Krystal Allweil: Hi, everyone! I’m Krystal Allweil from BJUtoday, and today I have with me Paul Isaacs from Save the Storks. And Mr. Isaacs, if you could just tell us a little bit about Save the Storks today. What is your mission in a nutshell?
Paul Isaacs: Well, in a nutshell, we are trying to serve women and save children who are facing a very difficult choice when it comes to this issue of abortion. We’re also trying to rebrand the pro-life movement. One of the things we’ve found is that, when you tell people that you’re “pro-life,” they download a bunch of images. A lot of times, it’s an image of somebody standing with a protest sign or graphic images. We want when people think of people that are pro-life that they think of people that are loving and people that are compassionate, people that are kind and gracious, and yet truthful. And so, those two things—helping women and saving children, and rebranding the pro-life movement. It’s interesting. We found that anybody who’s on the other side of this abortion debate seems to be always about the latest environmental cause. Everyone wants to be saving something. So we chose the name “Save the Storks” because it’s kind of disarming and it invites a conversation instead of a debate. Everyone wants to save the spotted owls and wants to save the whales, and they see us wearing our Save the Storks T-shirts, and they say, “We’ve heard about those whales. We’ve heard about the field mice. But who’s killing storks?!” And so we have fun with that conversation. So, we’re trying to rebrand the whole thing.
Allweil: So, how does your mission fit in with current events today, specifically what’s happening up north?
Isaacs: Right. As you know, recently in New York, there was a decision about—the court decided they were going to make it legal to take the life of a baby all the way up until birth. What few people realize is that’s already the law in many states. It’s just that right now it’s big news in New York, and it’s capturing social media attention. I’m actually kind of glad about that because I feel like it’s awakening the Church to this issue. But if you are like me, I believe that the same life that is a viable life the day before birth is also viable at six months, viable at three months, viable when you hear that heartbeat, and at conception. And so, I applaud the fact that the Church is coming together, but we believe that life is so precious. And so, there’s this element that we’re very excited about that, and yet kind of grieved that it’s taken this long for those—that event up in New York to kind of waken the Church.
Allweil: So, you’re a BJU graduate.
Isaacs: Yes.
Allweil: So, what impact did your experience here at BJU have on what you’re doing today with Save the Storks?
Isaacs: It incredibly impacted me because of the foundation that I got when I was here. I learned how to work hard. I learned how to speak. I learned how to write and communicate. Bob Jones prepared me well for that. I was a history major and a ministry major, and one of the things I did at Bob Jones was I took every speech class that I could take. Every single one. The ones they said, “Don’t take that. She’s extremely difficult.” I said, that’s the one I want to take because I knew that if I wanted to get anywhere in life, and be successful, I had to learn how to communicate with people via the spoken word and the written word. And so, that really prepared me. I learned discipline. Discipline is something that is very underrated today. And so, I learned the value of the disciplined life. And I learned Scripture. Scripture was embedded in me, not just through, you know, chapel, but I also memorized a lot of Scripture when I was here. And that is so invaluable, and it’s laid such a great foundation for me. So I have so much to be thankful for—my friendships, the professors, and the discipline that they instilled in me.
Allweil: Great. Well, Mr. Isaacs, thank you so much for coming to talk to us today, and thank you for coming to talk to the students, as well. And we look forward to hear what you have to say to the students in chapel.
Isaacs: Thank you.
Allweil: Thank you for joining us, everyone, and we’ll see you next time. Bye.
Watch Paul Isaacs’s chapel message via Livestream.
