Face the Truth in Rapid City

The Face the Truth Tour with Joe and Eric Scheidler came to Rapid City tonight.

The Face the Truth Tour, which was in Sioux Falls yesterday, is presented by the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. The Scheidlers were invited to Rapid City by Al Carlson of the Rapid City Citizens for Life group.

When I arrived at Dakota Middle School for the presentation tonight about 6:30 pm, there were about 7-8 protesters on the sidewalk in front of the school, waiting for the event to start.

I spoke with a few of them and took a yellow handout which was offered. The handout was titled "WE ARE NOT THE ENEMY" and stated that they wanted to "move beyond bans and abstinence only programs," and that in a "perfect world every pregnancy would be a reason to rejoice." It also said that I the recipient of the handout could "help us create that perfect world by - Voting NO on Initiated Measure 11" or contacting a women's group for more information.

When I shook hands with the woman who gave me the handout and told her my name, I was recognized by two or three in the group. Since I had taken a picture of them in front of the school when I arrived, they wanted to take a picture of me. I stuck around for a minute or so while a couple of them tried to get their cell phone cameras to work, and talked with the lady who handed me the yellow paper.

I asked her if they were going to come in and listen to the presentation when it started. She seemed surprised that I asked, and said she didn't know they were invited, and asked something like "Could we?" I said, "Well it's open to the public so I don't see why not." She indicated they might come in, and since I had to get inside for a scheduled interview of the Scheidlers, I told her "Maybe we'll see you inside, then" and hurried in. Unfortunately I don't think the protesters got their cameras working in time, and they missed tonight's chance to capture my glory (I'm so sexy it huuuuuuuurts).

Much of what I discussed with Joe Schiedler in an interview prior to the presentation was also mentioned in the presentation, so I will blend the two together.


Al Carlson emceed the event, which was opened with the Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by two of Eric Scheidler's sons.

Joe Scheidler spoke first and said that he, too, had invited the protesters in to hear the presentation. Joe also noted the yellow handout and said that when you want to do something evil out in the open, you usually dress it up as something good. He said the handout was dressing up evil.

Joe addressed the controversy surrounding the graphic pictures of aborted babies that his group often displays. He said that we are a visual society, and that people are more greatly impacted by the truth when it is seen.

He told of the anti-slavery movement in England in the early 1800s and how the abolitionists had brought chains and whips into the legislative chamber, and had shown people what conditions on slave ships were actually like.

During the civil rights movement, photos of hangings of black people were shown to illustrate the crimes being perpetrated on black Americans.

Joe said that during the Nuremberg Trials photos of the starving concentration camp prisoners and the piles of bodies were shown to illustrate the Nazi atrocities.

None of these were pretty, and they were all shocking, but they were considered necessary for the full truth to be known.

"We are killing children," Joe said. "We are killing human beings. We have killed over 50 million of our posterity. It's suicide."

Joe said that when he learned of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion in the United States, he said, "This is suicide. This is how you kill a nation."

Joe said he didn't know much about abortion when he attended a pro-life rally in Chicago in 1972. But while he was there, he saw pictures of a plastic bag full of aborted babies from Canada, where abortion was already legal. Seeing the harsh reality of abortion motivated him to become more involved in the effort to save unborn children.

He said his organization held off using pictures of aborted babies at first because they bothered some people. But he realized that most of the people who don't like the pictures weren't going to like his pro-life group anyway.

Joe said the pictures had motivated many women who had intended to have an abortion to change their mind when they understood the life that was inside them, and what the abortion would do to that life. He said as many as 30 women in one day had changed their mind about having an abortion due to the presence of those pictures in front of an abortion clinic.

He said that fathers usually don't have any say in whether their child gets aborted; legally, the decision is completely up to the woman. Joe said he talked to a man who came to an abortion clinic with his girlfriend. He told the man about his own son, and said, "Your son will never jump rope, he'll never play ball, he'll never come up and give you a hug." Joe said the man left with his girlfriend and they didn't get an abortion.

Joe said many women who have had abortions have told him, "If only someone had been there the day I had my abortion. If only I'd seen the pictures."

Joe acknowledged that the pictures were graphic and ugly. But, he said, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was graphic and ugly, and the cross (as an instrument of capital punishment) was ugly. Yet this graphic incident has brought billions to God.

He said his group is busy traveling nationwide, but encouraged attenders to start their own "Face the Truth" tours.

When Joe's son Eric spoke, he said there is beauty in human life, even in the babies who have been aborted.


Eric said those who feel acutely the injustice of abortion have a special responsibility to do something about it.

Eric read the opening of the Declaration of Independence and highlighted three of the most famous inalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He said these rights are not only inalienable, but are interdependent; when one is endangered, they are all in peril.

He said not only is the right to life under fire in our nation, but the First Amendment right to free speech is under assault as well. Eric cited the recent incident in Wisconsin where a university student vandalized a pro-life display in public, but the security guard did nothing.

Eric said his group had also been told by police that they had to take down their signs on a public sidewalk because they "upset" people.

He said there is a growing idea that if you don't want to hear something, you have the right to shut it off.

Eric encouraged people to join them tomorrow as they continue the Face the Truth Tour in Rapid City. There will be several gatherings around town tomorrow, including a lunch at Immaculate Conception Church.

I spoke with Eric after the presentation about his involvement in pro-life work. Since Eric had grown up with a father so dedicated to pro-life work, I wondered what had caused the issue to move beyond "this is part of my family" to being something "real" for him personally, that he internalized.

Surprisingly, Eric said that this had happened at a time in his life when he was in rebellion against his church roots.

Though he had rejected many of the church's teachings, and even questioned the existence of God, he remained pro-life. But when he began questioning the morality of contraception and the meaning and purpose of human reproduction, this led him to also examine why he believed abortion was wrong.

Eric said that he came to realize that if there was no God and there was no objective truth, then what did it matter if you aborted a fetus? This question led him on a quest for understanding truth and finding "first principles," which ended up bringing him back to the church and his faith.

The controversy over the use of graphic pictures of aborted children is certain to continue for the foreseeable future, and even pro-life people sometimes disagree over their use.

But a couple of truths remain that aren't really disputed, even by pro-abortionists: images of abortion are shocking, and abortion isn't pretty.