For the next two weeks, if you walk past the statue of Luther and on to the expansive campus grounds to the right, you’ll soon come across a very quiet, easy-to-miss memorial. One large cross stands sentinel in the middle of 2,700 smaller crosses, painted pink and blue for the girls and boys aborted every day in the United States. These children have no names, and most of them have no graves. They are members of the generations lost to us since Roe v. Wade. Drive past on the road through campus looking the wrong way and, much like abortion, you may not see what you’re not looking for. But walk between the rows, see these small pink and blue crosses spread out around you, and realize that they represent one day out of the 17,158 since January 22, 1973.
For those of us here in Indiana, they are also meant to more specifically commemorate the 2,411 aborted babies whose bodies were found in a local abortionist’s home garage and car, following the 79-year-old’s death this past September. Records show they were likely from Indiana patients from the years 2000-2002. Dr. Klopfer aborted thousands—likely tens of thousands—in northern Indiana clinics (including one here in Fort Wayne) before the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana suspended his license in 2016. Why he preserved the remains of those 2,411 is a question without an answer. In some ways the whole tragedy and atrocity of abortion feels like an unanswered question: Why, o Lord, do you allow this?
But here, as always, the memorial is centered around the cross. Even here Christ is at the center. We are so valued by God that He sent His only Son to die for our sake. No matter our societal worth, our stage of development, nor even the depth of our sins. We should have been found wanting, and yet we were wanted. And so, on a Good Friday nearly 2,000 years ago, justice and mercy met. There is hope for the lost, the hopeless, the grieving, the guilty. We were bought with a price. We have been redeemed.
If you are in the area, please feel free to stop by; to remember, to mourn, to pray, and to take comfort. Park your car at the Luther Statue and go for a walk. The crosses will be up for the next two weeks, through both the Allen County March for Life (our local Fort Wayne life march) that takes place this Saturday on January 18 and the March for Life in Washington D.C. the following Saturday, January 25. The CTSFW Life Team, who put up the memorial, will take it down sometime in the week following the National March for Life.
Thank yous go especially to first-year seminarian Jeremy Hanson, who was in the military for 20 years before joining the Seminary (“I toured a lot of military graveyards and memorials,” he explained. “When I heard about Klopfer, my heart sank. These innocents couldn’t defend themselves.”), as well as first-year seminarian Daniel Warner, who has a background in woodworking and provided the wood for the crosses as well as the labor putting them together. Thank you also to the many hands that made light the work. The community first took about three hours to paint the crosses, and then this past Sunday planted all 2,700 in about an hour and a half. If you would like to see and learn more, go to Dr. Peter J. Scaer’s Facebook page, as he captured setup day on a handful of videos.