{"id":2355,"date":"2016-10-27T04:06:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T04:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/?p=2355"},"modified":"2016-10-27T04:06:16","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T04:06:16","slug":"reggie-littlejohn-keynotes-yale-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/reggie-littlejohn-keynotes-yale-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Reggie Littlejohn Keynotes Yale Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2356\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2356\" class=\"wp-image-2356 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Reggie-Yale-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Reggie Littlejohn at Yale, September 2016\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Reggie-Yale-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Reggie-Yale-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Reggie-Yale-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2356\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reggie Littlejohn at Yale, September 2016<\/p><\/div>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17787\" class=\"yiv8021636631MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17786\">Reggie Littlejohn delivered the keynote address for the Vita et Veritas Conference at Yale University earlier this month.\u00a0 Students from many colleges, including Harvard, Princeton and Wesleyan Universities were present at the packed event.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17854\" class=\"yiv8021636631MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17853\">Littlejohn\u2019s talk was entitled,\u00a0 \u201cFighting Forced Abortion and Gendercide \u2013 The Real War Against Women.\u201d\u00a0 A graduate of Yale Law School, Littlejohn began by recalling her student days.\u00a0 One memory stood above the rest:<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17861\" class=\"yiv8021636631MsoNormal\"><i id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17860\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17859\">I\u2019ll never forget was walking around the campus with a new student who had just escaped persecution for his faith in Africa.\u00a0 He had been jailed and tortured, had somehow managed to escape and was a special student at the Divinity School.\u00a0 I asked him, \u201cSo, what do you think of America?\u201d\u00a0 I expected him to praise our freedom of thought and religion, but his response surprised me.\u00a0 He said, \u201cPeople have so much freedom here, they don\u2019t know what to do with it.\u201d\u00a0 By the look in his eyes, I knew what he meant \u2013 that people in America who had never suffered persecution &#8212; who had never shed their blood to stand for the truth &#8212; were living blissfully self-centered lives, never giving a thought to those who are suffering under totalitarian regimes worldwide.\u00a0 We could do so much, if we would only use our freedom to help others.\u00a0 I determined on the spot to use my freedom to help those who are not free.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2357\" style=\"width: 235px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2357\" class=\"wp-image-2357 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Reggie-Yale-Mother-Teresa-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Littlejohn spoke about her experience working with Mother Teresa\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Reggie-Yale-Mother-Teresa-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Reggie-Yale-Mother-Teresa.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2357\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Littlejohn spoke about her experience working with Mother Teresa<\/p><\/div>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17864\" class=\"yiv8021636631MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17863\">Littlejohn also recounted her time working with Mother Teresa, especially her time working the newly canonized saint\u2019s home for abandoned baby girls:<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17867\" class=\"yiv8021636631MsoNormal\"><i id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17866\">There is one young girl whose spine and limbs were twisted like a dishrag. She could not talk and had so much difficulty eating that it took me over an hour to heed her a small bowl of porridge, most of which ran down the sides of her face and into her ears. She weighed about 20 pounds and appeared to be two or tree years old. Trying to calculate her age, I thought I might hit the mark at nine. A sister who worked in the home told me that this young woman was 22 years old. <\/i><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17882\" class=\"yiv8021636631MsoNormal\"><i id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17883\">The sister said that her mind is normal and she understands Bengali and English. When I first worked with her I thought, \u201cWhat is the point of preserving someone like this for a long life of suffering?\u201d But the alternative would have been an abomination to the sisters, whose order is founded on the belief that Jesus is first found in the poorest and most wretched souls on earth. Eventually, I found that I have something to learn from this young woman, whose bright smile is full of joy and love. I felt humble next to her, since her greatness of spirit enables her to be a \u201clight of the world,\u201d shining blessings on others in a circumstance that probably would have made me a bitter and angry person.\u00a0 <\/i><i><br \/>\n<\/i><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17881\" class=\"yiv8021636631MsoNormal\">Littlejohn discussed how Mother Teresa\u2019s work saving baby girls in India was a great influence on Littlejohn\u2019s dedication to saving girls in China.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17878\" class=\"yiv8021636631MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17879\">Help save lives of baby girls <a id=\"yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1477433374834_17880\" href=\"http:\/\/womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here:<\/a>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reggie Littlejohn delivered the keynote address for the Vita et Veritas Conference at Yale University earlier this month.\u00a0 Students from many colleges, including Harvard, Princeton and Wesleyan Universities were present at the packed event.\u00a0 Littlejohn\u2019s talk was entitled,\u00a0 \u201cFighting Forced &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/reggie-littlejohn-keynotes-yale-conference\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[165,20,1,55,187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mother-teresa","category-reggie-littlejohn","category-uncategorized","category-womens-rights-without-frontiers","category-yale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2355"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2359,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355\/revisions\/2359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}