The University of Georgia (UGA) newspaper, The Red & Black, covered JFA's recent UGA outreach in two articles:
Photo Credit: Landon Trust
CSU Newspaper Features JFA Outreach
(Photo Credit: Skyler Leonard)
See Justice For All's recent Colorado State University (CSU) outreach through the eyes of one student reporter in "Group displaying posters of fetuses comes to CSU Plaza," published in the Rocky Mountain Collegian on September 28, 2015.
From One to a Crowd
Conversations: September 2015
Phase 1
Navigating a one-on-one conversation about a controversial subject can be difficult. Now add nine more people with varying opinions. Is it possible for the conversation to remain productive, or at least civil? At our University of Arizona outreach in February 2015, I watched a one-on-one conversation transform into a conversation with a crowd that lasted three hours.
“Michael” (Phase 1) approached me in order to share his view that he didn’t believe life began at conception. Overhearing the conversation, two other students wandered over to listen in (Phase 2). Then two more students arrived and began peppering me with their opinions and thoughts, including multiple questions related to their disagreements regarding what they had heard me discuss with Michael.
At this point there was no way to answer every student’s questions at the same time (not to mention that every response I shared prompted more questions). In order to respect Michael, and not forget him in the midst of this developing crowd, I asked a favor of all five students. I said something like,
Phase 2
“You are all bringing up important topics and questions to cover. I want to answer all of them, but I want to respect each of you by doing it in an orderly fashion so that we don’t miss anything. Here are the concerns I have heard:
What about poverty? What about women who don’t have the means to care for a child?
What about women who already have too many children?
What about a woman who has been violated (rape)?
Women’s liberty: Doesn’t the pro-life view violate our liberties?
The unborn aren’t human so shouldn’t abortion only be illegal after we become human?
Men shouldn’t have an opinion in this matter. It’s a woman’s body. So it’s her choice.
“I need your help though. Please help me remember each of these questions if I forget one. If you have another question, let me know so that we can add it to the list. I am going to start by answering one of Michael’s questions first, the one about women who don’t seem to have the financial means to care for a child.”
Phase 3
In the next three hours I witnessed something beautiful unfold. Because each of the students knew that I thought addressing each question was important, they patiently waited their turn. As more and more students wandered over to listen in (with most of them eventually joining in) each one witnessed a particular type of conversation taking place: It was a conversation in which disagreement was readily present but anger was absent. People were asking questions to seek clarification. People were actively listening to understand each other. People where not interrupting each other.
This respectful conversation set a precedent, and this precedent caused a second beautiful response from the students. Newcomers recognized the calm demeanor of those who disagreed with me and quickly followed suit. So much so, that they would even raise their hands (see Phase 3 above) and wait for me to call on them before sharing thoughts or asking questions.
At one point in the conversation I was able to ask the students present how they felt after the past hour of conversation. One of the students had changed his mind about when we are biologically human. Another student felt that abortion should still be legal but not in as many cases as she had originally thought. A third student commented that, although she was still pro-choice, she had never heard these pro-life arguments and they made sense. Later that day a fourth student returned to tell me that although he is pro-life he had never witnessed a conversation about abortion like that one. He was amazed by the response of the students.
One pro-choice student who joined the group conversation had spent two hours in conversation with me the day prior. During the group discussion he responded to several of the pro-choice arguments using the same pro-life responses I had shared with him the day before. Although he stated he was still pro-choice, it was clear that he now also saw the validity in some of the arguments I had proposed to him.
Thank you for helping JFA turn the debate about abortion into a productive dialogue by respecting the dignity of the unborn while also respecting the dignity of each person in the conversation.
Bishop Edward Weisenburger reflects following recent JFA workshop
Bishop Edward Weisenberger attended JFA's recent workshop in Russell, Kansas and reflected on the event and what each of us can do to stop abortion in his article, "Our pro-life work must begin with each of us" in The Register of the Catholic Diocese of Salina (Sept. 11, 2015, p. 2).
Steve Wagner interviewed on Tom Woods Show
Lightbulb in Los Angeles
Impact Report: August 2015
I almost didn’t talk to her. It was the morning of the second day of our outreach event at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). “Jenny” was standing across the walkway, and I was uncertain if she had seen our “Should Abortion Remain Legal?” poll table question. She appeared to be lost in thought, and I didn’t want to be a bother to her. I immediately began an internal argument with myself about all of the reasons why I shouldn’t talk with her.
CK’s story took place near this series of poll tables on UCLA’s Bruin Walk.
The longer Jenny stood there, the more I felt like I should ignore my fear of interrupting her day. I approached her and asked if she had an opinion on our question. At first she seemed hesitant to talk to me, but as the conversation continued, I learned that Jenny did have an opinion. She believed that if a child was going to be born into poverty that abortion would be justified. I listened to her concern and acknowledged that growing up in poverty would be extremely challenging. In response to her concern, I used a conversational tool that we teach at Justice For All (JFA) called “Trot Out the Toddler” (TOTT)* to help refocus the conversation on the central question, “What is the unborn?” After discussing the humanity of the unborn, Jenny agreed that abortion was wrong in most cases, but she still had one very serious concern.
Jenny asked me about the issue of a woman having to care for a child conceived in rape. I took great care to share just how evil I think rape is and how we need to take better care of the woman in that situation. After spending a significant amount of time talking with Jenny, I shared another belief that I hold strongly. I said, “You know, often when women are in the midst of an unwanted pregnancy, pro-life people come alongside them and say, ‘Don’t get an abortion!’ What if, instead, we said, ‘Let me help you’? I think we need to do a better job of coming alongside the woman and the unborn child inside of her.”
Marcos Espinoza (center), a staff member with Right to Life of Central California, interacts with UCLA students in front of the JFA Exhibit on Bruin Plaza.
After a short pause, Jenny looked at me with eyes wide. She said, “You just turned on the lightbulb for me. I realized we've been talking about the woman, but there is a child involved in this, too.” She then asked me what she could do about abortion. She went over to our “Should Abortion Remain Legal?” poll table and signed the side that said “No.” I gave her the JFA Exhibit Brochure and showed her how to share it with a friend. I also gave her the contact information for a local pregnancy care center so that if she ever encounters someone considering an abortion, she herself could say, “Let me help you.”
I’m so thankful that God enabled me to face my fear and talk to Jenny. The fruit of that conversation has shown me how a small step can accomplish a lot. I pray that God continues to strengthen her to take a stand for unborn children.
-CK Wisner, for the JFA Team
* Scott Klusendorf (Life Training Institute) gave us our initial formulation of “Trot Out the Toddler.” For a step-by-step explanation and dialogue excerpts, see www.jfaweb.org/tott.
Comment
In this Impact Report, JFA trainer CK Wisner tells the story of one of her conversations from JFA’s UCLA outreach in June. What I love about CK’s description of this conversation is that we get to see the specific decisions CK made at different points which helped one UCLA student change her mind about abortion.
This is a different kind of conversation, the sort that 49 staff members and volunteers created many times over during two days at UCLA. Among those volunteers were mission trip participants from Houston, Nebraska, Central California, and Kansas, who have already taken what they learned back to their communities. Thanks for helping JFA train pro-life advocates to create conversations that are changing minds and engaging hearts in Los Angeles and beyond.
- Stephen Wagner, Executive Director
Ten Seconds in Bengali
Pro-life advocates in Kolkata, India have translated the 10-Second Pro-Life Apologist into Bengali. They plan to use this to change minds on abortion.
Trent Horn's "When Life Begins" Starts the Conversation
Trent Horn, an intern with JFA in 2009-2010, is now an apologist with Catholic Answers. He posted a video recently that we think is helpful for starting conversations about abortion with friends and family, and for starting them in a way that's productive.
Can Ten Seconds Change Minds?
It all started at 1:40 AM at a stoplight on Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa Beach, California. My July newsletter tells what happened there and how one good thing that came of it was a sound bite that is still making an impact on how people think about abortion 13 years later. The short letter, Ten Seconds Can Change Minds, includes stories of real conversations from JFA trainers Jeremy Gorr and CK Wisner.
Here are a few additional notes on the topic of the letter:
- See more of the conversation with the women at the stoplight in an excerpt from my original write-up on the incident (a one-page reduction of my August 2002 newsletter): Got Ten Seconds?
- Admittedly, there are some limitations to the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist." Even though it has a logical structure similar to a syllogism, it shouldn't be expressed by pro-lifers as an air-tight argument to which no responses can be made. I use the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" instead in the same way a soccer team uses a kick-off. The sound bite just gets things started. It helps me to put something on the table and then shut my mouth to allow the other person to talk, to respond, to think with me. In this sense, it is purposefully incomplete. It invites questions. So, I suggest to pro-life advocates to take care in the amount of weight they give to these three sentences, expressed on their own, without clarification. In other words, don't toss the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" out there as if just in saying these three sentences, it should silence all debate. No, on the contrary, it is meant simply to get productive dialogue started. One of the main limitations is the fact that these three sentences only implicitly make reference to the fact that the unborn is a whole organism. In my view, this is an essential clarification pro-life advocates must make in their conversations about the unborn. So, the unborn is not just living (like any cells or tissue of any species) and is not just human (like HeLa cells) but it is a special sort of living, human tissue that is integrated and organized in a specific way - the same way that you and I are integrated and organized, as a whole organism.
- To illustrate the above point, note, for example, the way in which PZ Meyers misunderstood the intended purpose in using a version of the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" by Kristan Hawkins, the President of SFLA; note also the detailed critique of the PZ Meyers piece by Clinton Wilcox.
- Exercise 3 in JFA's Interactive Guide teaches you to use the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" in conversation. You can see how I would clarify the "organism" point (see Note #1 above) in the "Imitate" section of Exercise 3. Get the Interactive Guide here.
- If you’ve enrolled in our “Learn at Home” program by completing the exercises at www.jfaweb.org/learn-at-home, the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" should look familiar to you. It comprises the first ten seconds of the one-minute sound bite featured in Step 2.
- The 10-Second Pro-Life Apologist has been referenced and utilized by many pro-life advocates and organizations, including SFLA, Trent Horn, Amy Hall, Brett Kunkle, and Josh Brahm.
- Has the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" helped you in your conversations about abortion? Share your story in the comments below.
Note: This post originally appeared at "Human Beings Matter More," the personal blog of Steve Wagner, JFA's Executive Director.
We Can't Wait (in More Ways than One)
Amanda with Kim's Baby
After twenty minutes with a JFA trainer, Amanda shared a JFA Brochure with a friend who decided not to kill her child ("Lucy" in the photo). After one hour in a presentation with a JFA trainer last month, Emma and her sister went to talk to kids in the park. Their mom said,
They said that a few of the things you said gave them the confidence to go ahead and give it a try.
In my June letter you can read how these stories remind me that we cannot wait for everyone to find two days to participate in JFA's flagship training program, and that everyone can benefit from two additional offerings: our presentations and our new "Learn at Home" program. JFA can't wait to use these opportunities to activate...More Advocates.
Or, don't wait to read the letter. Go directly to our new "Learn at Home" program. In just one hour, it will equip you to...Change Minds on Abortion.
JFA @ UCLA
Here's the scene at UCLA's Bruin Walk on JFA's second day of outreach in early June. JFA staff and volunteers set up five tables inviting people to dialogue with us (one of them is down the walk to the left of the frame). As you can see, one-to-one conversations were happening at every table. JFA was invited by the Live Action club at UCLA. On the first day, JFA staff and volunteers created dialogue with the JFA Exhibit on Bruin Plaza (the first time in that location since 2003). The picture below includes an interesting juxtaposition of the facts about abortion (shown in a photo on the JFA Exhibit) with a common viewpoint in defense of abortion (expressed on JFA's Free Speech Board). You can see the JFA Exhibit panel with the picture of abortion more clearly here.
See more of the UCLA outreach, including more pictures from the first day on Bruin Plaza, by clicking the pictures in this post or by clicking here.
A Slice in Time
When I reviewed the photos from JFA's recent outreach event at the University of Kansas, I was especially encouraged and struck by the photo above. My brief May newsletter decodes the photo, discusses why it's special, and explains JFA's passion for...More Conversations.
"I Couldn't Stop..."
Most of us have fears about discussing abortion. Corrie was no different. She recently attended a mission trip that JFA led for Christian Heritage Academy's Salt and Light program. Here's what she said about the outreach to the University of Oklahoma:
I was terrified to talk to anyone, and made a goal to talk to just one person. Once I talked to one, I couldn't stop. I realized they're just people.
In this month's Impact Report, we hear from one of Corrie's classmates and from students in Arizona and Nebraska, who through their experiences with JFA also became...
"Ready and Eager for the Next Conversation"
Other JFA Links: About JFA Donate Recent Event Pics & Updates
JFA Team at the University of Kansas (and Benedictine College, etc)
KUSpring15_727
The JFA Team just returned from two days of outreach to the University of Kansas, along with seminar events at Benedictine College and a community seminar in Lawrence, Kansas. The events are illustrated in the gallery below, which you can access by clicking the picture or link. In the picture below, JFA training specialist Jeremy Gorr discusses the JFA brochure with a student. Click the gallery for other pictures of trainers in action, free speech board responses, and conversations!
Picture Gallery: Click the picture above or this link to see more pictures from KU.
Ready and Eager for the Next Conversation
Impact Report April 2015
At Justice For All, we’re mindful that every pro-life student with whom we interact will meet scores of people throughout their lives—people we ourselves will never have the opportunity to engage. This is why our mentors energetically impart to these pro-life students the tools that will prepare them to change hearts and minds on their own.
In this Impact Report, you’ll meet a few of these students who have become ready and eager to create conversations about abortion. I hope their words will give you a glimpse of the impact of your investment in JFA, and I hope they’ll help you see that, with the help of JFA mentors, you also can become ready and eager for your “next conversation.”
Steve Wagner, Executive Director
The next conversation. That’s one of our passions at JFA. After three recent JFA projects, students reflected this same passion back to us, expressing that they are now ready and eager to create conversations in order to change hearts and minds about abortion.
JFA trainers Rebecca Haschke and Catherine Wurts led a workshop in January for Nebraskans in Washington D.C. after the annual March for Life. About one month later, one student wrote to Rebecca:
Catherine Wurts (left) leads a portion of a two-hour JFA workshop for 220 students and 43 chaperones from the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln after the March for Life.
“Today…three of my friends [and I] were waiting in a lobby to do interviews for Girls State. There was also a girl from [another high school] that was waiting along with us, and somehow we got on the topic of abortion and she was pro-choice. It was the perfect first encounter and chance to use the skills you taught us. She was very good about hearing our side, and we were good about hearing hers. She [gave] the exact reason most [give]: ‘Just a clump of cells.’ We were able to ask questions and stay on the same page with her without overwhelming her, thanks to you and your presentation!” - Elizabeth
Students from St. Mary’s Catholic High School survey a student at Arizona State University.
Elizabeth left the January workshop feeling both that it was important to put the workshop material into practice in a conversation about abortion and that she was ready when an opportunity presented itself. In February, students from two Catholic high schools in Phoenix (St. Mary’s and Bourgade) showed the same eagerness for conversation after participating in JFA’s full training program:
Through practice, students are ready to share images respectfully in future conversations.
“I would not have even known how to begin a conversation with someone about abortion… The training gave me conversational tools and gave me confidence to use them whenever possible.” - Miranda
“After the outreach I really thought more about the influence I have on people and how… just bringing up the subject could influence a lot in their lives. JFA really made me realize that I need to be more confident in being able to speak my opinion on the subject because it could have a bigger impact than I know.” - Mikhaila
“I have labeled myself ‘pro-life’ probably since I first heard the term being used. I didn't fully understand, however, how extremely meaningful and valuable that term really is. I realize now…my role as a spokesperson for those who cannot speak. I am here to defend human life, whether it be inside or outside of the womb. I had a sense of this notion before attending JFA, but my experiences in the seminar and out in the real world…solidified my views and my beliefs; [they made] them real.” - Emilio
Of the 44 students (and one faculty member) from these Phoenix schools who participated in a day-long seminar (Seat Work) and a day of outreach at Arizona State University (Feet Work), all but a few made a commitment to create a conversation about abortion in their everyday lives within two weeks (what JFA calls “Repeat Work”). JFA’s carefully sequenced training program had helped them become ready and eager for the next conversation.
In March, another high school student in Oklahoma had a similar experience during a camp that JFA trainers led for Christian Heritage Academy’s Salt and Light program. After one day in a JFA seminar and one day of outreach, he wrote the following:
“It was one of the best experiences I’ve had, ever. From this trip, I hope to encounter people and have tough conversations with them. I plan to use the exhibit brochures in the future and hopefully be able to pass out the ones I have currently before next year… I would do [the trip] again because of the value of knowing how to lead a conversation about hard topics with people… I feel like God gave me a tool to build bridges across to people and show them the straight and narrow path… My takeaway is that no conversation is too tough and everyone matters no matter if they are ninety years old or one month in the womb.” - Jack
These students are now ready and eager to change hearts and minds about abortion on their own. Let’s pray that God will provide opportunities for many “next conversations” and that he will cause their efforts to result in many changed hearts and saved lives.