By Pat Centner, AFAJ staff writer
October 2002 – It was November, 1978, nearly six years after the legalization of abortion via the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision in January, 1973.
In Fort Wayne, Indiana, 19-year-old Bryan J. (B.J.) Brown had just rededicated his life to Christ and was searching for God’s will for his life. Despite being raised in an evangelical home by loving parents, B.J. had been “pretty wild during high school and had gotten away from the Lord.” However, the Holy Spirit had convicted B.J. of his need for a genuine, lasting relationship, and he had surrendered to His call.
Shortly after this life-change, a friend said to B.J., “If you’re a Christian, then you must be pro-life.”
He replied, “I don’t see the corollary.”
The friend challenged, “Come to Indianapolis with me for a long weekend, and you will.”
B.J. went. He and his friend attended a conference titled “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” where the speakers were pro-life author Francis Schaeffer and former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.
What B.J. learned about the frightening loss of human rights brought on by the practices of abortion, infanticide and euthanasia changed his life forever, he says. “It really put a lot of things in perspective for me as far as the battle for the culture, the battle for life, the battle for the family. It was very eye-opening.”
A serious commitment
That conference laid the foundation for a lifelong commitment by B.J. to fight for the rights of the unborn. It also provided the impetus for his pursuit of a law degree and ultimate position as litigation attorney for the American Family Association’s Center for Law and Policy.
After the week of enlightenment, B.J. returned home and became very active in the pro-life movement. He wrote letters to newspaper editors, marched, helped pro-life politicians and supported the founding of Fort Wayne’s first crisis pregnancy center.
While pursuing these pro-life activities, B.J. attended Indiana University. He graduated with honors in 1986, earning a Bachelor’s degree in sociology. He also got started on his first career as a quality assurance manager and certified quality engineer with a Fortune 500 company.
Heading in a new direction
“In the late 1980s, the course of my life began to change,” says B.J. “We began to hear about groups across the country participating in ‘sit-ins’ at abortion clinics, blocking access as a way to bring the abortion issue to the forefront of the nation’s mind. We formed our own group, Northeast Indiana Rescue (NEIR), in 1987, and became involved in some out-of-town rescues. Then we realized, ‘We have an abortion clinic right here in Fort Wayne, and we should be salt and light in our own town.’”
The result was three large rescue events in 1989 involving hundreds of people and hundreds of arrests. Following the events, NEIR members told local city officials they planned to have a pro-life rescue so large that it would force the state’s governor to call out the National Guard.
“We hoped to make a huge statement in order to turn the tide against child killing,” B.J. explains. The city officials responded by saying there would have to be upwards of a thousand people before any consideration would be given to calling out the Guard.
“So that was our goal,” says B.J. “We went out and did presentations in 60 churches and got more than a thousand people who were willing to risk arrest. We then held a huge rally in a Fort Wayne church with over two thousand in attendance.”
Victory in adversity
The group’s plans for a Fort Wayne protest were foiled when the National Organization for Women (NOW) brought in New York City attorneys who shut everything down with a temporary restraining order in federal court.
“That was my introduction to the federal court system,” says B.J. wryly. “We were warned to stop, or we would be slapped with huge fines and made to spend six months in jail.”
After praying about it, NEIR decided they would march on a city clinic that didn’t have an injunction against them. They falsely leaked to the press that they would be in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The police and the media went to Ann Arbor, but 450 protestors went instead to Grand Rapids for a sit-in. Another 300 marched at Fort Wayne, while 50 police officers at Ann Arbor closed that clinic in anticipation of a huge crowd. “We actually shut down three abortion clinics in one day with our strategies,” crows B.J.
“Unfortunately, it brought us another lawsuit. Later we went to rescue a clinic in South Bend, (Indiana) and were sued again. It became apparent that the abortion industry had chosen civil lawsuits as their best weapon against pro-lifers.”
B.J. didn’t escape their strategy. He was sued and ordered to pay attorneys’ fees in a very large sum. The court also tried to garnishee his wages and take most of his possessions. “But they weren’t able to,” he explains, “because I walked away from my job, gave away everything they tried to grab, and let my house go back to the bank. I called it my ‘scorched earth’ policy.”
A new start
“Because of all that happened, I decided to go and live in the mountains for a while and just seek God and see what He had for me. Things hadn’t turned out quite the way I expected.”
Operation Rescue in Wichita was hosting “The Summer of Mercy” in August, 1991. B.J. intended to take part in the Rescue and then leave for the mountains. But God had other plans, it seems. After two weeks, people started responding like never before. The Rescue rallies grew from a few hundred mostly tourists, to several thousand locals. It culminated in a rally of more than 35,000 people at Wichita State University. One of the people in attendance was AFA Chairman Don Wildmon.
Following this success, B.J. still planned to go to the mountains, but Keith Tucci, the leader of Rescue, asked him to stay and lead training seminars for pro-life activists. He did so, and soon became a leader. “We were keeping pressure on the abortion industry through prayer vigils and constant witness. The pro-life forces were strong.”
A time of testing
About that time, B.J. was called before Judge Patrick F. Kelly because of a fracas with a “pro-abort” female at an abortion clinic. Judge Kelly told B.J. he had violated the injunction to stay off the abortion clinic’s property. After telling his side of the story, B.J. was allowed to go free.
That encounter, along with a later attempt to help 87-year-old activist Elizabeth Horan, who was arrested and on her way to jail, resulted in B.J. also being arrested and incarcerated for the night. The next morning he went before Judge Kelly who told him he had violated the injunction again. B.J. explained that he had not. The Judge said, “I need you to promise me that you will obey my order.”
“Your Honor,” B.J. replied, “I think we have a problem. First, I think your injunction is unconstitutional, and second, I’ve already promised my obedience to Jesus Christ. I respect the fact that you can incarcerate me and levy all sorts of financial judgments against me, but I cannot promise obedience to you in this matter.”
“Well, I’m giving you the keys to your own cell,” the Judge rebuked, “because I’m jailing you on civil contempt and for refusing to promise your obedience. When you’re ready to promise, you can get out.”
So B.J. went to jail where he remained for more than two months. While there, he wrote “A Christian Apologetic” to Judge Kelly in which he reiterated his allegiance to a Higher Law that is revealed in Scripture as the yardstick by which to judge man’s law.
“Of course, this view is not at all novel with me!” he wrote. “This Higher Law concept moved the Hebrew midwives to disobey the orders of the Pharaoh of Egypt and save Moses from state-mandated infanticide. ... The kings of the East disobeyed the order of King Herod the child killer, frustrating his plan to locate and murder the newborn Messiah.” The entire text made a strong case for B.J.’s position. He never did pledge his obedience to Judge Kelly. Even though his father had kidney failure while he was in jail, B.J. remained. He was released on his 68th day of incarceration, by order of Judge Kelly.
God’s Providence
Over the course of his pro-life activities, B.J. was arrested more than a dozen times and made many trips to court. Because of this, he studied law and defended himself successfully several times. B.J. says these experiences, coupled with a calling from God, led him to attend law school at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He was granted his Juris Doctorate in 1996 and graduated Summa Cum Laude, second in his class.
“All the arrest and lawsuits had caused some law schools and state bars to refuse me. But the very things that made me a liability in their eyes, made me an asset in the eyes of Don Wildmon and the attorneys at AFA’s Center for Law and Policy. Apparently, my pro-life activities and resulting convictions satisfied them.
“I thank God for bringing me here,” he continues. “ I am still able to work in the pro-life arena, as well as on other issues affecting the First Amendment. It is my distinct privilege to serve God through my work
here at AFA.” 
