Today is the opening day of the Supreme Court, and we welcome Sonia Sotomayor to the elite seat of one of the Nine. Today is also the 5 Year Anniversary of the very first Silent Siege–what has become known as Bound4LIFE and JHOP DC. Actually yesterday October 4th was the real anniversary, but it was the Opening Day of Court that marked the beginning.

The Silent Siege was born against a dramatic backdrop in 2004. Leading up to the Presidential election that year between George W. Bush and John Kerry, the abortion issue was vibrating as clear differences became more and more articulated. Both pro-life and pro-abortion passions were flaring. The Opening Day of the Court was a flashpoint because most knew that the outcome of the election would determine who replaced at least one seat on the Supreme Court…namely Chief Justice Reinquist.

50 young people showed up on that day to pray in utter silence with “LIFE tape” covering their mouths while a few hundred pro-choice protestors yelled, chanted and were otherwise obnoxious. The contrast between the noise and the silence was startling. So much so that a leader from the N.O.W. came over and whispered, “What you guys are doing is brilliant strategy.” Unseen though, two things were taking place:

1) God was imparting a spirit of prayer for the ending of abortion and his heart for justice.

2) The young people began to identify with the weakness and silence of the unborn–the most marginalized, disenfranchised people group in America.

Now it’s five years later, and we’re still here. There are no abortion related cases that I know of that will be heard in this session of the Court. But at some point in the future when one gets there, I want to make sure there’s a long unbroken history of prayer, fasting and sacrifice that will have prepared the way.

THE RUNNING TALLY
I’ve kept track for the last five years of the number of pro-choice protestors that show up on the Opening Day of the Court to make their case. Here’s the numbers:

2004- There was a horde of angry pro-abortion protestors there shouting, chanting and demonstrating a high anxiety level about the future of Roe v Wade.

2005- 30 pro-abortion protestors showed up. They huddled together for some photo ops that made them look larger and more intimidating than they actually were.

2006- 6 pro-abortion protestors showed up. They waved some signs around, but then left shortly after due to the fact that there was no media interested in what they were doing. This is when we started feeling like we kinda owned the sidewalk for the first time after a couple years of continuous prayer.

2007- 1 pro-abortion protestor showed up. Yeah, just one guy with a sign. He walked by a couple times then left. Utterly pathetic!

2008- Another Election Year! 0 pro-abortion protestors showed up. I think there were a couple dynamics going on there. A) Four years of continuous prayer takes a serious toll on the spiritual powers of darkness. B) I don’t think anyone on the pro-abortion side wanted to draw any unnecessary attention to Obama’s pro-abortion stance.

2009- Another goose egg this year. There were 0 pro-abortion protestors at the Court today. No worries though, we’ll still be there when they come back!