I stepped off the bus as I arrived at Georgetown University. From the towering gothic buildings, well-groomed shrubbery and the preppy clothes of the students, it was vividly obvious that I had stepped foot onto an Ivy League school. I kindly asked for directions to the dining hall, then was escorted through a maze of buildings. When inside the hall, I scanned the room looking for Camille Pauley. I had only seen her over FaceTime, so I didn’t know what to expect. I spotted a woman who threw her head back with laughter and knew immediately it was Pauley. She embraced me, then introduced me to her husband. We chatted for half an hour or so. It seemed we had known each other our whole lives.
When Pauley accepted my invitation to speak for chapel at Union, I was thrilled that the Union community would have the opportunity to hear Pauley’s passion for the pro-life cause and her mission to equip students to change their generation. For those of you who are not familiar with Pauley, allow me to introduce you.
Camille Pauley is the president and CEO of Healing the Culture, a non-profit organization founded in 2003 that “evangelizes and converts people to be deeply, authentically, and permanently pro-life.” Pauley is the founder of Life Principles Academy and the creator of “Principles and Choices,” a pro-life high school curriculum. For twenty years, Pauley worked as a pro-life advocate. Formerly, she served as the director of education for the Washington State Chapter of National Right to Life. From lawyers to pastors to businessmen to medical professionals, Pauley has inspired leaders across the country, training thousands in the use of “Life Principles.”
I had the opportunity to ask Pauley about her pro-life work:
What first sparked your interest in the pro-life movement?
“It was when I was in high school. I had two Baptist friends who lived across the street from my house, and one day, they invited me to come pray with them in front of an abortion clinic. I remember going with them and experiencing an incredible sense of horror and grief for the women who walked into the clinic that day. I watched them go in with a look of anxiety and apprehension, and then walk out later with what could only be described as emptiness and despair. I knew what happened inside those clinics, but the reality of its brutality, not only towards unborn children but especially towards women, hadn’t struck me until that day. It convicted me to be a force for good, and that conviction stayed with me.”
Why did you see the need to start Healing the Culture?
“The pro-life movement did not have a component where anyone was answering the deeper, philosophical question, ‘Why?’ for being pro-life. Why would you be pro-life when you could have happiness, freedom, success, quality of life, love, and human rights simply by accepting the compelling promises of abortion? The problem, of course, is that the pro-choice movement has co-opted those words and has caused so many people to accept definitions that are self-centered, and therefore narrow, unfulfilling and beneath our own human purpose and dignity. The devil has such a clever plot in convincing millions of people to believe that happiness is satisfying my most tangible and immediate desires; that freedom is being able to choose whatever I want regardless of the consequences to myself or others; that success is being better or more powerful than others; that quality of life lies in what you can see, taste, touch, and smell; and that love means affirming me in all my pursuits, whether or not those pursuits are healthy or virtuous. To truly be pro-life means to embrace much deeper interpretations of those words than our contemporary culture seduces us into believing, and it means living by certain principles of truth, ethics and justice that naturally grow out of those deeper interpretations.”
What’s your favorite part of your job?
“I love the creative aspect of what we do at Healing the Culture. We are constantly brainstorming, creating and testing new ways of evangelizing ordinary people to embrace the higher viewpoint of pro-life ethics. I love to see my team’s creative juices flowing, and the collegiality we share when we are together. My greatest joy, however, is the interaction we have with college and high school students who learn our program and offer feedback on how it has changed their lives and even saved their children from abortion or saved someone they know from the despair of suicide. Often, one little mistake about what real happiness is can cause the most profound suffering and despair. We offer the antidote to that.”
What keeps you going when you are challenged?
“Jesus Christ, of course. And the heroes I meet — like Courtney Baker. She wrote a letter to her OB/GYN who had encouraged her to abort her third child when Down Syndrome was detected. After the baby was born, Courtney mailed a letter that described her baby as ‘perfect,’ and lamented that her doctor never told her that a child with Down Syndrome could be perfect. Her letter went viral with more than a million views, and she ended up all over national news. I had the privilege of flying out to Florida to meet Courtney and her family and presenting her with our Cultural Hero Award. Ordinary people who do extraordinarily sacrificial and generous things out of love – those are my heroes who keep me going.”
For students who are unfamiliar with you and your organization, what should they expect to hear from your talk in chapel this Friday?
“A whole lot of hope. A completely mind-blowing, new way of looking at the debate over abortion. And some fun stories that I think will make you laugh a little and perhaps see life a little differently.”
What should students expect from your LAST (Life Advocacy Student Training) conference on Saturday?
“The LAST training will be a much more intense study of the principles we will be learning in chapel. It’s a formal training for students who are already actively pro-life, but want to learn how to more deeply engage in conversation and evangelization with their peers. We’ll do some debating, practice tabling, short video critique and exercises. Afterward, students will be certified in our program, and they can use their certification later if they want to seek a career in pro-life education or advocacy.”
Pauley will be speaking in chapel this Friday discussing, “The Rejection of Despair: How to Restore Human Happiness and Rebuild a Culture of Life.” You won’t want to miss it.
Photo Courtesy of Healing the Culture from their annual gala panel interview