"Matter of Life" Tracy Robinson AlongTheWay Special Edition

Welcome to along the way. I'm John Matarazzo, your host and fellow traveler, thank you for joining me along my way is I try to become more like Jesus every day. The goal of along the way is to identify the moments in life that Jesus really is walking with us and trying to get our attention. But just like the disciples along the way to a madness, we are missing those moments that our hearts are burning within us. I want us to identify these moments, learn from others and apply those lessons to our lives so that we don't miss the blessings God has for us along the way in our life's journey. Since I started working at charisma media, I've had the opportunity to do podcast interviews that I wouldn't normally consider an along the way episode, because I was doing the interview for charisma news or some other format. And I've also been interviewed on other people's podcast too. Those have been great opportunities as well as interesting conversations, and I want to make sure that I share them with you as well. With the Supreme Court expected to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Fight for Life isn't over. It's only the beginning. Filmmaker Tracey Robinson discusses her film matter of life with me on the charisma news podcast. She says that four in 10 women who have had abortions, admitted that they attended church during the month that they conceived. The fight for life is beyond just an issue of the courts. It's an issue of the heart, I'll make sure that the info to see her film matter of life is in the shownotes. It's a Fathom event available may 16, and 17. I'll get to our conversation in just a moment. But I want to thank you for listening to along the way. All of my episodes and social links are available at my website. Along the way dot media, you can also join my email list to get updates right in your inbox. All the links from this episode will be in the show notes. And now here's my conversation with Tracy Robinson about the film matter of life. This is charisma news on the charisma Podcast Network. And today I am with Tracy Robinson, the filmmaker of the new film matter of life. And I cannot express how glad I am to have Tracy on this podcast because of what is happening in the news right now. As we're recording this earlier this week, the leak from the Supreme Court draft about the overturning of Roe v Wade, where there's five justices that have decided on overturning Roe v Wade, as well as another one of those court cases. So there's five judges that are for turning over, then there's three that are against it, and then one abstention right now, but it's still in a draft form. So anything can really happen up until the point where the final decision is made public. But as we're talking about the matter of life, this is a phenomenal film, I got to see it. I got a chance to see the screener of this. And I'm here with with the filmmaker Tracy Robinson to talk about the purpose of this movie, and are the unborn one of us. That is a great question to ask. And so Tracy, thank you so much for joining me on the charisma news podcast.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, so let's talk about the the thing that got you started with the pro life movement, and, you know, then combining that passion with the passion for film and and, you know, creating this whole thing because I've been in production for many years, I know what it takes to pull something like this together. And it is not a small feat. It's not just something you say, oh, let's just do it on. In my spare time. You've dedicated a lot of time and effort and energy and finances to make this thing happen. And it's a beautiful project. And it really does a great job of communicating the truth. So Tracy, I want to hear your story of how you got into film. And then you got into this particular film.

Well, I have always been in the film and video, world and industry I really primarily specialized in video editing for documentaries. And I actually got saved at the tail end of film school and always wondered, you know, I wonder if God is going to do something with my degree ever my skills? Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd be confronting the topic of abortion, let alone making a movie about it, by the way. So my journey began with this film in 2016. I was commissioned on and off by a pregnancy resource center to create promotional videos for them, testimonial videos for them. And I really was inspired by what the center was doing. I thought what they're doing for women was It's amazing. But I was very much on the fence about the abortion issue, I was apathetic at best, I was probably very pro choice if I really boiled it down. I was personally pro life at best I would say. And it wasn't until my friends at the pregnancy center, the staff there, invited me to an apologetics conference, and the topic was the case against abortion. And so I thought, well, I'll go check it out and see what my pro life friends are talking about. And in less than two hours, the speaker Alan Schliemann, have stand to reason he gave a clear, concise argument for the full humanity of the unborn child from the moment of conception. And he invited us to look at abortion imagery at one point. And so the truth really struck me. And I was pretty much immediately downloaded, so to speak, with this vision that this needed to be a documentary film like a feature length documentary film. And I knew there were so many young people, young adults in my shoes, who have never heard the message before. The basic pro life case. And they, you know, they probably went through public school and even grew up in church, or their parents never broached the topic. So research began from there, I wanted to know how we got to this point in our society, I didn't understand, like, what happened with Roe v. Wade, I didn't know anything about that. I didn't know anything about the truth behind Planned Parenthood. So I was just starting to read and listen to YouTube. And just discovered this amazing, multifaceted pro life movement, with amazing speakers and stories, really powerful, redeeming stories within that. And so by the grace of God, and over time, and donations, and my own funds working full time, it finally came to fruition recently, and it's coming to theaters may 16, and 17.

That's very exciting. Very exciting. It's a Fathom Events. So you can only go those may 16, and may 17. Matter of life.org is the website and you can get information there. You can see the trailer, you can get tickets, all that great stuff there. And we'll we'll bring that up again later in this podcast as well. But, you know, Tracy, I do want to go back a little bit because you, you said earlier that you were kind of apathetic at best, and maybe pro life and name only. But like, describe what that actually means. Because I think there's a lot of people out there that are very pro life or very pro choice. But there's a good bit of people that are kind of in the middle that just don't even think about it. And I think that's kind of where you described yourself. What was your viewpoint of that, before encountering that, that apologetics weekend? Could you explain that headspace that you were in?

Yeah, they call it the mushy middle? I was, I think, personally pro life. So I, I myself, wouldn't choose an abortion, but who am I to enforce my preferences onto other people, let alone make it illegal for people? That doesn't seem right. And really didn't think that that deeply or hard about this topic. I was just very much swayed by the euphemisms I've heard over the years, just growing up in Liberal environments. And I think my intentions were good, like most people who have these kind of vague understandings, they want to be on the side. That's right. And so there's a lot of nuance that gets in the way of really knowing what's truly right. And so I had all these questions and concerns about the woman. What about her body, her choice? And what about her circumstance? You know, there's just a lot of common things that I related, you know, questions that I also had. So I wanted to unravel the issue for people in the film. I wanted to front those those questions graciously, without condemning people with, you know, opposing views. I yeah, I didn't want to preach to the choir or preach to the convinced I wanted to really take people on a journey of discovery.

Yeah. Now, you've put up the screen or, you know, like a smaller audience has seen it. What, what response have you received from that so far? And have you shown it to anybody that has from that, that mushy middle that has that you can say they've they've moved to one side or the other.

I've showed it to the well, when it was in the rough stage, rough cut stage. I showed it to some of my close friends that I knew were Christian, but were pro choice. One girl in particular or she watched it and was changed. You know, she was kind of like me, I came from a lot of liberal circles early earlier on in my adulthood. And she was just very much. She had no idea about the pro life issue. She always thought it should be a woman's choice, and, or the pro life message, she always thought it should be a woman's choice. And so she actually ended up voting for Donald Trump. Because her eyes were so opened, and she started to really see thing, see everything else in new light as well. You know, once you realize you've been lied to you're, you know, in your worldview, you realize, Okay, what else? Are they lying about? What else am I told what else is going on? Behind closed doors, so. And then, when we started when the film was finished, and we were pre screening for different churches and trying to get the word out about this film, before we went to distribution, the response has been gratitude across the board. That's the common theme is people are just so grateful for the film, whether it's people that have just had their hearts and minds changed, or people that have worked in pro life, all their life, they've done pro life work for a long time. You know, they're, they're grant the grateful as well, because they're reinspired. They, they have this renewed fire under their feet to keep going and keep doing what they're doing.

Yeah. You know, you say in the film that four in 10 women, that who have had abortions, have attended church, the month that they became pregnant. And so like the church is not absolved from this issue. The church is very much connected to it, whether we want to be or not like this. There is a lot of unwed pregnancies are unplanned pregnancies within the church. And people don't know how to deal with it. And I was blown away by that statistic that you've laid out in that film because we we talk about that a little bit.

So that was a realization I had midway through, it was more than a realization, it was an epiphany. And I felt like the walls closing in on me actually, was the statistic like you said, four out of 10 women who have had an abortion, attended church in the month they became pregnant. And as rollin Warren in the film says, this is an issue for us as Christians, we need to overturn Roe v. Wade in our own pews. And so and then, shortly after that, Brian Fisher gave me his book, deliver us from abortion, where he studies the world, you know, the stance of the American church on this issue. And 50 Back when the book was written 53% Over 53% of Protestant major Protestant denominations, at least he studied, the Protestants were either complicit or completely silent, in abortion, on abortion. And so I just realized, maybe, maybe God is having me make this film, and not giving up on it. Because it's a rallying cry for the church. This is a opportunity for the church to love their congregation 40% more. This is an opportunity for people to even more be the hands and feet of Jesus. You know, Christ rescued us. When we couldn't rescue ourselves, he saved us. And he calls us to speak for those who can't speak for themselves. And so abortion, rescuing babies, rescuing people, sons and daughters from abortion, you know, that is Christ like and that's what the church is called to do.

Yeah, you know, for with Roe v. Wade have been, you know, bend decided in January 22 of 1973. You know, I was born in 85. So I've known I've never known a world without abortion. But there obviously was a world with before abortion was legal across all 50 states. It's really, it's something that because it's I've just been around it my entire life and around the pro life movement. I've been to the, to the March for Life several times and, you know, it just feels like there is no hope. And then it feels like nothing that we're doing is actually making an impact on a major scale. And yes, it's going to change lives as we deal with people one on one. And now we have got this, this leak of This giant decision of the Supreme Court that is going to send, send that back to the states, really, that's what it's going to do. It's not going to outlaw abortion nationwide, it's just going to send that decision back to the state so that the states can decide what they all want to do. This is really like the first time that I feel like, oh, my gosh, we're actually going to see light in this. But I love what you just said that we need to overturn Roe v. Wade, in the pews in our hearts, you know, like that is something so we have this big thing that's happening, that we need to pray for, we need to intercede for and really like, pray that God, you know, confirms this decision that we've that we've heard this leak about, and then protects the judges that need to be making this decision final. But if we don't overturn Roe v Wade in our hearts, then the problem doesn't go away. It just moves to a different place. Can we talk a little bit more about that? You know, overturning that in our hearts, because that is such a big deal.

Yeah, I agree, I think that we need to stop looking at the TV and shouting at the TV and look at what we're, you know, look at our own decision making. Look at what we can do to, to solve a problem in our community, you know, really starts with your own, you know, your own convictions, and what the Holy Spirit is calling you to do. And often that begins with education. And so, Brian Fisher in the movie at the end, he says, simply, the pro life movement needs more engaged people. And I think that's so true. I think that that would solve a lot of problems. Now, and I think if everyone in the church was more than just professing pro life, but active in their community, maybe helping their pregnancy resource center or, you know, ministering to women outside of abortion clinics, whatever their gifts or their talent is maybe starting a pro life pregnancy center. You know, that that would be revolutionary?

Definitely. One of the things that I appreciate is that in the film, you include a lot of people that are not your typical Christian pro lifer. And so what was your thought behind that, and like getting all these other people involved with it that probably wouldn't normally had the opportunity to give voice because they don't fit the mold for what we think of as being pro life.

Well, that was really inspiring. And surprising to me when I first heard Alan Schliemann speak about it. He didn't use Bible verses or religious arguments to make his point. I used to think that because I'm a Christian, it means I'm pro life because we're made in the image of God, etc, we should value life. But I never thought that the pro life message could be translated to a secular group of people or a secular audience. So when he was just talking about, like keeping it to the science of embryology, and logic, I was inspired. But because even though he was a Christian, and he believes that, you know, we're called to, to value and protect human beings. You don't need Bible verses. So what inspired me further when I was researching is I discovered secular pro life and feminists for life. And later on, it was pro life, San Francisco, you know, Teresa Kovac. These are some of the most outspoken passionate pro life people I've ever met. Because they recognize maybe they're their so called progressives, or liberals, and atheists and secularists. But they recognize that that pre borns are victimized, you know, they're a marginalized segment of society. And they recognize the violence of abortion for what it is, right.

And I appreciated their viewpoints because it just, it wasn't just more people like myself talking to myself, you know, I appreciated that you pulled in those voices as well. And you also brought in a voice of a doctor, Dr. Anthony Latino, who used to be an abortion doctor, and he went through a radical change in his life as well. What was it like working with him? And I'm sure that there had to be some really challenging moments. Just being as he's describing all these things.

Well, Dr. Latina was very reluctant to work with me. I'm, understandably I was an unknown director. It's a very difficult sensitive offense. It's a topic, and you can't trust and you can't trust anyone with it. And so he was, he really took a leap of faith. And I really am forever grateful for him doing that, and agreeing to do this interview. And I thought his transformation story was so powerful how he finally realized what he was doing. I think he knew it was, he started to know it was wrong, like he felt bad about the abortions. But there was a turning point that's very striking in his personal story, and I love his story, probably the most, because it shows us how even the hardest people, the hardest hearts, the most reluctant converts are, are, are not outside the scope of God to change and transform. And they're definitely not outside the scope of Christians to love and pray for. And so God can change anything, he can change any circumstance and redeem it, redeem it for good and the saving of other lives. And ever since Anthony Latino changed, he became a pro life activist and started speaking out to where his testimony was changing people and, and saving lives. So it's just a beautiful story.

Yeah, it's really like a Saul to Paul transformation with him. And it's, it's really worth the price of admission for that story alone. But you've got so many other stories in this film, and it's beautifully communicated. And I just want to encourage everybody to go to matter of life.org to go to the website, so you can get your tickets for this Fathom event, which is on May 16, and 17th, which is coming up very, very quickly. And, you know, before we wrap up here with this, with the leak of this Supreme Court decision, you know, we we've been trying to fight legally for a while and you know, there's only so much we can do as an average person, besides just praying for Roe v Wade to be overturned. But once Roe v Wade is overturned, the work isn't done yet. Can we talk a little bit about what what is the next steps? Yes, Roe v. Wade is huge getting that overturned. But what is the next steps?

Right, I think that, yeah, you're right, the work is just beginning. I believe that those as trigger states, as they're called the red states that are going to effectively outlaw abortion, you know, that's there's going to be a bigger need for resource. And I believe the Reese's resources are out there. You know, there's nonprofits, there's social services, there's churches that are that are providing resources. There's option line.org, which is a 24/7 helpline for women in crisis pregnancies. And, but she has no idea they exist. And so if she doesn't know they exist, she's going to be fearful, she's going to be desperate. And so with, with the recent Texas law being changed, Texas saw a decrease in abortions, but the neighboring states, Colorado, they had a huge spike in abortions. California, my state, they're on track that, you know, they're on the path to becoming a sanctuary state where they'll fly girls out of state for free. And they give her a free abortion, you know, at our taxpayer dollar. And so, so the work is not over. Yeah, it's going to be it's going to become more and more divided. And I'm interested to see, I'm glad though, that something is happening, that something is changing. I really am.

Yeah. And we got to continue to make sure that as you said earlier, that Roe v Wade is overturned in our pews and in our hearts to, because that's really what this is about. It's a heart decision. Because whether or not abortion is legal in your state or not, if it's a matter of the heart, and we need to make sure that our hearts are lined up with the word of God. And then we have people around us, and we need to be those people around the women that are dealing with an unplanned pregnancy or something like that, and really come alongside and support them and show them the love of Jesus. Because it's not just yeah, we've crossed the finish line Roe v. Wade is overturned. No, it's okay. Now, the real work begins. Now the real work begins and I would encourage people to go see the matter of life. Matter of life.org is the website go get your tickets may 16th and 17th support Tracey Robinson and her film, she's put a lot of work into this and a lot of her own funds, as well as raising funds, but she's put so much into this, you are going to be blessed by watching this, bring a friend bring somebody that is just curious about what this all about what this is all about this matter of life, because it really is a matter of life and death. And so, Tracy, thank you so much for the work that you have done. And I look forward to seeing the the lasting results from your efforts and just your commitment to making this project. And I'm sure there was times that you wanted to quit and you want to just say I'm done with this. But I'm grateful that you've overcome that and that you are bringing this to theaters so that people can see it. And I'm sure there'll be things after that. So matter of life.org so you can sign up for updates and everything like that as well. So, Tracy, thank you so much for joining me on the charisma news podcast.

Thanks for having me.

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