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Friday, July 30, 2010
A local Christian rock band offers an anti-abortion anthem as the annual Roe v. Wade protest in Washington D.C. nears
Song of their lives
By Mary Therese Biebel mbiebel@timesleader.com
Features Writer
Twenty-four years ago, Natasha Manassy, 23, of Harveys Lake said, her parents were young, poor, unwed and serving in the military.
Bass player Mike Warner, foreground, and guitarist Jason Dallaverde of The A.W.E. Band rehearse at High Point Church in Larksville.
PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER
They’d also just learned her mom was pregnant – with her.
“They had every reason to” consider abortion, Manassy said, but they didn’t. They gave up their dream of traveling the world, got married and raised her.
“I admire them so much. I am so thankful,” Manassy said earlier this week as she settled in for a night of rehearsal with The A.W.E. Band at High Point Church in Larksville.
The Christian rock group recently recorded “Curse of Blood,” a song members hope will persuade women to seek alternatives to abortions.
“I really labored over the lyrics,” said Mike Warner, 47, of Dallas, who wrote the song inspired in part by affection for his 5-year-old nephew, Nicky, who was born with Down syndrome.
“Nine out of 10 babies with Down syndrome are aborted,” Warner said. “But a human life is a human life, a soul made in the image of God.”
Warner will get no argument from the demonstrators who journey to Washington, D.C., today for the 37th annual March for Life, which protests the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
“We have to stand up for the rights of the unborn,” said Chris Calore, vice president of the Wyoming Valley Chapter of Pennsylvanians for Human Life. “Not only the unborn but the disabled and elderly, everyone who is vulnerable.”
Calore, 56, of Wilkes-Barre, said his group has two buses leaving for Washington, D.C., this morning.
“Last year, we had 300,000 people in Washington, and this year it could well be more,” he said. “We have high hopes that someday abortion will be outlawed.”
On the other side of the debate, Planned Parenthood of Northeast and Mid-Penn on Thursday e-mailed to a reporter a statement about the organization’s concerns that “this landmark victory for women’s rights is under attack.”
Noting that 98 percent of its services “reduce the need for abortion,” the statement said Planned Parenthood remains “committed to ensuring that women who need this service have legal access to safe and affordable procedures” and insisted proposed health-care reform must ensure abortions are covered, along with other medical procedures.
Abortion foes, meanwhile, are adamant that proposed health-care reforms not allow federal funds to pay for abortions.
As A.W.E. drummer Dan Close sees it, abortion is something Americans tend to consider all too casually.
“My wife and I had a baby last year – Elijah was born in April – and when you reach a certain age they do all those extra tests,” said Close, 36, of Shavertown. “The doctor said if anything is wrong you can always terminate. It just shocked me the way it rolled out of his mouth.”
Band members aren’t attending today’s March for Life, but Warner hopes they’ll perform their song at next year’s event.
“I was in touch with Nellie Gray, the organizer of the whole March for Life, and she said she’s definitely interested in having us perform,” Warner said. “It was too late for this year, because she already had a group from Liberty University.
“She said she’s looking for a song that could be the rallying anthem for the pro-life movement,” he said.
“Curse of Blood,” which features the voices of Manassy, Warner’s wife, Denise, and the couple’s 16-year-old daughter, Cathryn, on such lyrics as “Silent she cries for choices she has made” and “My God, what have we done?” has been getting attention from places as far flung as Texas and California.
People have been downloading the music from www.aweband.com or ordering the “Declarations” CD.
“It’s just wonderful music,” Analee Tegeler, 52, a grandmother from Ganado, Texas, said in a telephone interview. “I listened and I was hooked.”
Tegeler said her pastor found the song on the Internet and recommended it.
She finds its lyrics haunting, and hopes it leads women with crisis pregnancies to consider adoption or accepting baby-care supplies from charitable groups.
In the Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvanians for Human Life has a similar message, President Betty Caffrey said.
Through its office on Hanover Street in Wilkes-Barre, she said, “We have maternity clothes, baby clothes, layettes, cribs, high chairs and all our services are free,” she said. “We’ll pay for ultrasound if you need one. We have volunteers who will drive a girl to the hospital and stay with her during labor.
“We’ll do everything we can for you and your baby.”
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9 COMMENTS
Melanie Madeira said...
I'm Mike and Denise's sister in law and Nicky's mom. I'm so honored and blessed that Mike was inspired by my little angel. Mike has written a beautiful song; I hope it will reach into hearts of women who think caring for a baby with special needs is too difficult. Nicholas is the most amazing gift I have ever been given. Yes, there are days I cry because of how hard he has to work to do simple tasks (like chewing), but I have come to know the greatest JOY when he accomplishes it. That's what I have learned most from having Nicky in my life- God brings us something we think is imperfect or insurmountable, but as we walk through it, He teaches us what real joy is all about. Thank you so much A.W.E. Band!
Tracey Conner said...
The whole album, Declarations, reaches my heart and my soul like no other music ever has. I had an abortion when I was 16 -- I decision I have always regretted since. It haunts me always. The song, "Curse of Blood" -- it's like it expresses my inermost deepest pain, and helps me to let it go. I'm so thankful I have a Savior that forgives -- accepting that forgiveness was a difficult choice, as I was burdened with so much guilt. There is hope, there is peace. Thanks AWE Band for this song .. it means more than you'll ever know.
Fran Walsh said...
LIFE is truly a gift, even when it doesn't seem so. I am in AWE of your efforts and I am also grateful for your contemorary tunes that deliver a simple message for a world starving for Divine wisdom. Keep up the good work.
The Cynic said...
Okay Penna for Human Life, what do you do AFTER the baby is born? The Silence is Deafening. When you begin to defend those whom are already born, then I'll listen. However, all I hear from your group is the taking away of Rights of Women. Yes, if you had your way, Birth Control would be illegal because it stops conception. I have no problem with you believing your beliefs. I have a problem when your group start to overturn the choices of others. Would you want to deliver the child of a rapist or in the case of incest? I don't even think these babies would be adoptable because of their genetic history. Which brings up another point...how many children are waiting for adoption because they are not perfect? What are you doing for them?
The Voice said...
Cynic, After the baby is born, you can put it up for adoption, or take care of it. The child of a rapist is still a child, and the baby did nothing to get the death penalty! You are sentencing an innocent little baby to death for something a rapist did? Do you sentence rapists to death? What you don't seem to understand, and what more and more research is proving, is that a human baby IS a baby, from the moment of conception. Even within the first few cell divisions, the cells are already changing (or "differentiating") into the head, limbs, and torso. What if your mother didn't want you? If abortion is all about women's rights, what would your rights have been? And who are you to tell anyone that they are not human because they have no voice?
The Reasoning said...
Dear Voice or should I say: Dear Mike Warner... the day you develop a uterus is the day you can have an opinion.
Chris Calore said...
Dear Cynic, Perhaps you are hard of hearing. Don't also be blinded by this 'culture of death'. Pro-Life persons live lives of service to others. As long as I have volunteered in the pro-life movement (some 30 years) I have also, weekly, prayed at a local nursing facility with the sick and elderly. Most Americans are Pro-Life and do likewise. Our pro-life center helps needy families after their child's birth. Where are the abortion providers? To them family services are not really where it's at. Sadly, it's more and more abortions that makes their (blood) money.
Pro-Life Progressive said...
Cynic says: "what do you do AFTER the baby is born? The Silence is Deafening." Mm, there was no slience. The original article, clearly not read by Cynic, answers the question: "Through its office on Hanover Street in Wilkes-Barre, she said, 'We have maternity clothes, baby clothes, layettes, cribs, high chairs and all our services are free'. And regarding "how many children are waiting for adoption because they are not perfect?" - many adoptive parents specifically apply for, and adopt, special needs children. I have no problem with you believing your beliefs. I have a problem when you propose to brutally destroy the lives of children and scar the hearts of the parents who are affected by abortion. Please do your homework before you speak instead of spewing decades-old bumper-sticker slogans. The pro-life movement of today does care about children after they are born and about people throughout their lives.
Richard Fuhrman said...
I am Denise's uncle.I have a loving 13 year old grandson with severe Down's.I wonder what his stance might be!Guess we could have murdered him,no problem.Or is there a problem?Check your conscience, if you have one.