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To clear up something that is very confusing in the Charlotte World article below, Flip Benham is not the founder of Operation Rescue. Randall Terry is the founder of Operation Rescue. Flip became the director after Keith Tucci in 1994. Here is the correct progression: Randall Terry founded Operation Rescue in 1987. The first time Operation Rescue came on the national scene was at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, GA in 1988. Terry then passed the reins to Keith Tucci in 1991. In 1994 Tucci and Terry passed the reins on to Flip Benham, who has been director ever since. From the Charlotte World Flip
Benham's battle cry for the unborn Erica J. Parkerson CHARLOTTE-Blood is running through the streets of the city of Charlotte, says Rev. Philip "Flip" Benham. He believes there's a "sign" hanging on the door of each abortion clinic in our city that says: "Open by permission of the local church." He says innocent blood has a voice, just as it did in the days of Cain and Abel. "The blood that is being shed here in the city of Charlotte is crying out to God and God is looking at his shepherds and churches all across this wonderful city, saying, 'What are you doing? Where are you?'" Voting Republican is not enough, according to the founder and director of Operation Rescue, nor is building crisis pregnancy centers. "God is holding the church of Jesus Christ and calling her to account for this blood. Abortion will come to an end in America when the Church of Jesus Christ makes up its mind," Benham said. "If you say that crisis pregnancy centers are the front lines of your war against abortion in the city of Charlotte, then your front lines are manned by women. Crisis pregnancy centers are mercy ministries; their ministry is absolutely crucial, but how many armies march with the Red Cross in front?" Benham has not always been a radical Christian fighting on the frontlines for a cause. In 1966, he went to college because he didn't want to go to Vietnam, but upon graduating from Florida State University in 1970, he was drafted. "My number was 148 and I knew I was toast," he recalls. To be proactive, he signed up to become a helicopter pilot, but his instructor said he could teach a monkey how to fly but he couldn't teach Benham. "I was a rebel," he said. Ultimately the "rebel" was stationed in Europe, far from Faye, the girl he loved back in the States. Benham brought her to Germany, where they married 28 years ago. Today they have five children: Tracey, David and Jason, twins who play for the St. Louis Cardinals, Abigail, 10, and Jonathan, 9. In 1970 Benham's father gave him the Mad Hatter, a saloon in Kissimmee, Fla. His father had always been in business, and one day as Benham was working, he began to wonder, "Is this all there is to life?" He had all the money and booze he wanted, but something was lacking. "I was totally, absolutely empty," Benham said. Benham had accepted an invitation to church but did not plan to go. But the man who had invited him showed up at the Benhams' front door one Sunday morning. "I heard this young guy proclaim a Gospel that just totally changed my view, wiped out everything that I'd been taught in a matter of a few minutes," Benham said. At the end of the service, a "trembling wreck," he told his wife to drive home; he would walk. Along the four-mile trek, he wept like never before, amazed that God could love someone like him. His journey with Jesus was just beginning in 1976. The "gray-haired saints" of the Church modeled Christ for Benham-people like 82-year-old Edna who, came to the Mad Hatter with her Spanish rice casserole. Benham, who had been an alcoholic, stopped drinking and started reading his Bible. He feared he was becoming like the guy who walked on the highway from Daytona Beach to Tampa carrying a cross. He prayed that God would not allow him to become a "fruitcake" like that guy. But God changed his heart, and the next time Benham saw the cross-bearer, he greeted him with a ham sandwich and a Coke. "I understood him. I wanted to carry that cross," he said. "I wanted to be like him. I didn't want all the things that I had." God was calling him to preach the Gospel, and eventually Benham founded the Garland Free Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, in 1980. During the 12 years he served as pastor, he and his congregation challenged the 7-11 stores to quit selling Hustler magazines; promoted Christian values before the school board; and became involved in the work of local crisis pregnancy centers. "When we found peace with God, we declared war with somebody else," he said. In 1988 he founded Operation Rescue in Dallas, launching a long-term campaign for the unborn. God had a new assignment for Benham, so he traded the steeple for the streets, becoming the full-time director of Operation Rescue in 1992. "The Bible tells us that, 'bloodshed follows bloodshed' (Hosea 4:2). If we sow bloodshed in the womb, we will reap it in the streets," he said. "We are reaping the horrible consequences of what we have sown." Benham highlights the consequences for women who have had abortions, saying there is not enough Prozac or hours spent with psychiatrists that can help them. "Proverbs 28:17 says that a man tormented by the guilt of murder will be a fugitive till death," Benham said. "That principle is as sure as the law of gravity." But he notes that there is hope for the fugitive. "Proverbs 28:13 says, 'He who conceals his sins shall not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy,'" he said. "They are chained. The only way that they can get free is with a Savior that set this drunk free 27 years ago. He can break those chains." Abortion is a man's issue, according to Benham. He urges pastors to call their men to the battlefront. "They'll come if the pastor will just give them a vision. All he has to do is call them," he said. "Men are free to act like irresponsible thugs, siring children and not raising them. If they were taking four-year-olds to the three abortion mills in Charlotte and ripping them apart, what would our pastors do?" The silence of the Church in Nazi Germany is deafening today. Benham says that Jews being transported by train to Auschwitz and Ravensbruck passed by churches along the railroad tracks. On Sunday mornings they cried out to the Christians inside for help, but these Christians drowned out the screams of terror. When the trains passed, they sang a little louder. "That's what we've become," Benham said. "We are just singing a little louder the praises of Jesus, and yet the blood is flowing through the sewers of the city of Charlotte and God is saying, 'How long?' "There has to be, in this city, an absolute repentance over this sin," he said. "If we're looking for the power of Almighty God, if we're looking for His mercy to be poured out, then we have to confess our sins." Charlotteans will have an opportunity to repent corporately this July 12-20 in Kannapolis, N.C., and on the streets of the Queen City. "We believe God wants to show up and show off in Charlotte. We're going to give Him every opportunity," Benham said. "Christians from all over the country will gather in Charlotte." The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation for the unborn, followed by a memorial service for a baby boy or girl, will be held in downtown Charlotte July 17. Protests at the abortion mills are scheduled all week long. The Operation Save America (OSA) mobile unit has arrived in town, armed with special technology that will enable women to see the precious life growing inside them. Benham says the goal is to see "closed" signs on the doors of the abortion clinics in town. On Sunday evening, July 13, Benham will hold a solemn assembly, which will include many pastors. "Men of God from all over this city are going to come together. We're the people of God, and we are going to repent over our apathy and indolence over these children," he said. "We're going to say, 'God forgive us,' because it's our responsibility. We are trying to elect conservative and Republican mercenaries to fight the battle only we have been called to fight." Dr. Matthew Harrison and Dr. Danny Holland of the Holland Family Practice in Concord, N.C., have been working with OSA in Charlotte for months. Holland reports that Benham tells women the truth. "He's so gentle with them," he said. The doctors offer free prenatal care, and if the mother chooses life, they will bring her baby into the world at no cost. "We are obedient to God's will," Harrison said. Standing in front of an abortion clinic is humbling for Holland. "We're the Lord's servants," he said. "We are committed to life from conception to death." Gaining just five seconds of eye contact with the women is very important, according to Harrison, who asks for two minutes of their time. "You are about to do something that will affect the rest of your life," he tells them. The owner of an abortion clinic asked the Operation Rescue team what it would take to send them home. "Stop killing babies," Holland says they told her. Recently two couples they counseled chose life. Benham continues to speak for those who cannot speak up for themselves, for the 45 million babies who have been killed in America since the Roe v. Wade decision. "When the theology of the church house becomes the biography of the street; when the Word of God becomes flesh; when the Church of Jesus Christ takes the battle to the gates of hell, we are promised that the gates of hell will not prevail," he said. "We Christians have a cause for which we are willing to die." As he has fought for the lives of the unborn, Benham's own life has been threatened and he has spent time in jail in eight states. "If we go down, we're going to go down standing up in the Name of Jesus Christ," he said. "We have a cross which we are willing to hold onto all the way down." For more information, call (704) 792-2226 or visit www.operationsaveamerica.org.
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