How Women Can Change America

THE ROAD TO ADVOCACY    
Penny was raised in a Christian home in Kentucky.  Her dad was a pastor so Penny was in church much of her life growing up.  “My journey as an advocate began when I was four and used Mom’s coffee table as a podium to giver sermons to my dolls and stuffed animals,” says Penny. After high school, she attended Liberty University. “The late Jerry Falwell, Sr. and my time at Liberty encouraged my interest in public policy and affirmed my ability as a Christian woman to make a difference in the world,” says Penny.  After graduation, she moved to DC to work on Capitol Hill and in 1992, Penny started working for Concerned Women for America as a lobbyist.  In 1996, Penny married her husband, Will who was then working with Chuck Colson (who later also became her boss).  “The late Chuck Colson encouraged my activism and redefined the intellectual underpinnings of my biblical worldview,” she says. Though he had a great influence on her, the person who impacted Penny’s life the most was Beverly LaHaye.  “Mrs. LaHaye’s example of resolute leadership and unwavering courage were formative,” says Penny.  

Three months after she and Will were married, Penny discovered she was pregnant.  “My life changed quickly but God’s timing is perfect,” she says.  One morning Penny went for a run on her usual path from her home outside of DC.  It was broad daylight when she heard footsteps behind her.  Instead of running by, the man grabbed her from behind, dragged her by her arms then forced her to the ground.  “I remember crying, begging him to leave me alone and telling him I was pregnant,” says Penny.  She started screaming then heard a voice in her head telling her, Keep screaming. A woman and her son stopped their car and honked the horn.  The man jumped up and ran off.  “She was my guardian angel. I wasn’t raped,” says Penny.  That same man attacked two other women before police caught at which point Penny identified him.  That attack changed Penny in two ways. “I knew that I wasn’t immune to evil and that the world really is a dangerous place,” she says. “Fear crept in and was only exacerbated with the birth of my own two children,” she says.  “The second significant result of my attack is that I have a deep empathy for women who have been sexually violated in any way.”  Penny now advocates for campus security and preventing rape before it happens.  

THE ISSUES AT HEART
“Marriage today is a mess,” says Penny.  The Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage in June 2015 was a successful attack on the sanctity of marriage.  “Marriage is under attack from those who wish to redefine it,” says Penny.  Many view marriage as unnecessary, antiquated and limiting.  “There is no doubt that redefining marriage to include gay couples is also playing a substantial role in diminishing the elite status of marriage in America,” says Penny. She says now is the time for conservative women to stand up and give a spirited defense for the gift of marriage as God intended it. “We are at a cultural tipping point when it comes to the issue of same-sex marriage,” she says.  “It is critical that we consider how same-sex marriage laws affect our First Amendment religious freedoms as business owners, nonprofits and individuals.” It is important to hold up Christian marriages as examples while acknowledging where we and others have fallen short, fight for the rights to sacred religious liberties and continue to speak truth about the beauty of God’s intention for marriage.  Penny encourages women to speak up on this topic and support legislation that protects religious liberties.  “We cannot keep silent when it comes to matters of the kingdom,” she says.

“The courts pushed abortion laws far beyond the pale in 1973, and we have to combat that with new laws that protect our citizens and value the dignity of human life,” says Penny. The Pain–Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is the most important pro-life legislation in the past decade.  It gives legal protection to unborn babies beginning at 20 weeks or five months.  The passage of this bill in 2015 was an encouraging victory for right to life.  “We must work tirelessly to incrementally peel back the tentacles of Roe vs Wade and educate people that abortion harms women and children,” says Penny.  She believes women can share facts and speak our minds with compassion. “We are in a battle to stop government funding of abortions,” she says.  Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest provider of abortions.  CWA is pushing to shift funding from Planned Parenthood to community health centers.  “Those are the people we want to help and these are central to the communities,” says Penny.  

She believes we must lead like Esther and fight like Deborah.  “This is not about winning a theoretical argument,” says Penny.  “It is about the suffering of women, the loss of children, and the need to find effective answers to a terrible national stain.”  It is time for conservative women to find their voice.  “In whatever sphere of influence the Lord gives you, you can choose to be a light for the things that are right and true,” she says.  “It’s okay if not everyone loves you for it…this chapter in our nation’s history is too important."