About Christy Brunke

Welcome, friends! I’m blessed to be a mom, a pastor’s wife, and the bestselling author of the fictional book, Snow out of Season. But my greatest claim to fame comes from being a child of the King. Because of that, I’m passionate about my family, unborn children, and God-written love stories. Though I used to live in China, now I love serving in ministry here in Maryland. Praying you’ll be blessed as you read my blogs, my story, and my award-winning novel!

Dan Cox Defends Our Freedoms

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Christy Brunke

A native of Frederick county, attorney Dan Cox is the happily married father of eight.

After serving as a councilman and council president, he’s now the Republican candidate for Maryland’s 8th congressional district. With degrees in law and government and over 20 years of experience, Dan Cox is prepared to represent us well.

Dan, you fight for the Constitution, economic growth, and limited government. Why are you so passionate about these three things?

Without the right to life, all other rights are meaningless. [Tweet that!] From our natural right to life flows our Constitutional rights, the right to speak, to own property and enjoy economic freedom. Excessive, overreaching and wasteful government becomes burdensome and destructive to our free existence.

Dan, you also plan to expand I-270 and I-495 to reduce traffic. How do you see this leading to a better quality of life for Frederick and Montgomery County residents?

Transportation is one of the first duties of our federal government, and I will work to improve it for our district. With more time at home and not “parked” on the I-270 or I-495 daily backups, we will be healthier and will enjoy our families and lives with a better quality of life.

Congressman, councilmen, and senators have endorsed you, not to mention sheriffs, veterans, and firefighters. But the most interesting endorsement I read was from a Mrs. Cary Council of Montgomery County:

“I escaped East Germany under communism with my parents and in 1962 came to America,” she said. “We must stand for freedom. Please join me in voting for Dan Cox to be our Representative in the U.S. Congress.”

How has the support of people like Mrs. Council further inspired you to defend our liberty?

She and others who have escaped totalitarian states are so inspiring because they know the value of our freedom firsthand. They have suffered without a bill of rights protection.

My opponent specifically targets amendments for regulation. His extreme approach is supported by over $22,000 in donations from an atheist group that targets for removal in lawsuits “Under God” and “In God We Trust” along with voluntary prayer. I will defend our liberty unceasingly.

If elected as a congressman, you “plan to draft and seek to pass a National Home and Community Defense Act.” Can you explain what that would look like?

In the wake of Orlando and San Bernardino, we need more citizen involvement. The purpose is to help communities with interested leaders to obtain training from local first responders to be alert and ready to protect our children, schools and families.

On Friday, September 30, you tweeted, “Today is the 40 year ann. of #Prolife #HydeAmendment.” Can you tell us more about the Hyde Amendment and why you support it?

Congressional candidate Dan Cox supports the Hyde Amendment.

Photo courtesy of NationalRightToLifeNews.org

The Hyde Amendment is named after the late prolife hero Congressman Henry Hyde who passed the law banning federal funds for abortion.

I strongly support that and will work to strengthen the law to eliminate loopholes that allow states like Maryland to require Medicaid funds for in and out of state residents.

Want to learn more about Dan? Check out his website at CoxForCongress.org!

Want to meet Dan in person? He’ll be speaking at the Rockville Pregnancy Clinic Banquet next Tuesday, October 18. I’ll be singing there, too, and a copy of my bestselling novel will be given away at every table. Register by tomorrow (October 11) at RockvillePregancyClinic.org!

Four Miles from a Late-Term Abortion Clinic

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Christy Brunke

How could we leave when we knew a child was about to be killed? Tweet that! During 40 Days for Life this past March, my husband and I took some of the youth to pray outside a late-term abortion clinic.

Praying near a late-term abortion clinic in Germantown

Photo credit: Lucy Monroy

Reproductive Health Services (RHS) in Germantown, Md., isn’t your average “family planning center.” Along with clinics in California, Colorado, and New Mexico, RHS performs third trimester abortions. Even women in their ninth month can end their pregnancy if there’s a fetal or maternal indication.

But apparently a “maternal indication” can include the “stress and anxiety” of the mother. Sidewalk counselors say most of the babies being aborted are perfectly healthy.

Some do have birth defects, but does that make them unworthy of life? Would we kill an infant with Down syndrome, a cleft palate, or a heart condition? If not, what makes it okay to murder them just weeks before their due date?

Mark 8 days after he was born at 33 weeks.

My husband, Mark, eight days after he was born at 33 weeks. Human being?

During the week, Reproductive Health Services terminates first and second trimester pregnancies. But late-term abortions always begin on the Lord’s day less than four miles from our church.

As many of us enjoy Sunday dinner, Dr. LeRoy Carhart injects Digoxin into the baby’s heart. This causes the little one to have a fatal heart attack. Carhart describes it as “painless.” Adults who’ve experienced massive heart attacks describe them as not only painful but terrifying.

Jennifer Morbelli, a 29-year-old kindergarten teacher, died from complications after a 33-week abortion.

After stopping the baby’s beating heart, Carhart gives the woman medicine to induce labor. Within four days, she delivers a dead boy or girl in a nearby hotel. Two precious women have died from complications, not to mention all those little women.

As my husband and I left the late-term abortion clinic that chilly Sunday afternoon in March, Carhart was due to arrive. Mark later said, “It was a weird feeling standing in front of a place where I knew babies were going to be killed later that day.”

“Shouldn’t I stop him?” Mark had asked himself. “What if the baby was born today and tomorrow the woman came for the doctor to kill it? Wouldn’t it be our civil duty to save that child? How is it different today?”

The evidence points to life beginning at conception. Still, I can understand, to some degree, people who believe life begins at a somewhat later date. But how can any reasonable person deny that a 35-week-old fetus is a human being? In this age of ultrasounds, there is no excuse.

Still, my heart goes out to these mothers. I have dear friends who deeply regret their abortions. Today, many of them speak out for life, so other women and children don’t have to suffer.

We need to be a voice for the unborn too. Proverbs 31:8 says, “Open your mouth on behalf of those unable to speak, for the legal rights of all the dying” (NET Bible).

Praying near a late-term abortion clinic in Maryland

Photo credit: Lucy Monroy40DaysForLife.com

This Sunday, October 2, we’re returning to Reproductive Health Services to pray from noon to 1 p.m. Will you join us on the public sidewalk along Wisteria Drive? Sign up for your vigil hour in Germantown, Md., or the city of your choice at 40DaysForLife.com.

Update: In 2017, we helped close Dr. Carhart’s clinic! Read the story here!

Church on the Hill Champions the Unborn

Posted on September 24, 2016 by Christy Brunke

Today, I’m honored to interview veteran pro-life activist Rev. Patrick Mahoney. A former member of Operation Rescue, Rev. Mahoney now directs the Christian Defense Coalition and shepherds Church on the Hill DC.

Rev. Mahoney, your house of worship, Church on the Hill, is the closest to the Supreme Court and the U.S. Capital Building. How has this influenced your congregation’s perspective on living out our faith?

Every time Church on the Hill comes together for worship and prayer, we look out a large window and see the Supreme Court right across the street. Just beyond that, we catch a glimpse of the Capitol Building.

It is a clear physical reminder that God has called his people to extend his kingdom and influence into every aspect of culture and society. This especially includes those who make our laws and enforce them. Church on the Hill is constantly aware that God has called us to minister to the most powerful neighborhood in America.

The award-winning pro-life movie Voiceless will open in theaters on October 7. Your church is attempting to show it on the sidewalk in front of the Supreme Court. How did you get involved with this feature film and what inspired you to show it in such a public place?

Voiceless 2016 pro-life film movie poster

Photo courtesy of theglobaldispatch.com

First off, our faith should be a PUBLIC faith and not a private one. Sadly, the American church has chosen to spend most of their lives in church meetings, religious events, and what I call Christian ghettos.

Christ’s ministry was a very public one. He was constantly engaging the broken, wounded, and disenfranchised.

Voiceless is a powerful film which challenges the faith community to step out of their apathy and become a courageous voice for the most needy in our society. They are the millions of innocent children being brutalized through the violence of abortion.

What better place to be a voice for unborn children than the very place their rights were stripped from them? [Tweet that!]

Also, it is a wonderful way to celebrate and embrace the First Amendment and our free speech rights.

Why was the Christian Defense Coalition founded?

The Christian Defense Coalition was founded to challenge the faith community to live out their faith within the public square. The church must constantly face the reality that our silence and apathy lead to injustice and oppression.

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Winner Elie Wiesel says it best. “We must always take sides,” he says. “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

God has called his people to always take sides for the principles in Scripture. We need to stand for justice, equality, and human rights. The silence or neutrality of the church only leads to despair and the decline of a nation.

As Francis Shaeffer often said, “Every abortion clinic should have a sign in front of it saying, ‘Open by permission of the Church.'”

Christians should be influencing and transforming culture rather than culture influencing and transforming us. One of my favorite quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reflects that.

“In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion,” King said. “It was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.”

God is calling the Christian Defense Coalition to create churches that are thermostats.

How has its vision expanded since then?

Over the past 25 years, our vision has remained the same. What has expanded are the rising tide of challenges we must address. We are having to deal with issues we never could have anticipated in 1991. Another painful reminder of the silence of the church.

At this juncture, what’s the most far-reaching thing we can do to defend unborn children?

I would answer that by going to the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. In that narrative, Jesus defines loving your neighbor in the context of seeing someone beaten, robbed, and left in a ditch.

Good Samaritan for single mothers and unborn children

Image by falco from Pixabay

The Samaritan bandaged the man’s wounds, put him on a donkey, and brought him to an inn where he cared for him. When the Samaritan left, he promised the landlord he’d cover the rest of the man’s expenses there.

I think this is how God wants us to respond to the unborn children who might be facing abortion. We are to reach out to both the mother and child in love and compassion, providing physical, emotional, and spiritual care.

We are to sacrifice our comfort, plans and desires to extend compassion and mercy to our neighbor in need. In other words, love that child as we would ourselves.

Readers, explore more blogs about abortion below!

Abortion Clinics

Pro-life Organizations

Pro-life Versus Pro-Choice

Single Mother Assistance

Looking for Abortion-Themed Books? I Recommend These

Novels

Nonfiction Books

New Wave Feminists: An Interview with the Founder

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Christy Brunke

Has our womanhood been stolen? Today on my blog, I have the privilege to interview Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa. The founder and president of New Wave Feminists, Destiny is pro-woman, pro-education, and pro-life.

New Wave Feminists are pro-woman, pro-education, and pro-life

Photo courtesy of NewWaveFeminists.com

Here’s the vision statement from their website:

“Our womanhood has been stolen for a handful of birth control pills [Tweet that!], the ‘privilege’ to degrade ourselves in Playboy, and the ‘right’ to abort our children. We are here to take feminism back from those who have corrupted it. We are the new wave.”

Destiny, I love your perspective on our culture today. What led you to start New Wave Feminists?

You know, I often say I had to walk through the fire to see how the world burns women. I was definitely a product of the MTV generation, living on a steady diet of lies from Cosmo magazine and brought up by this porn culture that told me I was only as powerful as my sex appeal.

This led to an unplanned pregnancy at 16. I chose to keep my son, but so many of my peers felt pressured to abort.

Photo courtesy of NewWaveFeminists.org

Seeing firsthand what a vicious cycle dehumanizing others creates, I knew I had to do something to change it. Whether it was women or their children being treated like objects, I knew I could no longer stand by silently as this oppression was handed down in the name of “feminism.”

What sets your organization apart?

We are trying to change the pro-life movement just as much as we are trying to change the feminist movement. They are each good at their core, but have lost their way to some degree. Both movements need to be reminded of the humanity of the woman AND the child.

**New Wave Feminists landed on the cover of The New York Times. Can you share the story behind that?**

new-wave-feminists-on-the-new-york-times

Photo courtesy of CatholicNewsLive.com.

We are a secular group, but I have to admit there was some sort of divine intervention going on with that. A friend just happened to have a few of our “I AM A PROLIFE FEMINIST” signs left over from the March for Life in DC, so she took them with her out to the Supreme Court.

Within a month of that sign making the cover of The New York Times, Hillary Clinton was on The View saying “absolutely you can be a pro-life feminist.” The tides are turning.

Photo courtesy of NewWaveFeminists.Blogspot.com

**In your latest post on NewWaveFeminists.blogspot.com, you compared the movies Trainwreck and Suffragette:**

“The feminism depicted in Suffragette . . . focuses on what women are capable of accomplishing, despite their gender. While Schumer’s brand of feminism is all about what women can get away with, BECAUSE of their gender. . . .”

Well said. Can you elaborate on that?

Sadly, a lot of feminism today is about victimization.

Kristen Hatten, who runs NWF with me always points out how in one generation we’ve gone from “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me,” to “stop microaggressing against me with your words and give me a safe space.”

The Schumer brand of “fauxminism,” as we like to call it, is all about being “equal to men” when really she just means being equally as awful as the most terrible guys.

We believe women are strong and awesome and that males should be expected to rise up to that level. That’s the type of equality I want to see. Also as a mother of two girls and two boys myself, I want a feminism that includes everyone working toward a better future for all genders.

Destiny with her sons and daughters.

With so many unborn lives at stake, what’s our next step in the pro-life movement?

We must make abortion unthinkable and unnecessary. And I know many people will say, “It already is unnecessary!” But I can tell you that’s not how it feels to the woman facing an unplanned pregnancy. She cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel, because she’s blinded by fear and panic.

So many of these women have been told that if they ever get pregnant they’ll be abandoned, or kicked out of the house, or unable to provide for their other children.

It feels very much like a necessary evil to them, which is why we MUST assist with those necessities, so they can see clearly again what they already know… that ending the life of any human being is just “an evil.” Not a necessary one.

Destiny will be speaking on Tuesday, October 18 at the Rockville Pregnancy Clinic’s Banquet. Join us at the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, MD for a chance to win a free copy of my prolife novel, Snow out of Season! Register today at RockvillePregancyClinic.org!

Nearly-Aborted Baby Inspires Award-Winning Novel

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Christy Brunke

Two weeks ago, Linda Brooks Davis won a Carol Award for her debut novel, The Calling of Ella McFarland. In her acceptance speech, she said two Ella Janes inspired her story. One was her nearly-aborted granddaughter.

The other was her grandmother.

“All my life I have remembered stories my grandmother told me,” Linda said. “Her name was Ella Jane, and she lived in Indian territory…. And I was mesmerized by her stories about her life there.”

But it would take the birth of Linda’s granddaughter to inspire her to write her own stories.

Linda’s Nearly-Aborted Granddaughter, Ella Jane

After years of barrenness and discouraging medical reports, Linda’s daughter finally got pregnant. Not long afterward, Lynn Lee called her mom to share some surprising news. “Mother, I’m going to have triplets!”

Linda was ecstatic. “I was going so crazy–jumping up and screaming and crying–that people [from downstairs] came to find out what all the ruckus was about. I was so excited–my first grandchild would arrive in triplicate form.”

But their joy soon turned to apprehension as Lynn Lee’s body started to rebel.

“You should reduce,” her physician said. “You won’t carry three babies to term. [Tweet that!] Reducing by one will give the other two a chance.”

As Lynn Lee considered her options, fearful what-ifs bombarded her.

“What if none live because I refused to sacrifice one?’

“What if I deliver three blind or brain-damaged babies?”

“Is it right to put them all at such risk?”

If they were to abort one, Baby A was the best choice.

But Lynn Lee remembered the Lord’s promise in Hebrews 13:5–“I will never leave you nor forsake you”–and she chose to keep all three.

But God never promised the journey would be easy. When Lynn Lee was 14 weeks along, she had to have surgery. At 18 weeks, she was confined to bed. At 22 weeks, she got pneumonia. She also had gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholestatis of pregnancy.

Nearbly-Aborted Baby Inspires Award-Winning Novel

The triplets celebrating their first Christmas, Ella Jane in the middle.

Even so, at 28 weeks, three small, but healthy, babies were born. Lynn Lee named the boys Davis and Ethan. “Baby A,” who was nearly-aborted, she named Ella Jane.

“The neonatal nurse said their hearts were strong,” Linda said. “I knew they would be. Their mom had chosen wisely.”

Linda’s Commitment

Overwhelmed with thankfulness, Linda made a commitment. “Lord, I’m going to spend the rest of my life–as many years as you give me–leaving a legacy of faith in writing for those children.

“And then it dawned on me. Ella Jane was my grandmother. Ella Jane is my granddaughter. Got it!” Linda said. “I’m going to write a story about an Ella Jane . . . in Indian territory. And it’s going to . . . bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, the grandest privilege in the world.”

Ella Jane, nearly-aborted granddaughter of Linda Brooks Davis

Ella Jane (left) with her cousin McKenna at Linda’s book launch

Today, Ella Jane is eleven years old. Like her namesake, “helpful” is the word that best describes her. Earlier this year, she attended her grandmother’s first book launch for the novel she helped inspire.

Want to learn more about The Calling of Ella McFarland? Read my review here!

Sources:

Brooks, L. (2009, March 1). The Choice. Live: A Weekly Journal of Practical Living.

Wynn, T. (2016, August 27). 2016 ACFW Awards Gala. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKA9n-ZL95M