lord help them,” Christy said. “Maybe He’ll somehow touch them and make them realize how bad that message really is.”
According to KNWA, Christy plans to press charges against Indecline for trespassing and vandalism.
A spokesperson for Indecline emailed the following statement to CBN News regarding the incident:
“Our collective has 20 years of experience with threats stemming from our actions, particularly when the fanatical advocates of the issues we tackle have their feelings hurt. We are happy to accept criminal charges knowing full well that the incompetency of the prosecuting parties will further highlight the importance and effectiveness of the work we do and inspire others to do the same. We also believe that walking into a Jesus theme park at night and hanging a banner that was removed the following morning is a far cry from the draconian laws Arkansas politicians are pushing on women in need. If people can’t see that, they need their moral compass recalibrated. “
And this is not the group’s first disturbing project that advocates abortion.
In March, Indecline vandalized a Christian billboard in Mississippi to read, “Worried? Planned Parenthood offers abortions,” instead of, “Worried? Jesus offers security.”
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is this News Biblically Relevant?
According to Christian Post, a local tree service helped remove the banner from the statue free of charge. However, the director of the Christian ministry, which manages the statue, stated that it was not designed to be loadbearing, so removing the banner was a dangerous feat.
Franklin Graham responded condemning the activist group who claimed killing unborn children in the womb is a “miracle” that “saves lives,” adding that abortion is a “sad stain on our nation”:
Last week the 65-foot tall “Christ of the Ozarks” statue in Arkansas was vandalized by an activist group who hung up a banner reading “God bless abortions.” In a statement on social media, they claimed abortion is a “miracle” that “saves lives.” That’s just a lie. Kent Butler, Director of Operations for the Christian organization that manages the statue, said, “It was all about them getting attention to expand their platform, but our pivot really is that it’s about Jesus. This whole place exists to lift up Jesus. And at times what was intended for evil, in Genesis 50, it says ‘what was intended for evil God used for good.’” Abortion is murder. The World Health Organization says there are some 200,000 abortions worldwide every day. Here in the U.S., more than 23% of all pregnancies end in abortion—that’s nearly 2,000 each day in this country alone. What a sad stain on our nation.
This is precisely what we find in a generation that has rejected “Biblical morality” for what they claim is “subjective morality.”
“Subjective morality,” they say, is an “I decide for me, you decide for you,” “no judgment” mentality. However, the result has instead been a redefinition of “morality” that caters to manifold sins and a Romans one reprobate mind. The diversity of thought they claimed to be craving goes entirely out the window when another person disagrees and refuses to celebrate their new “morality.”
The book of Isaiah states: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).
We are also told in the last days, “all that live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution.” Meaning, all that live by true morality laid out in Scripture, will be hated and attack by a godless society that rejects such standards.
**Although we do not believe that Bible calls Christians to make statues such as this, even depicting Christ, we believe that this story sheds light on our society which is increasingly hostile to believers in Jesus Christ and celebrates atrocities like abortion.
