Dr. Will Hall presents Pastor Brian Gunter with the Shammah’s Courage Award.

Pastor Brian Gunter, Outreach Director for Louisiana Right to Life and senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Pollock, received the Shammah’s Courage Award this week during the 2020 Louisiana Baptist Convention Annual Meeting.

The LBC Office of Public Policy recognized Gunter for his pro-life advocacy to help pass the Love Life Amendment to the Louisiana Constitution.

Louisiana Baptists supported the Love Life Amendment and worked with Louisiana Right to Life to pass the measure on Nov. 3.

Gunter worked closely with churches in Central Louisiana and other parts of the state to get promote the Love Life Amendment and get the vote out.

Gunter said the amendment’s approval by Louisiana voters was the culmination of years of hard work and prayer on the part of pro-life advocates around the state.

“It was an incredible victory,” Gunter told the Baptist Message. “We outperformed our expectations. With 62 percent of the state voting pro-life it proves Louisiana is the most pro-life state in America. When Roe v. Wade is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court it ensures our pro-life laws will remain in place in Louisiana and that abortion will finally stop in this state. And I believe it will happen. We’ve never been this close to overturning Roe and ending abortion.”

The award comes from 2 Samuel 23: 11-12, which says:

11 And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the men fled from the Philistines. 12 But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines, and the Lord worked a great victory.