Conversation with Author Greg Mayo of Men for Life
Bruce Cherry: [00:00:00] Preserving the Sanctity of Life in Florida, a loud voice for the unborn. This is Pro-Life Radio with your hosts, Vicky and Bruce Cherry, and welcome to another edition of Pro-Life Radio on a Sunday night on a Labor Day weekend, end of summer. Bruce Cherry in the studio with my lovely wife, Vicky Cherry.
Bruce Cherry: How are you?
Vicky Cherry: I am good husband.
Bruce Cherry: Yeah. And I can say that ’cause I just got back in town so we, we haven’t, we haven’t seen each other a whole lot in the past couple of weeks. ’cause part of the time you were out of town for a week and then you came back. Mm-hmm And then the next day I was out of town for a week.
Bruce Cherry: So, and uh, we’ve got a great guest with Greg Mayo who was, we were out of town together but didn’t know it. So we’ll talk about that coming up in just a bit here. But, uh, first we start off everything with prayer and Jeremiah one, five.
Vicky Cherry: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you were born. I sanctified you.
Vicky Cherry: I ordained you a prophet to the nations.
Bruce Cherry: Dear Heavenly Father, we ask for your blessing once [00:01:00] again upon this show and all who hear it. We ask that we change at least one heart, one mind, that we educate someone about the truth about life. All life is precious. All life matters and no one has a right. To destroy something that you have ordained to live.
Bruce Cherry: God, let us protect the unborn and let us be with those who are conflicted. Those who may have gone through an abortion and are now feeling the the repercussions of that. May they find peace. May they ask for your forgiveness, and may they join the battle to protect life at all costs. God, thank you for our guest, Greg Mayo.
Bruce Cherry: Thank you for this opportunity for this show on sale of media. And thank you for another opportunity to share truth. We ask for your blessing this night. In the name of your precious son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Alright, so Greg Mayo, author of the book, almost Daddy. He’s got a very, [00:02:00] very compelling story to share and he has a new book coming out soon that we’ll talk about here in just a bit.
Bruce Cherry: And we thank Greg for joining us. He’s on vacation this weekend. But come to find out, we had both been at the CareNet conference in Charlotte this past week. But we didn’t know it. We didn’t know that both of us were there. So
Vicky Cherry: I know we just found out. And we’ve not got to meet Greg in person. No. And it’s like, oh man, you guys could have met up and had lunch and
Bruce Cherry: Yeah.
Bruce Cherry: Yeah. So, Greg, thank you for taking time out from the road to, uh, to join us.
Greg Mayo: Hey, thanks for reaching out. It’s always a pleasure to be on with you guys.
Bruce Cherry: Oh, great.
Vicky Cherry: Well, you’re one of our favoritest guests.
Bruce Cherry: Favoritest.
Vicky Cherry: Yes. That’s a new word. It’s a new word. Okay, there we go. Bruce hates it when I make this stuff
Greg Mayo: so well.
Greg Mayo: When I get the most favoritest, then I’ll know I’ve arrived, right? Yes. Yeah. There you go.
Bruce Cherry: So your new book, uh, is coming out this fall, but also you’ve had an honor bestowed upon [00:03:00] you. You’ve joined an organization, men For Life. Tell us about that.
Greg Mayo: Yeah, so real interesting. Um, I met the CEO Sean Corcoran about a year ago.
Greg Mayo: He, he had just taken over and he was starting a podcast and he wanted to know if I’d be a guest. I did the podcast and uh, we hit it off pretty good. We talked a few times after that. We were both at Heartbeat International together in Birmingham. In April, I spoke and he was there with the booth. And just as we got to know each other, uh, I started asking questions about direction and what, you know, what are you guys doing and what’s going on?
Greg Mayo: Because they’re so perfectly positioned just with a name, right?
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love that. For
Greg Mayo: life. Yeah, for life. That’s it. In fact, when I helped him set up the booth at Heartbeat, when the, when the doors opened and they started letting people in, we were swarmed 12 people or 12 feet wide. Five or six people deep all day, people coming up and talking.
Greg Mayo: They [00:04:00] want to talk about men in the pro-life movement. And so mm-hmm. As I got to know Sean, and we, he got to know me and, and, uh, we decided that me being on the board of directors might be, might be a good fit. It might, I might be able to bring some, uh, energy and some help to the organization, so I’m excited to be a part of it.
Greg Mayo: Uh, I think we got a lot of growth opportunities in front of us over the next year and a half, and we’re gonna do some cool stuff.
Bruce Cherry: You know, it’s, it’s so vital that we get men engaged. I mean, I, I think we’ve got, uh, all the women we’re going to get, well, I shouldn’t say that, because we’re hoping to expand and, and get everyone engaged in this effort to abolish.
Bruce Cherry: The blight on our land that is abortion. But, you know, you pointed something out when we were talking on the phone a little while ago that, you know, we’re at the, we’re at the, uh, CareNet conference, which is, it’s a pro-life conference and it’s about the, the latest, newest things to help, uh, pregnancy centers and the latest, newest things in the [00:05:00] pro-life movement, uh, that are going on.
Bruce Cherry: And everyone gathers from around the country in, in Charlotte for this, for this conference. And. There were a handful of men, but a ton of women there. And the guys. Yeah. Didn’t you
Vicky Cherry: say like 1800 people and only 197 of ’em were men
Bruce Cherry: if that, I, I wouldn’t, I, I don’t know that I’d go if there were 197 men there.
Bruce Cherry: Uh, I think part of them were, uh, guys that were. Working it that were, you know, setting up booths and things like that. I don’t know how many were actually there attending, but would you, what would you say, Greg?
Greg Mayo: Uh, it was, the numbers were 190 or so, but I’m with you, Bruce. I walked around too and I’m like, eh, there’s not a lot of guys here.
Greg Mayo: And it’s the same at Heartbeat. And it’s the same at every other pro-life conference I go to. Mm-hmm. There’s very, very few men there. And that, that, to me, that’s disturbing.
Vicky Cherry: Well, I think a [00:06:00] lot of times they’ve, they’ve accepted that lie of what business is it of men to get into the affairs of abortion.
Vicky Cherry: It’s her body. Right? And so I think men have swallowed that lie. And, and, and it is affected. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
Greg Mayo: It’s,
Bruce Cherry: go ahead Greg.
Greg Mayo: Sorry. We’re, I’m in the mountains for your listeners. So it’s, that’s activity issues.
Bruce Cherry: That’s all right. Go ahead. But,
Greg Mayo: so the thing is, with men in the last 53 years, both pro-life and pro-choice men have been convinced that they don’t have a voice, just like you said, Vicky.
Greg Mayo: Mm-hmm. And the unfortunate part is that keeps a lot of men away from getting healing. That keeps a lot of men away from joining the fight. Um, you know, Sean and I talk a lot about. Men are willing to write the checks at at PRC banquets or whatever, but then they send their women off to do the [00:07:00] battle. And I think that’s gotta change.
Greg Mayo: That’s gotta stop. In fact, well, in fact, at CareNet for the first time in 50 years, they had an award for a man doing men’s work, dad work. Uh, my friend Matt Lin from Alpha Grand Rapids wanted a well deserved honor, but. 50 years they’ve been doing this. Right. And, and they just finally got around to honoring a man.
Greg Mayo: So this has gotta change folks. That’s all I’m saying. Yeah.
Vicky Cherry: And I’ve always felt that men’s rights are so, um, trampled upon in, in the United States especially, I think, you know. Mm-hmm. It, they don’t have a say in custody of their children. They don’t have a say in abortion. There’s so many different things.
Vicky Cherry: And I have three sons and it’s like, and Bruce has two and ugh. Yeah. The unfairness of it. Well,
Bruce Cherry: and, and you know, part of it also is that as, as the way our culture used to be before there was a such thing as toxic masculinity. Yeah. Um, air quotes, uh, [00:08:00] that, um, men were, we didn’t share our feelings. We, we held them inside and we didn’t, we, we suffered quietly and didn’t let anyone know we were suffering.
Bruce Cherry: There is pain, there is suffering. There is great remorse after abortion. I can tell you. I know personally and I talked with a few other men at the CareNet conference that all had had the same experience. Mm-hmm. And so, uh, but as men we’re, we’re told to, you know, suck it up. You know, we don’t share our feelings.
Bruce Cherry: Suck it up buttercup, suck it up buttercup. We don’t share our feelings. And, um, but you know, when you become a child of the Lord most high you, you learn. That, that’s not always the case. You are to share,
Vicky Cherry: you know, and, and talking about men in the pro-life movement and abolitionists, it’s getting pretty scary out there at these pregnancy centers and these abortion clinics for the women.
Vicky Cherry: Mm-hmm. I mean, there’s, we have a lot of good friends that have been spit on, been attacked, tried to [00:09:00] run over. Mm-hmm. And so it, it is good that the men are coming out and going there for protection too.
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
Greg Mayo: Yeah. Yeah. And it, you know, the thing is, even with prcs, um, they’re largely staffed by women.
Greg Mayo: Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4: I
Greg Mayo: get asked all the time, how do we get men to come in? How do we get, not, not only for healing or help, but how do we get men to come in and volunteer? How do we get them to step up? And I, the question I really, that really vexes me when people say.
Speaker 4: Mm.
Greg Mayo: A guy will say, do I have to be post-abortive to help?
Greg Mayo: Mm. And the answer is no. You have to have a heart for helping young men, right? I mean it, so you don’t have to have the wound to help men that have the wound. And, and if we could get more men at the PRCS available to talk to these scared young guys when they come in and you, you think about it statistically, all right?
Greg Mayo: Literally the majority of. [00:10:00] Young men now grew up in a phone home without their father.
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. So
Greg Mayo: fatherlessness is an incredible epidemic that our country’s facing, in fact, all of the West is. And so these guys come in, they’ve got a girl pregnant, they have no idea what to do, how to do it. They’re scared to death and, and they fall back on the thing they’ve heard their whole lives, which is just support her in her decision.
Greg Mayo: Yeah. Now we need a man, a strong man there who knows how to say the right thing. Who knows how to tell this guy? Look, dude, if she’s pregnant, you’re already a father. Amen. So let’s figure out how we’re gonna do this fathering thing, right? And until we have more men step up, we’re gonna be constantly treading uphill in the mud.
Greg Mayo: You know what I mean?
Bruce Cherry: You know, over the last few years I’ve noticed that a lot more men are becoming very active in the lives of their families. I’m seeing a lot more guys, you know, think about over the last 20 years, baby changing stations are no longer just in women’s bathrooms. You know, they’re now [00:11:00] in the men’s bathrooms and you see a lot more guys now interacting and being involved in their children’s lives, and that’s great.
Bruce Cherry: Now it’s time for us to get more involved before the baby arrives, to, to step up and to take responsibility. And if it, if it is a crisis pregnancy, and I’ve heard people say we don’t want to use the term crisis pregnancy, if it’s one of those situations where, oh, we’re pregnant. And what do we do? Well, the obvious answer is you have the baby.
Bruce Cherry: We’re getting to the end of our segment now. Uh, Greg, can you hang around with us for a little while? Yeah, I’m here. Alright. Okay. We’ll be back with more Pro-Life Radio on a Sunday night. We’ve got Greg Mayo on with us coming up. Details on how you can send your pastor to have a great day of appreciation with Salem Media and their pastor’s appreciation brunch.
Bruce Cherry: The details are on the way. We thank you for joining us, Vicky Cherry. I’m Bruce Cherry. It’s Pro-Life Radio on a Sunday night and we’ll be right back on AM nine 50 [00:12:00] FM 94.9 the answer.
Bruce Cherry: And welcome back on a Sunday night Pro-Life Radio on with our great guest, Greg Mayo, author of the book, almost Daddy and Member of Men for Life. And it is Bruce Cherry in the studio with my lovely wife, Vicky Cherry. We welcome you to Pro-Life Radio on a Sunday night. Greg, you’re, you’re on the road, you’re heading back home to Indianapolis and we want to thank you for taking time to join us tonight on the show.
Bruce Cherry: And thank you. Uh, please extend our thanks to your lovely wife, Stacy, as she’s, I know when you’re on the road, you’ve got some, some quiet time to be together. And here we are cutting into it. But,
Vicky Cherry: and we interrupted that.
Bruce Cherry: Yeah, we interrupted that. But thank you Very please, please tell Stacey thank you for us.
Greg Mayo: So you, so I’m just used to my
Vicky Cherry: Yeah.
Greg Mayo: Lifestyle these days, if you will. Mm-hmm.
Vicky Cherry: So you have a new book. Is it out already [00:13:00] or are you still in the process of writing it?
Greg Mayo: Well, if I could get off the road for a few weeks, I could finish it. Um, but, uh, it, it’ll be out by the end of the year. I, I have three PRC banquets I’m, I’m doing in October.
Greg Mayo: I was hoping to have it done before then, but I don’t think it will be. But. Yeah, it’s a new book. It’s called His Story Matters. And the idea behind it, well, it made me write it because I, I wanted to write another novel I really didn’t have on my radar doing another non-fiction book. But over the years speaking to prcs, um, I get the same questions over and over and over and, and they’re questions like, how do we get men to come in?
Greg Mayo: Why don’t men come in? Why won’t men volunteer? Uh. When men come in, why don’t they stay, you know, all these kind of things. And I thought I could write a book and, and it’s gonna be a book and a, and kind of a workbook too. So it’ll be an [00:14:00] opportunity for a staffer to just read it, to gain some understanding.
Greg Mayo: Also an opportunity for a group of staffers or volunteers to go through it together. But to hopefully answer some of those questions and bolster the numbers of men we have involved in the pro-life world.
Vicky Cherry: And it’s called His Story Matters, Uhhuh.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Vicky Cherry: I know you’ve written several other books also, and um, I think it’s great that you also wrote a curriculum for like a 12 step.
Vicky Cherry: Isn’t that correct?
Greg Mayo: Yeah, yeah. So after I wrote Almost Daddy the Forgotten Story, which is a novel that. It has become a hugely important story for people because it chronicles a young man who loses a child to abortion at 18 and how that impacts his life decisions. He makes, um, trauma responses, acting out behaviors, you know, all those kind of things.
Greg Mayo: And, and it’s, it’s been a very useful tool for a [00:15:00] lot of organizations because it helps their staff and their, their volunteers understand that this is what a man goes through. It’s also helped a lot of men who have long since lost a connection between their issues and the abortion, right? And then they read this book and they see what Ben goes through and they start connecting the dots with their own story.
Greg Mayo: So, so after I wrote that about six months later, um, at the encouragement of my wife, I wrote a 15 week study for men based on the 12 steps and, excuse me. The beauty of the 12 steps, as we know they’re biblical.
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. Right.
Greg Mayo: They come mostly from the Sermon on the Mount. Mm-hmm. So if it’s something Jesus taught us to do, then it’s, it’s gotta work.
Greg Mayo: Right?
Vicky Cherry: Amen.
Greg Mayo: And so I put that together and I’ll tell you guys a funny story. Um, I was having lunch with the pastor from my church and he said, Hey, did you know there’s [00:16:00] a group in our church using your recovery guide? And I started laughing. I’m like, really? He said, oh yeah. And I said, do they know I go there?
Greg Mayo: He said, well, they do now. Um, they showed him the book. He’s a recovery minister at our church. Mm-hmm. And they showed him the book and said, Hey, we’re, we’re gonna use this. And my, my pastor said, you know, he’s a member here, right? And they’re like, no, where? Well, anyway, we figured out we could get our different services, but, um, so yeah, it’s, it’s growing too.
Greg Mayo: And I tell people it’s not because I did something magical. I just applied to 12 steps, which have been applied to all kinds of stuff that help people heal and then draw ’em closer to God and in dependence on God. I just applied those to abortion, so, but it’s, it’s been great. Yeah.
Vicky Cherry: That’s awesome. So, what else have you been up to, Greg?
Vicky Cherry: And we wanna hear, and we wanna hear what, what we can do to help you and to help the fight in the pregnancy centers and battle abortion.
Greg Mayo: [00:17:00] Well, you know, I just, I just try to keep busy, Vicky, um, you know, you know, writing books and doing talks or whatever around. Yep. I, I recently signed on with Ambassador Speaker Bureau, and.
Greg Mayo: They are a big pro-life heavy speaker bureau and, um, I signed with them to a help manage a lot of my travel. ’cause I, I travel way more than I thought I was gonna when I wrote the book five years ago. And that’s, I, I’m not complaining. I just need help management it. Um, and also to gain more exposure. See, when I first started talking about minute abortion healing a dozen years ago, I was kind of, kind of an anomaly, right?
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
Greg Mayo: It. It was a curious thing, but there has been a carryover in that everywhere I go, two things always happen. Like Bruce talked about with him at CareNet. It happens to me. Everywhere I speak, guys come up to me and say, look, I’ve never told anybody this, but you know, when I was in high school, when I was in [00:18:00] college, whatever the case may be.
Greg Mayo: And then the other thing is people still come up to me after all this time and say, gosh, I’ve never thought about the man. Mm-hmm. Um. And I always say, well, you know how the baby got there, right? I mean, there, there were two people. Um, but, and, and the book, the story in the book has done a tremendous job at reaching people and helping ’em understand that the men are impacted.
Greg Mayo: Um, and I’ll tell you guys, the best review by far. I’ve had of that novel so far, it came from somebody who was self-admittedly pro-choice. Um, and she said to me, I, I never thought about how that might impact somebody, let alone a man. Um, so it’s doing its work. You know, my initial plan folks was to make it into a movie, right?
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
Greg Mayo: Oh, yeah. But, but I realized I don’t know how to make movies.
Speaker 4: Um. [00:19:00]
Greg Mayo: That’s small hiccup in the plane, right? Yeah. Um, so if I can figure that out or, or get in front of the right person, but I just think that, I think about movies, right? I, Bruce you see the gladiator? Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yes. Yes.
Greg Mayo: Okay. So I did this as a test in a talk and I said, look, I’m gonna quote a movie and when you know what I’m quoting, raise your hand.
Greg Mayo: And I started with that scene in Gladiator where. At the end, he’s in the arena with the emperor.
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
Greg Mayo: You know, and he says, my name’s Maximus Deus MEUs, commander of the armies of the North. I got to the commander of the armies of the north and every man’s hand was up in the air. Um, if I said, hello, my name is Indigo Montoya, every man would raise their hand.
Greg Mayo: Yes. Men communicate through story. They look at a movie, they see a character that they can relate to or that they aspire to. And that’s how we make our [00:20:00] connections. Mm-hmm. So, um, I think it’s hugely important that I make it into a film. I, again, just don’t know how to do that.
Bruce Cherry: Well, you know, we’ll stay in touch because, uh, I’ve got some connections with, uh, angel Studios and also with, uh, the Jesus Film Project here in Orlando.
Bruce Cherry: And, uh, we can probably put you in front of some of the right people because it is important for that story to get out and for men to be able to see it. And not just men, but women need to see it too. People need to see it. Women encourage men. And just as women encouraged men to, um, on the, for the wrong side of things, women encouraged men a lot when abortion just came about that it’s my body, it’s my choice.
Bruce Cherry: I’m gonna do this. Yep. You know, and, and men. We were weak. And we said, okay, alright. And, but now we, we now know we’ve grown over the past 50 years. We now know that no, we’ve got to have a voice. We have a voice. And so women are, are [00:21:00] big and encouraging us. My wife Vicky, encourages me all the time.
Vicky Cherry: Well, and you know, it’s bit of a cold that the man step up and be the, the husband, the father, the leader of the house, the leader of the house, the house.
Bruce Cherry: But the wife is the wise counsel that the man gets. Right. And so, yes, it’s important for everybody to see that story,
Vicky Cherry: and I do believe that part of the, and they say, what is it, like 70% of the women that have abortions, if the man in their life would’ve said, you know what? Let’s do this or figure it out, but besides abortion mm-hmm.
Vicky Cherry: They would’ve kept the baby or, or gave it up for adoption at least. Mm-hmm.
Greg Mayo: Right. And yet in a parallel study, 57% of men said they didn’t feel like they had a voice at all. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4: So
Greg Mayo: there’s a disconnect in communication.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. Um,
Greg Mayo: and I can tell you I did a, a interview on face-to-face, which is a live action program.
Greg Mayo: Um, a big pro-life network and yeah, it was a panel. Anyway, [00:22:00] long story short, they cut a clip of me talking about my abortion experience. And put it on their Instagram and TikTok and all the other things. And a buddy of mine texted it to me and he said, dude, you’ve gone viral. And I said, I, I don’t know what that means.
Greg Mayo: I got a viral,
Greg Mayo: I, I got the bid. You know what’s going on. He sent me a link. Well, that little bitty clip has gotten over two and a half or almost two and a half million views now. Wow. It’s over 2 million. And so I started looking at the comments, I guess the better judgment of my wife. Yeah. My pastor. But here’s, here’s what I’m getting at with that.
Greg Mayo: Almost all the negative comments. Um, were women
Speaker 4: uhhuh. Yeah. Right? Do you have, don’t get
Greg Mayo: opinion, oh, boo hoo cry somewhere else. You know, all that kind of stuff, so. Mm-hmm. Um, that can’t be the loudest voice sitting in here. And the reason I read the comments. Is because I’m looking for the guy [00:23:00] who hasn’t had healing, who’s still separated from God by the shame and, and on the pain and all that.
Greg Mayo: I’m looking for him so I can reach out and try to touch him. I don’t care what the pro-choice, pro-abortion, whatever you wanna call ’em, I don’t care what they say. It really has no personal effect on me. But, but I, I don’t want the guy who’s still in the darkness and alone and isolated with his pain to read those comments and think he’s, he needs to be quiet.
Greg Mayo: You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I, I jump into the comments and un unfortunately, sometimes I feel the need to respond. Um, it may or may not be a little sarcastic, I’m not sure, but,
Bruce Cherry: oh, my g Greg, I’ll, I’ll share something with you. Vicky and I were both very heavily involved with the Republican party here in Seminole County.
Bruce Cherry: I, I used to be the chairman of the party and Vicky ran for a state committee woman, and I used to ’cause people, people get ugly. People that you don’t even know will get very ugly pro and you’re two. And I would tell her, don’t, don’t engage them [00:24:00] online. Don’t, don’t, don’t look at the comments, don’t engage.
Bruce Cherry: And then I’d catch myself doing it. So, so yeah. Hey, we, we, we’ve got a break coming up. We’ll be right back with more Greg Mayo, author of Almost Daddy. And, uh, talking about maybe making a movie out of it. Let’s, let’s make that happen. So more Pro-Life Radio coming up. If you like this show and you want to help keep this ministry on the radio and you are pro-life details coming up on how you can help us do that.
Bruce Cherry: Coming up next on AM nine 50 FM 94.9. The answer streaming on the answer Orlando. Dot com
Vicky Cherry: and welcome back to Pro-Life Radio. I’m Vicky Cherry. In the studio with me is my handsome husband, Bruce. Hey Bruce.
Bruce Cherry: Thank you. Hello.
Vicky Cherry: We were separated for a long time. Sorry.
Bruce Cherry: Yeah, we both
Vicky Cherry: were outta town at different times, and so yeah,
Bruce Cherry: she’d get back in town and then I’d leave. Yeah. So yeah. And that is not the secret to a long marriage.
Vicky Cherry: No, [00:25:00] it was hard. But it does make you more, you know, appreciative, I guess. Yes, it does.
Bruce Cherry: Yes, it does.
Vicky Cherry: Anyway, online on, on his way back from the CareNet conference, we have Greg Mayo. He’s been on a couple times with us before, but he is probably a great favorite, let’s say that. Yes, yes, yes. And different, not, not.
Vicky Cherry: I I, his first story was so amazing when he came on, and you should go back and find that, but he talked about that he, uh, explained Greg a little bit more about the feelings that you had that people kept telling you, oh, you’re a man. Why do you care about an abortion?
Greg Mayo: Well, yeah, so that was the thing that kept me in isolation with the shame and the pain for 21 years after the first abortion.
Greg Mayo: For those of your listeners that don’t know, I have two stories. Two abortion stories, one at 18 and one at 22. And you know, I tell people, Vicky, the first one hurt me. The second one hardened me. And
Speaker 4: mm-hmm.
Greg Mayo: To feel like I had nowhere to [00:26:00] turn, no one to talk to. And every message you see in the culture, every message in the media is, you’re a man.
Greg Mayo: Do whatever the woman wants. Shut up. You don’t get an opinion. All, all the different things and the, and the comments get way worse. Right.
Vicky Cherry: Well, didn’t you even say that You went into a counselor and told him, you know, I kind of think this might be what’s been going on with me. I, I, I don’t, I’m not into sports anymore.
Vicky Cherry: I’m depressed. I’m this, and he’s, oh, come on. Wasn’t that, yeah.
Greg Mayo: Yeah. So I, I, I was 24 years old and I was seeing a, a counselor at about the eighth or ninth week, I mentioned the abortion story, and he looked at me kind of puzzled and he said, uh, I don’t think that’s really a thing. Tell me more about your dad.
Greg Mayo: Yeah,
Speaker 4: gotta have daddy. I was
Greg Mayo: like, oh, uh, you know, as a 24-year-old kid sitting in front of an adult male, you’re like, I don’t know, maybe it’s not a thing. I hope he is not practice anymore, by the way.
Bruce Cherry: You know, sadly, there’s, we, we hear that from a lot of [00:27:00] people mm-hmm. That their counselors are, they, they wanna relate everything back to your parents were bad.
Bruce Cherry: Yeah. You know, that, that it was, it had to be something in your childhood. Your parents were not good parents, that sort of thing. And, and so often it winds up kind of altering the way they felt about their childhood, even though they may have had a, a great childhood. Greg, how.
Greg Mayo: How can I say something to that real quick?
Bruce Cherry: Yeah, please. Yes.
Greg Mayo: So that kind of therapy is based on Freudian ideas, right?
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Greg Mayo: Um, and I would suggest any people listen to this or therapist, counselors or the helping kind of community, don’t follow the Freudian model. Go read up on Adler. Um, and his model of therapy and, and I, we don’t have time to get into it, but I just wanted to share that, ’cause it, it’s a little more forward thinking, but.
Greg Mayo: Anyway, go ahead Bruce. You had a question.
Bruce Cherry: Well, how do we, we, we consider ourselves, now the term used to be pro-lifer, but um, since the [00:28:00] last election we’re, we’re really more like abolitionist. And so as abolitionists, what’s the next step for us? How do we abolish this blight from our land?
Greg Mayo: Well, my opinion is the only way we’re ever gonna end the demand for abortion is twofold.
Greg Mayo: Number one, we have to heal those impacted by abortion. Mm-hmm. And we can’t make, just make abortion illegal, but we have to make abortion unthinkable. Now, the way we do that, uh, a friend of mine, Michael Victor, he’s the president of Indiana Right to Life, and he had a new book come out in April that I read immediately because the book is called Upstream and it talks about how it’s important to reach the culture.
Greg Mayo: Which is 20 years ahead of politics, right? Yeah. We have to reach the culture and change hearts and minds in order to end the demand for abortion. Until we do that, we literally have no chance. You can pass whatever law you want. Um, [00:29:00] people are still gonna do what people are gonna do. So if you wanna look at the ineffectiveness of just changing laws and not changing hearts and minds, uh, realize that it’s illegal today to smoke crack, right?
Greg Mayo: Mm-hmm. But it does stop people from doing it, so, so it’s the upstream and then that’s why, you know, we talked in the last segment about my desire to make Almost Daddy a movie. That’s because the reach will be greater. I can reach more people in the culture. Um, I don’t think till we do that, we have a chance now.
Greg Mayo: I also have great friends who are doing work in the, the legal wing of it and the political wing. And I admire ’em and I love what they’re doing, but that’s not my gig. My gig is changing hearts and minds and that’s what I’m gonna say for,
Bruce Cherry: yeah. You know, we pray all the time before the show and our prayer is usually a, something about let us change just one heart, one mind out there that’s listening to this show.
Bruce Cherry: [00:30:00] Um. Obviously we wanna change the masses, but if we can affect one person, one heart, that’s a start. And yeah, we, we’ve gotta make abortion unthinkable. Mm-hmm. And when there’s no longer a profit to it, and there’s no longer an audience for it, that’s when it’ll, that’s when we’ll, we’ll abolish it. It’s, uh, right.
Greg Mayo: And, and, sorry, go ahead. I jumped in on you.
Bruce Cherry: Well, no, no, no, no. You go right ahead.
Greg Mayo: Well, I, so I, the book obviously is the main character’s, Ben, and it’s about his abortion loss and experience about that. But starting in January, I’m working on the book that is about the girl in the book, that main character, her abortion loss and experience.
Greg Mayo: And the reason is because I want women who have been convinced that. Yeah, I hear it all the time. I’m sure you do too. Well, I would never have an abortion, but I’m not taking away somebody else’s [00:31:00] Right to,
Speaker 4: right.
Greg Mayo: Mm-hmm. Well, I want men and women to see how abortion affects men and women. I want ’em to see the pain that it causes.
Greg Mayo: I want ’em to see the, the struggles that causes down the line when you, when you do have children. And, and so I, I think we do that through story, and that’s why in January I’m gonna start writing almost Mommy. Oh wow.
Bruce Cherry: You heard it here first, everyone in January, he will start producing or start writing almost.
Bruce Cherry: Mommy, that’s, uh, I think that’s a great thing. I think that’s a great follow up.
Vicky Cherry: And I know, Greg, you, you talked about the film part. I know recently, I’m trying to remember the name of the. The storyline, but there’s a popular series or something. Maybe it’s a handmaiden or something like that. I don’t, maybe you know what I’m talking about, where the girl was, um, he, the boyfriend’s asking her to go do something.
Vicky Cherry: She goes, oh, well I can’t do that because I, I had an abortion and I can’t. Like [00:32:00] run or go to the gym right now for a couple days. And they meant it to be this woman being proud and strong and doing this all on her own. And the guy was just like, and I think it turned around on them from what they thought it would show, but the guy was like, how could you do that?
Vicky Cherry: Is it my child? Was it my child? And you know, and culture. Was, I think the show thought they would be affecting culture on women’s side, but really it went the other way. And, and it kind of came across that, hey, yeah, this guy has a, a voice in this. That’s it’s trial too.
Greg Mayo: Yeah. Crazy. I, so I don’t know the show, but I have seen that clip and the guy is Adam Driver.
Greg Mayo: Mm-hmm. Um, and he smashes that scene.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Greg Mayo: And you’re right, Vicky, everything I’ve read said that. Uh, it was supposed to be a, a, according to the stuff I’ve read
Speaker 4: mm-hmm.
Greg Mayo: Planned Parenthood consulted on that show. Wow. And so, you know, that [00:33:00] scene was meant to do exactly what you said. Mm-hmm. And it, and it did, it backfired on him because she’s so flippant about her multiple abortions in the scene.
Greg Mayo: Mm-hmm. And, uh, the, the, the way Adam portrays that, that sort of panic. Uh, that visceral trauma response of, oh my gosh, you did what? You know? Mm-hmm. I think it’s a tremendous scene for the pro-life world. So whatever they meant it for, God bless them for producer because it’s helping us.
Vicky Cherry: That’s what I thought when I seen it.
Bruce Cherry: You know, a lot of things that Planned Parenthood has pushed, thank God they have kind of backfired on them because, um. Uh, statistically medical abortions are way down across the country right now, not just in Florida because of our heartbeat bill, but across the country. Now, the falsehood of that is that they’ve switched to the abortion pill.
Vicky Cherry: Absolutely.
Bruce Cherry: And so, but what the backfire is, and this was a big topic of conversation at the CareNet Conference this past [00:34:00] week. Now more than ever, more women now are seeing what it is that they’ve killed.
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Bruce Cherry: For the first time they’re seeing it because they’re passing it at home in their bathroom, on their bathroom floor, into their toilet.
Bruce Cherry: Unfortunately, in, in, in many cases, and they’re seeing this and they’re realizing, oh my goodness, what have I done? Because they’ve been told this was just a clump of tissue. It was cells, it wasn’t a baby yet. But yet they see that it’s got feet, that it’s got fingers and toes. That it’s got eyes and, and, and a face.
Bruce Cherry: And they can tell it’s a baby.
Vicky Cherry: Well, along that storyline until people see, just like with slavery when it ended mm-hmm. They’ve seen the, the human that was beaten almost beyond recognition. Mm-hmm. And they felt something. And you have to have that, you have to see that. I know a lot of people are kind of squeamish about that, but, uh, you know, if, unless you see what you’ve done.
Vicky Cherry: It is so easy to just discard it.
Greg Mayo: Well, [00:35:00] the difference too with that is that instead of somebody getting in touch with it in a decade or two decades, they’re confronted with that exposed nerve right now,
Speaker 4: Uhhuh. Um,
Greg Mayo: and that goes to the guys too. Look, right about six months after the Dobbs decision, um, I took a call from a guy on an abortion helpline.
Greg Mayo: And this was a live call, guys, and he was frantic, he was crying.
Speaker 4: Mm.
Greg Mayo: And I finally, he calmed down. He was a very young guy and I could hear somebody in the background crying, and it was his girlfriend. Well, she had passed their baby into the toilet. Oh. And they were both, oh my God, it’s a baby. Oh my god, it’s a baby.
Greg Mayo: What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Um, so the guys are seeing it too. They’re no longer indifference, sitting in the parking lot, having a cup of coffee. Scroll on the phone, right?
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
Greg Mayo: He’s right there in it too. And, and so in that moment, they’re confronted with [00:36:00] this is the choice we just made. Yeah.
Greg Mayo: And here’s the problem. Here’s a big problem, and I don’t think we have time to get into it today, but I’m just gonna mention it because I think it’s huge. A study came out in 2023 on the impact of abortion on men, and in that study, only 7% of the men. Said that they would go to a clergy member or a church leader to talk about their abortion loss and pain.
Speaker 4: Right,
Greg Mayo: y’all, that’s a huge problem.
Bruce Cherry: That is because
Greg Mayo: when I.
Bruce Cherry: Greg, let me stop you there ’cause we’re right up against another hard break. We’ve got one more segment to go. Greg. Stick with us. Greg Mayo, author of Al Almost Daddy on Pro-Life Radio on a Sunday night coming back. Details on the pastor’s appreciation brunch and how you can support your pastor going to that.
Bruce Cherry: ’cause we’ve gotta get the pastors engaged to get ’em back involved in our culture. Exactly what, what Greg just said exactly. So we’ll be right back with more Pro-Life Radio on a Sunday night on AM nine 50 FM 94.9, the answer.[00:37:00]
Vicky Cherry: And welcome back to Pro-Life Radio on a Sunday night Labor Day weekend. Mm-hmm. I’m Vicky Cherry, my husband Bruce.
Bruce Cherry: Yes. And we’re on with Greg Mayo, and I stopped him mid thought, so I hope he held on that thought. Sorry about that. But 7% of the men what?
Greg Mayo: Okay. So in a study conducted in 2023
Bruce Cherry: mm-hmm.
Greg Mayo: Only 7% of the men and, and this study was on the impact of abortion on men.
Greg Mayo: 7% said that they would go to a clergy member or a church leader to talk about their abortion pain or to get help.
Vicky Cherry: Why do you think that is?
Greg Mayo: Well, because the church is failing. Amen. Proper messaging around abortion and abortion healing. I, and I’m, I’m not calling out every pastor, but if you’re one of the ones that won’t talk about it because you’re afraid it’ll take rear ends outta your.
Greg Mayo: Sunday fuse every, every week. Or if you’re one of the ones and, well, I don’t do politics. Abortion is [00:38:00] not a political issue. Yeah. It’s a human issue. Uh, we’re not dealing with, uh, a, a line item on a ballot box. We’re dealing with a baby and we’re dealing with a mom and a dad. And if the church truly is what Christ says supposed to be a place for the hurting, then there’s a huge disconnect where only 7% of the men hurting from abortion pain would go to the church.
Vicky Cherry: Well, and probably how many women? I think it’s
Greg Mayo: gotta change. What’s that, Vicky?
Vicky Cherry: I, I don’t think a lot of women would. Yeah. Go to their pastor or their, you know, whoever does their counseling at their church, they don’t want anybody to know.
Bruce Cherry: You know, I, I had a very, very interesting conversation with, uh, Frank Pavone, a Priest for Life, uh, this past week.
Bruce Cherry: We had, we had lunch a couple of days, and, uh, one of those days at lunch, uh, Tom, uh, Geen is the director of nla. Which is a, another, uh, uh, pregnancy center, res pregnancy resource center, uh, network provider. And they do legal services. And, um, [00:39:00] we’re talking about why abortion exists and the real reason is to hide sin.
Bruce Cherry: That’s it. And so it’s, uh, you’ve got a lot of pastors out there that won’t address it because they’re, it’s, it’s hiding. And, and sadly, and he, he brought up this statistic, uh, Tom did that sadly. The sin that it’s hiding in some cases is the pastor’s infidelity.
Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
Bruce Cherry: And so that’s, we’ve got pastors that aren’t addressing it.
Bruce Cherry: The church has, has, has dropped the ball on that. And it’s not the church that has dropped the ball, it’s the pastors that have dropped the ball. The church side of it is that church congregants aren’t holding their pastor’s feet to the fire and saying, Hey, how come we’re not addressing this?
Greg Mayo: That’s my fear. Exactly.
Vicky Cherry: Go ahead, Greg. With more thought. Yes.
Greg Mayo: Sorry, I’m for those. Just tuning in. I’m in the mountains, so every once in a while you guys cut out. I’m like, if they stop or what do you want? [00:40:00] But the reason, okay, so the need for pastors to talk about it, the need for churches to address it. I, I’m doing A-A-P-R-C fundraising banquet in Ohio in October.
Greg Mayo: When I do a banquet, uh, as a keynote, the next day I do an hour and a half lunch and learn for the staff and volunteers of the PRC. Let ’em ask questions, you know, real informal kind of q and a. Well, anyway, this particular one in Ohio called me and said, Hey, the day before, if you could come a day early, uh, we can’t pay you anymore to come a day early, but if you could, we have a pastor’s lunch, 27 pastors are gonna be there from the area.
Greg Mayo: And they would love for you to come and talk to them about abortion healing and what we do.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Greg Mayo: And Vicky, Bruce, I’m telling you right away, I said I, I’ll be there. I I’ll be there. I, I don’t care if I’m speaking three times in two days because he the opportunity to get in front of a group of pastors that want to [00:41:00] know, like, how do we address this?
Greg Mayo: How can we talk about this? That’s where we gotta start. And so. I started asking every PRCI do a banquet for, Hey, can you get a group of pastors together the day before to do a lunch? Um. Because I think once they understand the importance and the true impact, they’ll start getting on board. You know what I mean?
Bruce Cherry: Mm-hmm. You know, uh, God bless the organizations that are engaging the pastors. I, I’m, I’m fortunate enough that I work for one of those organizations with Liberty Council. Um. Because, uh, as we were battling against Amendment Four in the state of Florida back this past year, uh, uh, Matt Staver, John Steinberger, and several members of the Liberty Council and Liberty Council Action Ministries were going around the state of Florida and taking these pastors to lunch and talking to them.
Bruce Cherry: Mm-hmm. And they were, you know, the argument that most pastors have is that we can’t address political things. We could lose our, our 5 0 1 C3 tax exempt status. Not true. And [00:42:00] as Liberty Council is a legal entity, uh, a law firm, they, they had contacted the IRS and said, Hey, what is the stat? How does this go?
Bruce Cherry: And the IRS told ’em says, we are not going after churches. That is a myth. We, we would not pull in the, the time that this has existed. The IRS has never pulled a church’s tax exempt status for them, for the content of what they say from the pulpit. It just, just doesn’t happen. So they would address that.
Bruce Cherry: Wow. And so they were working to, to let the pastors know you can address these things. You know, for so long the church was the moral compass for this country. And in recent years, it’s just stopped being that because you’ve got a group of pastors that feel they can’t do it. They, they feel that, that it endangers their church.
Bruce Cherry: And
Vicky Cherry: good news is that is starting to change. I know. I heard that pastors now can talk about candidates.
Bruce Cherry: Yes, they can. They can devote so much time. Per week to [00:43:00] talk about a candidate. And it’s not an issue. They could really, they could devote all the time they want to about it, but there, there is a guideline for it.
Bruce Cherry: So, and, and I want to give credit to, uh, Tom Lesner, uh, who’s a, who’s a, uh, he’s the president of nla, which is the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. Uh, he’s the gentleman that I was, he and Frank Pavona and I were having lunch and he was talking about, you know, how we could abolish abortion and, and.
Bruce Cherry: Why pastors aren’t engaging in, in many cases. So, and he’s spoken at quite a few events as well. So, yes, but we do have to change hearts and minds. We do have to get the pastors involved in, in being responsible and stepping forward and, and sharing.
Vicky Cherry: So, Greg, we’re we’re getting Oh, go ahead. I was just gonna invite you to speak more on what you wanna talk about.
Vicky Cherry: We only have a few more minutes.
Greg Mayo: Oh, well, you know, you know I can go a little long, Vicky, so thanks for reminding.
Bruce Cherry: And we’re [00:44:00] not sure if you can hear us, us, because you’re in the mountains, so we wanna make sure
Greg Mayo: Oh, I’m still in the mountains. Probably will be for a little bit. But yeah, I, I just wanna encourage your listeners to get involved and if you have the mindset of, oh, thank goodness they’re helping those people drop that right now.
Greg Mayo: Because those people, men and women who have been impacted by abortion loss. They’re at your church. They’re at the local restaurant football game. They’re in your small group, right? You know, these people, and I have so many people tell me, oh, I don’t know anybody that’s had an abortion. I’m like, you do.
Greg Mayo: They’re just not talking about it.
Speaker 4: Right?
Greg Mayo: So it it’s not those people, it’s our people. It’s us. And. I just would encourage anybody out there to get involved and to circle back to what we talked about in the first segment. And I promise this the last thing I’m gonna say. Um, if you’re a man listening to this and you’re writing checks to local prcs or whatever, first of all, thank you for helping out the people doing this amazing work.[00:45:00]
Greg Mayo: Secondly, I encourage you to get on the sidelines and get involved. Get some skin in the game, draw your sword, step into battle with us, and that’s all I’ll say.
Bruce Cherry: Okay. Gonna take some time here to, uh, to talk about something coming up. We’ve been talking about pastors. Pastors. We’re not bashing you, we’re encouraging you and there’s an opportunity for you to feel really encouraged with a great pastor who’s gonna be the featured speaker.
Bruce Cherry: Pastor Jack Hibbs is coming to Orlando and will be at this year’s. Pastor’s Appreciation Brunch, and that is provided by Salem Media. Orlando, and it’s brought to you by Thompson Jewelers. It’s gonna be October the 14th in Faith Hall at First Baptist. Orlando Faith Hall is an incredible facility and I know you’re gonna have a great time.
Bruce Cherry: It’s gonna be lunch or or brunch if you will. And uh, folks, you can support your pastor by buying their ticket. You can go online to. You can go online [00:46:00] to the answer orlando.com and the details are there. Um, pastors. Deacons folks, come on out for this. Gonna be a, a great time. And Jack Hibbs is always, always incredible.
Bruce Cherry: So again, that’s October the 14th, that’s the Pastor’s Appreciation Brunch. It’s the 14th annual Pastor’s Appreciation brunch. So, um, it would be like the 15th. But, uh, I think, uh, we’ve. Foregoed one, or, or it was foregone one year, uh, during COVID. Mm. So, but, uh, yeah, it’s been, they’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s just a way of saying thank you to the pastors.
Bruce Cherry: It’s also sponsored by Good Life, 45 Samaritan’s Purse and Hello Pastor. So, uh, it’s gonna be a great time. So Greg, thank you very much. Your new book. We look forward to seeing it when it comes out. And that’s called His Story Matters. And w will that be available on Amazon or how will we get that?
Greg Mayo: It’ll [00:47:00] be, excuse me, available on Amazon and my website, um, greg mail author.com.
Bruce Cherry: Greg mayo author.com. Please spell your name for us please.
Greg Mayo: First name, GREG. Last name MAYO, like the clinic.
Speaker 4: And the mayo. Or mayonnaise. Or mayonnaise. I was
Bruce Cherry: gonna say. And mayonnaise. Here we go.
Vicky Cherry: So Greg Mayo
Bruce Cherry: author.com. Correct.
Vicky Cherry: Yes,
Greg Mayo: correct.
Bruce Cherry: Okay.
Vicky Cherry: And know, I’m assuming everybody knows how to spell author
Bruce Cherry: Well, if they don’t then they, they don’t, they can’t use the book if they can’t read, so,
Greg Mayo: alright, so, oh, it’ll be available on audio book in a month, by the way. Oh, there you go. So they don’t have to,
Bruce Cherry: there you go. Well, you know it, even people who can’t read still. Find themselves touched by abortion. So that was, that was a joke. But it was not meant to be harsh. So my apologies for that. ’cause we we’re, abortion is something that touches everybody.
Bruce Cherry: And you’re right. If you people say, [00:48:00] oh, I don’t know anybody that’s had an abortion, you’re absolutely incorrect. Most likely, you know? And I was amazed at how many people we know, Christian, women we know. Mm-hmm. That have come to us and said, yeah. I had one 30 years ago, 40 years ago. Mm-hmm. And, yep. You know, and they thank us for, you know, sharing this because it’s, it used to be something that wasn’t talked about.
Bruce Cherry: It was in the shadows, it was in the closet. And now it’s like the healing can only happen if you, if you had acknowledge it and renounce it and ask for God’s healing. So. Greg, thank you very much and please tell your lovely wife, Stacy, that we, we look forward to meeting you two and, and taking you guys to dinner and we look forward to having you on the show again.
Bruce Cherry: And, uh, maybe Vicky and I’ll make it up there to Indianapolis to see you guys.
Greg Mayo: Well, you make it up. Let me know and, and look. Thank you to both of you for having me on again. It’s always a great time talking to you both. You can’t hear my wife, but [00:49:00] she can hear you and she waved the mouth. Thank you.
Bruce Cherry: Alright, well we thank you both and safe travels. God bless. And we look forward to talking to you again soon. And uh, maybe we can get you two down here for a, uh, Pro-Life Radio gala soon. Yes, we’re working on that, so, oh, that’d
Greg Mayo: be terrific.
Bruce Cherry: Alright. It’s actually during the. There you go. Oh yeah, there
Vicky Cherry: we go.
Vicky Cherry: Right. You could be our keynote. There you go. We’re thinking about October. There we go. November
Bruce Cherry: early, maybe December. There we
Vicky Cherry: go. No, no, no. Okay.
Bruce Cherry: Yeah. Well, yeah, it gets cold up there in Indianapolis. They’ll be happy to come down. Yes. Alright. Okay. Well thank you much. God bless. Safe travels. Thank you all for joining us tonight for Pro-Life Radio and we wish you all a happy, blessed, and safe Labor Day weekend.
Bruce Cherry: And we’ll see you next week. Prolife Radio on AM nine 50 FM 94.9. The answer Goodnight for my wife, Vicky. I’m Bruce Cherry. Take care.