Download LifeDate Summer 2023
by Jordan Killinger
Overheard last March on the campus of Rice University, Houston, Texas:
“Hey! I found out that there is a pro-life group chat for Rice students. Want me to add you?” I asked.
“Absolutely!” said one of my best friends, Harmony Moore. “When do they meet?”
“Oh, they actually don’t meet together. It’s just a chat, and there’s hardly any activity in it. Maybe they don’t think they’d be able to accomplish anything given Rice’s climate.”
Harmony was unfazed. “Why don’t they meet?” she replied.
It was like a switch flipped “on” in my brain.
“I don’t know why. We should change that!” I said.
That conversation led us to resurrect a Christian, life-affirming group, Rice for Life, on Rice University’s liberal, largely pro-choice campus. In the same semester Rice introduced Planned Parenthood student liaisons, we were approved as an official club. A lot has happened since then.
We hosted an educational event for Christians on campus, titled “Life Abundant,” where we taught and discussed the biblical basis for standing up for life. We served mothers and children at a maternity home known as Lifehouse, which is dedicated to providing free housing, in-home support, skill development, and Christian discipleship to mothers in need. We stood for life at the Texas Rally for Life in January 2023. We discussed the scientific realities of abortion, how to talk with those who are abortion-minded and who have different moral philosophies surrounding life. Those indifferent toward or against the life-affirming position listened in at our weekly meetings. Conversations about life, the Life (Christ), and the Gospel followed.
God opened the door for us to start a life-affirming group at just the perfect time! Roe v. Wade was overturned just two months later! However, God began orchestrating the pieces for us to come together “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14) much earlier than that.
I credit much of my confidence in resurrecting Rice for Life to my attendance at a From Fertilization to Forever Lutherans For Life conference on January 8, 2022. I learned so much! Being a young Lutheran woman with a passion for the For Life cause, I expected to hear about abortion and maybe a bit about physician-assisted suicide. Nope. Michelle Bauman and her Y4Life team showed me that standing “4 Life” means so much more than that. Everyone is made in God’s image (the Imago Dei) and, therefore, has inherent, immutable value. Standing “4 Life” means understanding how God has called us to love, to marry, and to parent Christian children in this broken, sinful world. Standing “4 Life” means believing that God has a purpose for us even in our aging and our suffering as we grow older. Being “4 Life” means believing that we are not defined by our age, our size, our environment, or our dependency on others. Rather, it means believing we are defined by God: who He made us to be, and who He called us to be—His beloved children.
I walked away from the From Fertilization to Forever conference ready to equip and lead my fellow students in speaking up “4 Life”—and I didn’t even know it! (That was the best part!) When God opened a door for me to co-lead a life-affirming group, He had already prepared me, my fellow executive council members, and our general body members to open up the conversation about life at Rice. To His glory, the campus knows we’re here and that we’re here to support all life—“the lives of mothers, children, fathers, and families,” as we say in our constitution.
We have been interviewed by our college newspaper, The Thresher. We have spoken on behalf of trafficked pregnant women and their children at a secular human trafficking event. We have been one table away from the Planned Parenthood liaisons at a campus-wide club fair. God has guided us along the whole way. He is so good, and every time we call out for wisdom and guidance as to what to do on our campus, He answers mercifully, granting us all that we need and more.
Know that you too have been called to serve on behalf of life at such a time as this. God continually equips you, and you will be in awe of what He is able to do in and through you. The best part is He had it planned in the beginning (Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:16; Ephesians 2:10). May you be blessed as you continue to serve life in His image!
Jordan Killinger is President of Rice for Life.