Pro-Life Banner Stirs Controversy In Moorestown, New Jersey

By Liz Townsend

No one in the small church pro-life group thought its banner would be controversial. Approved by the town and hung across Main Street in Moorestown, New Jersey, January 13, the banner proclaimed, "Life, What a Beautiful Choice," to commemorate Respect Life Month and the upcoming anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

But National Organization for Women (NOW) members protested, and the town told the group to take the banner down, saying it violated a provision of the town sign ordinance. In the end, the controversy generated enormous publicity for the pro-life cause, and the church was able to hang the banner with just a small modification, using the situation to hold an ecumenical Choose Life Assembly to further educate the community on life issues.

The banner controversy was a blessing in disguise for its sponsor, Advocates for Life of Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church. "We picked a really positive message, and we never thought anyone could have a problem with it," Joan McLaughlin, a member of Advocates for Life, told NRL News.

"But a lot of good things have come out of this. For the 400 dollars we spent on the banner, we got gazillions of dollars worth of publicity for our pro-life message."

Moorestown, a small town near Philadelphia, allows banners to be hung across Main Street with a town permit. The pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Msgr. James J. McGovern, suggested to Advocates for Life that it should hang a banner for the January pro-life commemorations, according to McLaughlin. The group decided to use its logo, a mother cradling a child, along with the popular "Life, What a Beautiful Choice" phrase. The town issued a permit for the banner to be hung for 15 days beginning January 13, and told the group where the banner should be placed.

However, controversy soon erupted. A local NOW chapter met in a Baptist church the night the banner was put up - - and the assigned place for the banner was right outside that church. Members of NOW contacted the Burlington County Times, which published an article January 19 on the "dispute," even though no one else had expressed any concern about the banner.

"This is a classic example of a story being created by the press," said McLaughlin. "There were no other complaints, no controversy until the Burlington County Times printed the story."

The article quoted two NOW members who criticized the "partisan" message on the banner. "The sign is totally inappropriate and it does not belong on public property," said NOW member Carla Krasnick. "It is clearly a blatant pro-life message that's being espoused."

Msgr. McGovern stood firm behind the pro-life group and vigorously defended its right to hang the banner. "I'm very surprised at the reaction of these people who are opposing the statement that life is a beautiful choice," he told the Times. "The Old Testament tells us to make the choice of life over death and that life is a very precious option. What choices are they offering, the option of death?"

On the day the Times article appeared, town officials discovered a seldom-enforced provision in the sign ordinance, requiring that banners must advertise a specific event. Township officials withdrew the permit for the banner and told the church to take it down, since the message on the banner was not related to a specific event.

Advocates for Life kept the banner up until the evening of January 22, making sure that its message could be seen on the Roe anniversary. The group and Msgr. McGovern began to organize an event that could be advertised on the banner, which would then bring it into compliance with the ordinance.

Other local newspapers as well as the Philadelphia Inquirer and a Philadelphia TV station soon reported the story. The newspapers repeated the NOW members' complaints that the banner was a "partisan" message and should not be allowed on public property.

Editorials in the Courier-Post warned that the banner was part of a wider conspiracy. "The banner, which also featured a Madonna-like figure cradling an infant, was emblazoned with the catch phrase of a national media campaign sponsored by an umbrella group of religious organizations committed to the National Right to Life Committee's anti-abortion stance," one editorial stated. "That is more than religious. That is political."

Despite such rhetoric, members of the Moorestown community expressed strong support for the banner and the group's right to hang it. At a town meeting January 25, at which the sign ordinance was discussed, supporters outnumbered the opposition by nine to one, according to McLaughlin. Most of the 200 attendees at the meeting wore buttons with the number 100 on them. "The button means we are 100 percent behind the church and 100 percent pro-life," one woman told the Times.

Moorestown Mayor Howard Miller said that all future banner permit applications would be "strictly reviewed for conformance to the ordinance," the Times reported.

After quickly organizing a Choose Life Assembly to be held February 14, a sign advertising the assembly was attached to the bottom of the original banner and it was placed back over Main Street on February 5, this time outside Our Lady of Good Counsel. It stayed up for the remaining six days of the original permit.

Over 350 people of different faiths attended the assembly, hearing moving sermons from Msgr. McGovern and Lutheran pastor Lawrence Vogel and praying together for life. "The church was full," said McLaughlin. "Even three of the five members of the town council came!"

Despite the controversy, Advocates for Life is determined to continue using its new notoriety to educate on the life issues. "Even the mayor is saying, 'What are you going to put on next year's banner?'" McLaughlin said.