SPEAKER_03 3:45

Welcome to the ProLife Team podcast. I'm Jacob and I'm here with Anthony Yetzer with Generation Life. And today we're going to be hearing about Generation Life and Anthony's story connected to this work. Anthony, would you go ahead and give yourself some background or some history and then let's dive into this pro life work that you're involved in?

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Sure, absolutely, Jacob. So it's funny, I actually never expected to be working in the pro-life arena. Um how that came about was really uh providential in many ways. Um I pray just to go all the way back, you know, I'm a homeschooler. I I grew up um in northern Maryland and I converted to uh Catholicism when I was in high sch leaving high school, you know, on the edge of college there. And you know, we were I grew up in a really conservative, um conservative Protestant home, and we subs my involvement with like pro-life uh movement and messaging largely would have come through focus on the family. I remember we received uh the Citizen Link magazine, and I would always uh you know, I loved reading that, learning about Abby Johnson and all the work that uh that's going on. So I was always interested, it was in the back of my mind. Um but anyhow, I became a Catholic, uh, graduated college, did some teaching in uh in Catholic schools, and I was like at at that point in my life, I was I was married, um had we we had two kids, and I was thinking, man, it's really not cutting it financially, but I really love I love this work. I love working with the kids, you know, teaching them about the Lord. And um so I I had that, but at the same time I'm thinking, I need to make more money. So I was actually, you know, looking to get you know pivot from teaching into sales or something or uh some some way to get more food on the table. But uh I could never quite get away from looking at catholicjobs.com and I see this posting for this organization I'd never heard of before. Um, Generation Life, you know, based out of Philadelphia, and they're looking for a speaker. And I'm like, how cool is that? You don't normally see, you know, that kind of a job being listed. And I was like, Oh, I talked to my wife, and we're like, all right, we gotta, you know, we gotta check this out at least. And so I did, and everything, you know, the Lord was just like, yes, yes, yes, all these windows and the doors being opened. And a couple years in, I'm now the executive director, and I am most definitely involved in pro-life ministry. So here we are.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Interesting. Yeah, it's it's it's always cool how origin story is sort of like it's like one door after another, or one domino getting knocked down that leads to another, that will, as God, uh God leads and God directs us down a uh down a path. Um so tell us, you know, what what does Generation Life do uh when it comes to, you know, what what's its main purpose and how does it bring that to the community?

SPEAKER_00 7:02

So we're on the education side of things um mainly. We do do uh some sidewalk counseling and praying outside of uh abortion facilities in Philadelphia. The main bulk of what we do, though, is going into classrooms and giving presentations about pro-life chastity. Um the organization was founded back about 25 years ago now, with the idea in mind that uh the best way, the most uh I guess holistic, you know, long-lasting way to cure this epidemic of abortion in our culture is to promote the practice of chastity and and right-ordered sexuality. And so we marry the two, we give for life talks, chastity talks, um, and we start as early as seventh grade, but we'll go all the way through college. So that that's a main bulk of what we're about.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Okay, so would that include public Christian? You know, what what kind of uh venues do you go into?

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, so it's um mainly uh Christian schools and churches. I mean, to be completely honest, we've really got a a niche a niche in the uh in the Catholic world, so but we do do some Protestant. Um funny enough, I've been told that back in the day we actually the organization was started uh using grant money from uh Bill Clinton, who at the time in the you know late nineties was interested in promoting abstinence education. Um so back then we actually were in public in public schools for for a bit there, but the landscape has changed. So hey, we're always okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

So where have you seen God's fingerprints in your in your story of you know working in this space? Where have you seen God answer prayer or or open doors or connect things that only God would have done?

SPEAKER_00 9:06

A lot of ways. Um one in particular is just in my own journey to to get to back to my involvement uh with the organization and with pro-life work. I noticed when I was teaching, I taught middle school for a couple of years. And one of my biggest heartaches um was just in seeing how even in even in a Catholic school, you know, we're not the the kids, and this is not all Catholic schools, of course, um, and this is not to throw shade upon like where I where I was, because in many cases they're doing the best they can with the money that they have. Um but there is a lack of formation um with these kids regarding their sexuality and all this stuff. And I I think there's a mentality among parents and just middle-aged people in general, well-meaning, who would like to think that things aren't as bad as as they are. It's like some kids may be looking at the pornography and what have you, but not our kids. And certainly I think there's also a mentality that, you know, well, we're Catholic, you know, Catholic and pro-life. I mean, they're they're right next to each other there at the dictionary. And I think the thing that we need to remember is that um you know, we like to say we can be the generation that ends abortion, and that's a beautiful thing. But I think we also have to remember that each generation needs to be reconverted to these essential truths about God's purpose for sexuality and and for our bodies. So I say all that because this was something I noticed among my students. It was something that I that I I would uh I would delicately have to address because it's like I I I don't know, you know, I don't know, um I don't know what they're hearing at home or what have you, and it's a sticky subject, obviously it's a sticky subject, but you know. But um anyways it was just something I was like, man, when I was teaching, I thought I would love to actually be able to address this just totally address this. And that's like the bulk of what we do is go into middle schools now and do that. And um here for the specif a specific uh God moment, if you will. I gave a talk at an all boys this is a high school, I gave a talk at an all boys high school and a student came up to me after the talk and I he I could tell that he was anguished, you know, uh something there's an internal strife going on. And what he shared with me is basically in a nutshell, he really wants to do the right thing. He wants to he wants to do what God wants. He's having difficulty, etc. Um and it was beautiful, and this is my favorite part of my work, it was beautiful to be able to serve as as in persona Christi, you know, as Jesus to him in that moment, and to lift that burden from him and to sh to to show him that it's like you know, I know that it's easy to think that, you know, God has all these lists this list of rules. So I want to follow that list, but it's really hard because the world's throwing all this stuff at me, and to be able to meet with him and go, seriously, look, God's your father. I just start from there and then kind of in the uh language a high schooler could get in like a five minute conversation to just talk about what what's going on, what with your your hormones want this, but this is what God wants, and he wants that because he loves you and it's okay to fail and you're gonna do it again and again and again. That was that was that really sticks out to me as a beautiful moment.

SPEAKER_03 12:49

Yeah. So as you do as you're doing this work, which Bible passage has been inspirational or really has like spoken to encourage you or to give you good direction to there's so many.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Um obviously.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Which one stands out, maybe that uh comes to mind as being one that has um you know that you maybe it's maybe it's it's giving you some really good direction on how to do this kind of work.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

All right, I'm now remember I went from Protestant to being Catholic, so I don't uh my my Bible, I don't the Catholics are getting better at it. But uh I think Joshua 1 9 comes to mind, which I if I'm not mistaken is be not afraid to paraphrase, be not afraid, I will be with you wherever you go. Um because we really are, I mean, the this this line of word, I'm sure you know. I mean, we're the squares, we are the no fun squares out there to some people. Um and there can be really some demonic hatred directed at being in this space and you know representing uh the Lord in this way. Um and to just just remember that like, you know, that their that animosity, even from some students, you know. I mean, I've got high school girls telling me that I'm you know, an awful human being, you know what I mean? Um and just to remember that these are hurting people you know, and that they're that's directed at God. Yeah, that's directed at God. It's mistaken, you know what I mean? But I don't know, kind of being like, I I before teaching I had a customer service job and it was you always remembered they're mad at you they're mad at the company. They're it's not you, you know.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

Yeah. No, that's good. Um and so you know, the idea of chastity and abstinence is a well it's a very old idea. So what what would you say what have you learned in in these couple of years, you know, working in this space that you would consider new or you know, or uh you know, maybe you know, just re what have you learned in the last couple of years about abstinence and chastity that you'd like other people to maybe realize as well?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

No one knows what chastity is.

unknown 15:22

No.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Because people get it confused with abstinence, and in in part that's I think that is the fault of an earlier generation of ministry who it's kind of like you know, I'm thinking about it, it's kind of like you know, a mentality that like a grandpa or a grandma might have, you know, well-intentioned, but it's just like, oh yeah, that just don't do it, you'll be fine. You know what I mean? And it's not it's not enough. Um and I don't I I mean you could you could in a sense it's almost like the consciousness, the consciousness of the of the present generation is different. Um more and you see this in so many ways, but more more wanting to know who says, you know? Not even just necess not even like I think in like a 60s, you know, counterculture hippie thing, or just like I just want to do the opposite of what I mean in many ways what we offer is countercultural now, and that's really cool. But I think that from religious leaders across the board, people are wanting to know, okay, why and um I think we need to be ready. We need to be ready to provide something to that because if we don't have something ready then it's just not appealing. I mean, we may have in our mind, like we have the structure worked out. Well, this is for human flourishing, this is how you should live a life for you know maximum happiness in in a spiritual sense, like an er Aristotelian sort of uh idea. Um But no, we have to be ready with that that answer, that why it's motivating. And I think that's what um that's what I like about the concept of chastity, that once you get it separated from abstinence, that chastity is rightly ordering, and you know, I'm getting all Catholic theological say Thomas Aquinas treatise here, but rightly ordering the passions, you know, not not listening to that voice in your head or actually at least being able to distinguish when that voice is on the right track versus when it's not on the right track. And I always like I like to tell the students, you know, this is about not being a slave. No one likes no one likes slavery, right? I mean, it's it's an evil thing and and it happens inside you. It can happen, you know, you can be enslaved to this to these things. Don't be a slave. Practice chastity.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

Yeah. No, that's that's good, that's really good. Um my my my daughter and I were talking recently about um altars and how like you know, certain like, you know, if someone lusts, you know, essentially that's like sacrificing good things on a bad altar. And then, you know, choosing to be have chastity would be sacrificing maybe your self-desires on a good altar. And so like altars are a way of like having ownership over certain parts of your mental, spiritual space in some way, and that's a little bit ambiguous, but at the same time, essentially making good decisions is like sacrifice, you know, we're called to be a daily sacrifice to for God, and but we often our selfish desires want to sin and sacrifice those good things that we could have to you know on a bad altar.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

And uh does that make sense at all? I think it does. I really like that. I I like this I like to talk very similarly. Um and typically this is typically it's in the Q ⁇ A after our talks where the this almost inevitably comes up where I say, Hey, God all God gave us this world to enjoy. He gave us all these beautiful gifts, and he gave us, you know, we we each desi we desire he made us all special so that we desire different things, and that's just wonderful. But because of sin, you know, to your point, good and bad altars, we're we have this little thing, this little golem, you know, like creature inside us who's like mine, you know, I I want to use that for my own end. And uh exact yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

Yeah, yeah, that's that's really yeah. So you know, selfishness is um it's weaved into all of our all of our sin, I believe. It's it's you know, making ourselves feel good at the expense of um at the expense of all yeah, what we should be doing. Um so most people that listen to this podcast are either a pro it's either a pro-life leader or very likely an executive director of a pregnancy clinic, and they might be anywhere in the country. What would you like to share about your experience in this work, working with youth, working with college kids in this space? You know, what might be helpful to people who are working at a pregnancy clinic or in pro-life leadership for them to understand about you know what based on what you've learned from your experience and journey.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Um so the I would say um the kids, uh at least in these Catholic schools that we're at, even if they're not well even if they haven't really been formed much in, you know, in understanding this, they're generally pretty well disposed. Um and you see a lot of light bulbs go off. So I think that there's encouragement there. It's like we need to keep we need to keep doing what we're doing, you know. Rover rovers is weighed overturned, but of course, you know, that's not even half the bat that's not even half the battle for life. Um but I find it really encouraging that so many students are uh are really light bulbs are going off and they're they're well disposed towards the message. Um especially young men. I I give a chastity talk at a all boys Catholic high school, they're high-fiving me as they exit the classroom. I mean they're they're they're excited about this this message, which is just uh yeah, I mean, I don't know, fifty years ago, I don't know that the I don't know that uh you would expect that really. Um but uh again, if you come at it from the chastity angle of a life well lived, you know, and and not coming from the S T D, not just roll out the S T D angle talking about this kind of thing. A great response. The young ladies, there's still work to be done, of course. Um sexual revolution has particularly hurt uh the feminine in our society. And there's it's it's just it's it's almost in the air where they feel uh and I mean Satan really has done a wonderful job with how it just seems like they just pick up by osmosis this thing where it's like, you know, they're coming at that somebody is against my my womanhood is somehow connected with my ability to control my reproductive faculties in that way that once I'm already you know I I think you know what I mean. Um and they so it's almost like the girls are are predisposed to be uh to be uh against against life. Um and that's the area where a lot of work remains to be done.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Well yeah, if you you know, maybe overlooking the how, what would you like that girl who has, you know, been well essentially who's in the wrong posture, wrong position on this, what would you like her to you know, w what would be that switch? Essentially, like, would it be a matter of like confessing in order to really make that shift and change towards life, or would it be something else?

SPEAKER_00 23:08

It's very much their their position of being pro-choice is very much bound up for these young ladies, is very much bound up with who they are as a person. I mean it is it it it seems very bound up with their identity. Um and we see that with a lot of uh I mean you too, you see this with a lot of these uh identities that the young that the kids have nowadays, whether it's to be gay by you know the sexual identity or what have you. It's very much a part of who they are, which was not that way in the past. And I think it's bec I I would suppose it's because people are a little more comfortable in their skin historically, you know. Uh on the whole, you know, guys like being guys, girls like being girls. And I think that our um space has done a the r uh has done a pretty good job of building up masculinity and making masculinity look attractive and like a like an identity you'd want to have. I think we need to work on the feminine I think we need to work on the femininity um side of things. I I I I really do. And how we present and and explore what does it mean to be a woman, you know, deeply and and to really bring that out, which that's what I would suggest.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because like you know, in today's culture war women's identity as a woman has been graffitied and attacked at a at a deep level. And yeah, it it just seems like sin, you know, Satan's opened up a a new bag of tricks over the last decade of you know trying to shift on how he attacks with uh with lies.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Um if I may, uh Jacob, there's a tendency, I think, on the right on on the on the right wing to go we're gonna reclaim traditional masculinity, right? And everything that entails. And it may be to a certain degree put on because in in many ways it's difficult to certain things have changed nowadays, the economic reality, all that. But in any case, and and and the idea I think is that femin the feminine will just kind of follow that and I just naturally fall into place. And I think that the feminine still needs to be brought out and explored in its own right. Not obviously not like distinct not not as in like we need to explore femininity distinct from the masculine because these are the the sexes are complementary, you know, and how God made us like to make us one. But I think we give short shrift to the feminine.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

Yeah, I I think you I think that makes sense, and I would agree that that needs to be um it sounds like we need to become champions of those ideas. Yeah. Um so let me think what's next that I'd like to ask you about. What so going back to this work, um where do you see it going into the future? Or how has it changed over the last couple of years that you've been doing this? Like, you know, I know it's only a couple of years, but yeah, where do you think it's going and what's changed while you've been doing it?

SPEAKER_00 26:27

Yeah, so um when I started uh here, we were a this is a pretty pretty small organization. Our work is uh pretty much mid-Atlantic, you know, we're based out of Philadelphia. Um we go up and we'll do stuff in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, you know, mid-Atlantic, right? Um and what we're looking what we're looking to do as an organization is to bring the biggest thing is to bring back our missionary program. At the moment, we're just all staff members. Um on uh salaried staff members. So we do admin and then we go out and we present to students, which on the one on the one hand I love because it's great to be able to be and I'm a teacher at heart. It's great to be able to do the thing that we're supposed to be doing. But we're looking to bring back our missionary program, which we haven't had um since I've since I've been here that fell off uh some years ago. Uh there was some, you know, upheaval restructuring, what have you. Company got smaller. So we're looking to bring that back and have missionaries who fundraise their own salaries to really be able to expand our reach. Because the the demand is there. We have so much demand we can't we can't even uh necessarily keep up with it as it currently stands. So we're looking to enter an exciting growth period at this point for for generation speaking for generation life.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

So so with that missionary program, would that be helping you cover new geographic territory, or are you thinking primarily for your current territory?

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Even just for the current territory, we're we're not even uh we're not even in trying to remember the numbers at the moment. I don't think we're even in like 20 we're not even in 25 percent of uh archdiocesan schools in Philadelphia. Um so there's a lot of room just right here to be able to grow. And of course, with that, you know, we're looking to raise up new leaders for the pro-life um movement. Gen life is really well connected with the other pro-life organizations in in the Philadelphia area, and um to be able to get those those young people straight out of college who are like, you know, I'm I feel called to this. I wanna I wanna work here. I mean, this is a great place to start uh and to get that both spiritual and uh and uh employment, you know, training. Uh so we're very excited.

SPEAKER_03 29:01

Do you have any uh volunteer opportunities for youth to participate in some way for those who uh really enjoy what you're doing?

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Um we're we're a little we're uh we're a little sparse at the moment, but I'm hoping I'm hoping to be able to expand those opportunities um because it'll also help feed into our missionary program. Um probably, you know, to start with, just looking to get more people to join us when we go out to uh to pray and uh and counsel outside of Planned Parenthood. At the moment, it's uh it's just a staff uh staff opportunity, but uh there's a lot of we have a lot of uh young people who you know what I actually I'm sorry. I um I totally forgot. We have one big thing that we we do bring in volunteers for. Let me pause. Beach outreach. So, and this is what the article in The Guardian was uh was all about. This reporter accompanied our team on beach outreach. So, what that is is going down to the Jersey Shore for senior week, usually first, second week of June, and just getting out on the boardwalks and beaches and asking young people that they find um you know what they think of. They have heard of chastity. What do you think love means? And we're not videotaping them or anything, it's kind of like chastity evangelism. We're just uh starting the conversation. So this is our biggest thing that we currently recruit volunteers for.

SPEAKER_03 30:32

Um, I can't believe I just no worries.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

But yeah, so we're looking to expand in other areas as well, but we've got a lot of local college kids uh in Philadelphia for the pro life clubs at these colleges. They'll come uh with us on Beach Outreach. It's a lot of fun uh hanging out with these guys, and we have awesome conversations. So yeah, if you're if you're in our neck of the woods around March, we start recruiting, uh check out generationlife.org and uh submit a application. We'd love to have you.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

Very cool. Um so we as we close out this podcast, what are some final thoughts you'd like to share that I didn't ask you about?

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Um, like I said, I never expected to be where I am, but I'm very grateful. I'm very grateful that I am. Um and it really is a privilege, especially talking to you the rest of you in the pro-life movement. Um it's a privilege to have gone from being a student and kind of just keeping up on what's going on because as a Christian, you know, this is uh it is was so important to me, you know, the the fact that we stand up for for these poor innocent children, you know, who are who are who are butchered, have been butchered for years in our country. Um and it it really is an honor to to be able to be in this with you guys. And um you know, you're asking me questions, Jacob. I'm still eager to learn, even. Um it's great to be here.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Yeah, one as you're as you were saying, that one question that came to mind was um i it makes sense to start at junior high based on the context and content that you're talking about. But the opposition has brought their message down to the kindergarten level, which is just sort of crazy, right? But at the same time, that's when children have been exposed to that's when the the you know, that's when the you know, the exposure to these poor, dangerous um just really, you know, bad ideas has started in the public schools at least, maybe not in the Catholic or Christian private schools ever, I would hope. But um Yeah, boy, it just it just seems like your message is needed in that public space probably that's probably the greatest need. And then also finding a way to even go in earlier at these earlier ages to provide a healthy alternative voice to to some of the yeah, the the text, the the content, the messaging in that in that space. What what's the likelihood of going it back into public? I mean it sounds like it it's needed, but it also sounds like it comes with um special rules, probably.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Um we're excited about the growth of um of uh vouchers and the charter schools. That provides us more wiggle room from what I from what I understand with uh getting in there to address that audience. And we just recently uh brought back our social media uh our social media messaging. Um we had lost our our social media manager for a bit, hadn't been able to replace her. So we're back and now we're actually producing uh TikToks of all things to promote the messages of uh pro-life and chastity to really meet these kids where they're at. So whether they've heard our talk, they're you know, at a Catholic school, they've heard our talk, they want to know more. Um or uh, you know, if they just come across us to know that you know we're out there and that we're hopefully not lame. But I I completely am with you on that, especially from my background in teaching. Um and again, just to reiterate, I understand I'm a I'm a father, I uh of young kids. I have a three-year-old and a uh four-year-old, sorry, and a uh two-year-old. Um but I so I'm sensitive to the parental desire to protect. But I think that it helps to be we need to be realistic. And you know, I someone once said recently that I recall, you know, it's safe to assume that all men have had contact or are addicted with two pornography. And that's an awful it's a it's an awful thing to it's awful that that recognition, but that's where we're at. You know, we are in the perverted panopticon. I think that's the the prison that uh you know that you can't uh anyway. Um it's it's not good. You know, it's really not good, and um, we're going to lose. We are going to absolutely lose in a terrestrial sense and even maybe in an eternal sense, souls, if we are not fully aware of the level of evil that we're uh that we're in and that even the kids have. So again, it's it's a matter of we need to our messaging needs to be uh needs to be on point. We don't want to teach anyone something that they uh haven't been exposed to. That's what we're all about. We've carefully crafted our stuff and we're willing to take suggestions or willing to take requests, if you will, if we're going into a place and we're gonna we're gonna tweak it a little bit, you know, depending upon the maturity of the students. But in general, um I'm here to sound the alarm, you know, to parents and to uh teachers and to administration that they're looking at stuff on their phones and and that needs to be addressed in a mature Christian way.

SPEAKER_03 36:17

All right, one one more question. So let's say someone's in another state and or let's say in a county where there's currently not anyone providing this this voice in this space. Um would your group or do you know of a group who would be willing and able to um help help equip someone to start up a missionary program in a new county? Um what would that look like? Um because I I'm assuming, and it's you know, well, I can probably it's probably pretty safe to assume that there are many counties without people speaking on this topic, and there's probably great need. And and I don't know the numbers, but I'm sure there's plenty of counties that just don't have someone in this space in their county. What would that you know, would your group be the group, or would there be another group you know of that might be helpful for someone looking to fast track their, you know, setup and under understanding of how to run this?

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Absolutely. You know, looking at ahead into the future for what's in store for us, I'm entirely open to that possibility of uh of getting out there to service areas that are under under-serviced. Um, I mean, honestly, you know, we're out of Philadelphia. Some of our biggest supporters are in the Archdiocese of New York. We go up there and typically we try to squeeze it into a week and just hit like you know, school after school after school morning session, afternoon, evening, you know, double up, all this. Um, and even that sometimes isn't enough. We have to come back more than once, um, which we're happy to do. But uh anyway, yeah, so I would be very interested in that possibility going forward, um, because there's definitely a need for it. I know that there is other organizations out there currently that uh but again it's it's sparse and there needs to be there definitely needs to be more. So yeah, if anyone's ever interested.

SPEAKER_03 38:13

There's a lot of schools. Yeah, there's just so many schools.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

So if if if anyone's interested, you know, I'd I'd love to have that conversation. Uh it might not be something that we can do overnight, but it's I I'd be interested in discussing.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

Yeah, it makes sense. Well, thank you so much, Anthony, for being on here. Would you wrap up our podcast with a prayer? And maybe those who are listening can pray alongside and or pray with you when they hear this.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

Absolutely. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, thank you for um Jacob and I and all of these people who you have called, these men and women, to uh work in this uh space and to volunteer in this space, um for for your most precious, precious, precious gift, which is uh you know, our kids, our nation, the the the kids of our nation, the kids of the uh of the whole world. And we ask that you can continue to please give us grace as we uh go out there and minister to the hurting um and to those who don't know you. And we ask that through our work that I may that they may um meet the one God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. We ask all these things in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen. Father, Son, Christopher.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

Amen.