50 Million Pennies for 50 Million Babies

From the Clarion-Ledger, December 2:

There's a half million dollars sitting on the corner of Mississippi and President streets [in Jackson, MS], but no one could possibly steal it.

That's because the cash is in the form of pennies - 50 million of them - that collectively weigh 156 tons.

The coins, which fill a glass house on the grounds of the Mississippi Baptist Convention building, provide a visual reminder of the number of abortions performed in the United States since the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973. [Photo above shows memorial with only 26 million pennies in 2007.]...

"We just needed something to memorialize and help people see the magnitude of abortion over the last several decades," said the Rev. Jimmy Porter, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention's Christian Action Commission.

Called the "Memorial to the Missing," the penny-filled structure is a project of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, which set out more than two years ago to collect one penny for each child who would have been born were it not for legalized abortion.

Now that the convention reached its goal of collecting 50 million pennies, it plans to invest the money in a fund dedicated to anti-abortion causes.

"I think it's been real effective," said the Rev. Clarence Cooper, who was president of the convention when the memorial was erected on Mother's Day weekend in 2006, "especially to those who have taken the time to read the large plaque that is there."

The plaque says the coins not only represent aborted babies but "the difficult process of decision-making, fear and loneliness" involved with abortion. It asks passersby to "stop, pray, consider what we are doing as a nation, ask God to forgive us, seek ways to help those who are struggling with the decision and look to the Lord to restore each of us."

(HT: Jill Stanek)