Pro-life organization builds bridges for the gospel
Pro-life organization builds bridges for the gospel
To educate people about the value of human life and to mobilize Christians to make God-pleasing decisions: this is the mission of Christian Life Resources (CLR), a pro-life, pro-family organization affiliated with WELS. For the past 25 years CLR has provided information and counseling on a wide range of life- and family-related topics for thousands of people.
“CLR uses life and family issues as platforms or bridges to eventually share with people the message of eternal life,” says Pastor Robert Fleischmann, national director of CLR. “We do that in many ways: through our pregnancy counseling centers; through our magazine, Clearly Caring; through our Christian medical directive statements; through our counseling on life and family issues; and even through our CLR store. We do this because we want to communicate what God has done for us.”
The idea for a national pro-life organization came after several small WELS groups opened pregnancy counseling centers in response to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling to legalize abortion. In 1983 these groups, or chapters, united to form WELS Lutherans for Life (now CLR). “They said, ‘We need a unified theme’ because there were a lot of disjointed things going on,” says Fleischmann.
At the time there were six chapters and four pregnancy centers. Today, that number has grown to 24 chapters operating 22 pregnancy centers across the United States. In 2007, more than 5,000 clients visited these centers. “CLR is going to continue to strengthen our program of informing people about God’s will with life,” says Fleischmann. “I think the best thing we can do is teach people the concepts of sacrifice and care. If we can teach people to do that, everything else will fall into place.”
According to Fleischmann, CLR is looking at starting a program in which people “adopt” or befriend someone undergoing serious medical care, such as cancer. He also wants to get the organization involved with hospice work and elder care. “I strongly feel that because we’re a society that places a greater value on what we call ‘quality’ life, we kill our children, our elderly, and our disabled—and it’s tragic,” says Fleischmann. “People forget to ask, ‘What would God have me do?’ If people ask that question first, then look to God’s Word for the answer, things would be different. People would be caring, not killing.”
“CLR uses life and family issues as platforms or bridges to eventually share with people the message of eternal life,” says Pastor Robert Fleischmann, national director of CLR. “We do that in many ways: through our pregnancy counseling centers; through our magazine, Clearly Caring; through our Christian medical directive statements; through our counseling on life and family issues; and even through our CLR store. We do this because we want to communicate what God has done for us.”
The idea for a national pro-life organization came after several small WELS groups opened pregnancy counseling centers in response to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling to legalize abortion. In 1983 these groups, or chapters, united to form WELS Lutherans for Life (now CLR). “They said, ‘We need a unified theme’ because there were a lot of disjointed things going on,” says Fleischmann.
At the time there were six chapters and four pregnancy centers. Today, that number has grown to 24 chapters operating 22 pregnancy centers across the United States. In 2007, more than 5,000 clients visited these centers. “CLR is going to continue to strengthen our program of informing people about God’s will with life,” says Fleischmann. “I think the best thing we can do is teach people the concepts of sacrifice and care. If we can teach people to do that, everything else will fall into place.”
According to Fleischmann, CLR is looking at starting a program in which people “adopt” or befriend someone undergoing serious medical care, such as cancer. He also wants to get the organization involved with hospice work and elder care. “I strongly feel that because we’re a society that places a greater value on what we call ‘quality’ life, we kill our children, our elderly, and our disabled—and it’s tragic,” says Fleischmann. “People forget to ask, ‘What would God have me do?’ If people ask that question first, then look to God’s Word for the answer, things would be different. People would be caring, not killing.”
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