Want to see the EHD video that Rachel told her teacher about? Click here.
Check out our lesson plan for kids “The Baby’s Heart Beats Like Mine.”
Love3 Mentions the Woman...What about the Man?
We received a kind note from a supporter recently making a point about our the name of our online workshops, Love3. (Get more information and register now! Workshops begin January 18.) Here’s an excerpt:
What a beautiful theme: to actively love the mother, child, and conversation partner. Perhaps father, known or unknown, should be included in that circle, as well. Changing the hearts of women’s partners could have a huge effect on whether or not a woman experiences an unplanned pregnancy in the first place; and whether she experiences it alone and desperate, or supported, cared for and in partnership.
Perhaps in the future JFA can put together a team, especially of men, to mentor to our young men on campus as to how they can honor women by not engaging in pre-marital sex, by truly thinking through their sexual actions to the probable conclusion, and by actively shouldering the consequences of their actions with manly honesty, unselfishness, and openness to life.
Here’s my reply:
I wholeheartedly agree that men should receive more focus, especially in the ways you have stated in your email. I appreciate the idea of developing a team of men for special focus on helping men develop "manly honesty, unselfishness and openness to life," as you have said. We'll keep this idea in mind as we continue to seek better ways to reach people. You have rightly pointed out how instrumental men are in the process and how important it is that we not forget them.
Let me explain a bit more about the reasons behind the focus on the woman in Love3. Before I do, though, I admit that no name is perfect, and our team is taking new ideas and changes into consideration. When I talk about the Love3 idea in presentations, I talk about loving "anyone dealing with unintended pregnancy and abortion directly," which includes men. So, that was really the intention of this Love3 idea all along.
In trying to find a way to simply communicate what we're talking about in promoting these workshops, however, I found it necessary to simplify this idea down to a focus on the woman. In conversations, there is a reason to give special focus to the woman, after all: she is affected bodily by the child's presence and she can by law get an abortion without the father's knowledge or approval. In addition, when people interact with us, they are many times very keyed in on how we treat the woman who's pregnant during the conversation. While I agree wholeheartedly that men are both affected by and affect greatly the situation of unintended pregnancy, the average pro-choice advocate is not particularly concerned about the man.
So, while I agree that in a conversation we should also have in mind actively loving the man who is directly involved in unintended pregnancy, this does not provide as clear a guide to pro-life advocates aiming to create the sort of conversation that will intrigue pro-choice advocates and cause them to change their mind about abortion. To be sure, bringing up the man and his role at various points is important for helping people develop an accurate view of sexuality, pregnancy, honor, and integrity. But focusing on the man is not as important as caring for the pregnant woman as we seek to help people be open to changing their minds about abortion.
Remember that the moniker Love3 is meant to be a guide for how to proceed in the midst of a conversation in which we're aiming to change someone's mind. That's why we focus in our promotion of Love3 on loving the woman, the child, and the person with whom we're speaking. It's absolutely essential in most conversations with pro-choice advocates to keep each of these three groups of people in our field of vision as we seek to persuade.
Great Interruptions
On the afternoon of Christmas day in 2019, our family of seven seemed a bit aimless, so we decided to pile into our mini-van and go surprise our friends with a bit of caroling.
In an era of text message arrangements, caroling is perhaps the last acceptable vestige of an important form of social interruption: dropping by. We were a bit hesitant, but we were reasonably sure that our caroling would be seen as a welcome diversion. We could simply sing a few songs on the porch and leave, after all. As it happened, our friends happily folded us into their Christmas day plans. They invited us in. The adults talked, and the kids played.
Jesus heals the paralytic lowered through the roof. (Stained Glass, St. Colman’s Cathedral in Ireland; Image: Andreas F. Borchert, CC 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Note: The windows of the South Aisle featured in the Banner Image of this post also by Andreas F. Borchert and shared under CC 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
As we move through the Christmas season and into 2021, we need to make this sort of interrupting a habit, and not just when we’re caroling. The result might indeed be as positive as we experienced last Christmas, but it also might be awkward. We might inconvenience. Still, it’s important. COVID-19 may mean “dropping by” takes on different forms, but interrupting in some way is perhaps even more important given the current isolation most people are feeling.
Great interruptions are sometimes necessary to demonstrate great love.
Remember the four friends who let down their paralytic friend through the roof, interrupting Jesus right in the middle of teaching a crowd? This was a great interruption. Jesus took it in stride and, the Scripture says, “seeing their faith” he claimed to forgive the man’s sins. Then he proved that he had authority to forgive those sins by healing the man. He responded to the great love shown by the four friends by showing the great love of God in healing the man spiritually and physically. (See Mark 2:1-12 and Luke 5:17-26.)
The Son of God’s response to this great interruption highlighted an even greater interruption that he was carrying out: he had interrupted history by taking on human flesh so that he could completely interrupt the works of darkness, overturn the corruption of sin, and draw human beings into the life for which God created them. This is the great interruption we welcome as we celebrate Christmas.
Great interruptions are sometimes necessary to demonstrate great love.
As we reflect on these “great interruptions” (great in both senses), let’s consider our love for people, for God, for the truth, for those in danger (such as unborn children), and for those in distress (such as women confronting unintended pregnancy). Demonstrating love for each of these is worth interrupting the daily course of events. I encourage you to interrupt people’s lives with phone calls and visits, and even (if all else fails) text messages or social media.
Here’s one practical way you can interrupt: invite friends to our Love3 Online Workshops beginning January 18, 2021 (www.jfaweb.org/love3). Because the name Love3 refers to loving the woman in distress, the unborn child, and the person who disagrees with us, just the invitation can lead to a conversation about each of the things I’ve mentioned above.
Why Love3? Because God loves each of those people.
Why Love3? Because women and children and pro-choice advocates are intrinsically valuable image-bearers of God.
Why attend Love3 workshops? Because each of us needs to develop the skill of artfully navigating difficult conversations. Ultimately, we interrupt so that the love of God can cause a “great interruption” in the lives of every human being.
Help JFA Create “Great Interruptions” in 2021
Thank you for your faithful support of Justice For All. There’s still time to give an end-of-year gift. Go to www.jfaweb.org/donate to give an online gift (credit card or electronic check) or postmark your gift by December 31, 2020.
Love3 Interactive Workshops (Instagram Link)
Register for our upcoming training series, Love3 Interactive Workshops.
A Different Kind of Conversation (Instagram Link)
Read Human Defense Initiative’s article, A Different Kind of Conversation, by JFA trainer Rebekah Dyer.
OU Daily Article (Instagram Link)
Read OU Daily’s article, interviewing staff members Mary St. Hilaire and Jonathan Wagner.
Love3 Interactive Workshops (Instagram Link)
Learn more about our upcoming Love3 interactive workshop series!
What about Rape? (Instagram Link)
Read “What about Rape?” by JFA trainer Rebekah Dyer at Human Defense Initiative.
Bridging the Divide
Impact Report
November 2020
In this Impact Report, we’ll describe how throughout the tumult of 2020, God helped us bridge both ideological and physical divides to continue to connect people to the truth that only God can clarify and the healing that only God provides. You’ll also see how God turned the frustration of lockdowns into good fruit, including a new online training program you can help us promote starting now! We give thanks to God for you and your partnership in the work of bridging the divide.
- Steve Wagner, Executive Director
University of New Mexico, Feb. 2020
As we look back at a year filled with discord, debate, drama, disease, and death, it’s easy to get discouraged.
University of Texas at San Antonio, Feb. 2020
Our culture seems to be completely overcome by division, and as if the usual ideological division was not enough, now various versions of lockdowns have made physical division a reality as well.
Early this year, as in past years, our team at Justice For All (JFA) set ourselves to live out our habit of stepping across the ideological divide. We go to people who disagree with us. We train pro-life advocates to come with us. One passion motivates us: kindling affection for the forgotten, beginning with women in distress, the smallest humans on earth, and those who differ from us in appearance or beliefs. What happens to this work, though, when a physical divide confronts it?
Susanna Dirks with a University of Texas at Dallas student in March 2020
During this time of Thanksgiving, will you mark with us the ways God has continued to work through the JFA team to help us bridge both ideological and physical divides, connecting people to the truth only God can clarify and the healing that only God provides?
In February and March, JFA teams trained volunteers in New Mexico and Texas, engaging five campuses in discussion about abortion (pictured).
Interactive Online Workshops, May-Nov. 2020
When COVID-19 hit, we refashioned our in-person training into an interactive online workshop series, complete with step-by-step instructions to help participants create conversations on abortion in everyday life. (See JFA’s June 2020 letter for one story from a participant.) Over the next six months, we produced 105 hours of training for over 130 people in 27 states, including many states we have not been able to visit very often (or ever!). Participants from Canada and France also joined us!
In addition, during the months we were unable to conduct outreach in person, our staff explored a new outreach venue: social media. We had little hope it would come to much, but we were determined to try. Our team was pleasantly surprised that there are plenty of opportunities for engaging strangers and friends online. (Kaitlyn reflected on one special conversation in our July 2020 letter.)
JFA presented workshops in person in seven states this fall (CA, CO, KS, OH, OK, NE, and MI). Then, replete with masks, our team was especially thankful to be able to spend two days interacting with students at the University of Oklahoma.
Kaitlyn teaches equal rights during an online JFA workshop in Nov. 2020.
While we’re excited about each of these 2020 efforts, we’re not satisfied. We know that every Christian needs training, and with no increased cost, our video conferencing software can handle about ten times the number of people who on average participated in each of our workshops this year.
That’s why we’ve set a goal of registering 800 people for our interactive online workshops taking place from January to March 2021. While we will also plan in-person events, these online events cannot be shut down by COVID-19 restrictions, so they are the most sensible place to put our most robust efforts.
Rebekah Dyer (right) with a University of Oklahoma student in Nov. 2020
We need your help to bring this training to so many people. Do you want to take a next step to “bridge the divide” and help us create thousands of conversations in 2021?
Go to www.jfaweb.org/love3 to learn more about JFA’s online workshops beginning January 18. Register to attend, and invite friends to join you. Thank you for partnering with us in spreading the word about these workshops, and in giving to JFA. Your gifts help provide this free training for others.
University of Oklahoma, Nov. 2020
Staff members pictured: Rebekah Dyer, Jon Wagner, and Mary St. Hilaire
Banner Image by Andre A. Xavier on Unsplash
You can also give a gift at JFA’s Donate page to provide training for others.
* Previously titled “7 Conversations in 7 Hours,” Love3 refers to conducting abortion conversations in a way that actively loves the woman, the child, and the person with whom we’re speaking.
JFA Internships (Instagram Link)
Are you interested in an internship with Justice For All? Click the link below for more information!
http://www.jfaweb.org/internships
Featured Resource - Car vs. Polaroid Distinction (Instagram Link)
A polaroid picture of members of the JFA Team, taken a few years ago.
Richard Stith has made a distinction between construction of a car and development of a Polaroid photo that can help you understand and illustrate for friends how the unborn child is a human organism from the time of fertilization. You can read his entry-level treatment of this topic, “Arguing with Pro-Choicers” (First Things, Nov. 4, 2006), and his scholarly article, “Construction vs. Development: Polarizing Models of Human Gestation” (Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, 2014), through the link below.
JFA’s Executive Director, Steve Wagner, used this polaroid analogy in 2016, with two gate agents at the airport, when a snowstorm was set to hit Washington D.C. He shared the memorable story in “You Aren’t Going Anywhere.”
Freedom House Ambulance Service and Justice For All (Instagram Link)
This Saturday: Free One-Day Training Intensive
“7 Conversations in 7 Hours”
Register now and experience JFA’s acclaimed dialogue training from anywhere!
Nov. 14, 2020 (Sat.): One-Day Intensive
1:00 PM - 8:30 PM Central
(with a break for dinner from 6:00 PM - 6:30 PM Central)
“Having been in the pro-life movement since 1980, this training is nothing like I’ve ever experienced. At our local [pregnancy] center, we are making it essential for our Client Advocates (in addition to their regular training).”
— Mike, “7 Conversations in 7 Hours” participant
"7 Conversations" One-Week Training Intensive - Starting Tonight!
“7 Conversations in 7 Hours” - 2 New Options
Register now and experience JFA’s acclaimed dialogue training from anywhere!
Nov. 9-14 (M-Sat.): One-Week Intensive
M, T, W, Th, F @ 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM Central; Sat @ 6:30-8:30 PM Central
Can’t participate on weeknights? Join us for a one-day intensive instead. Offered this Saturday:
Nov. 14 (Sat.): One-Day Intensive
1:00 PM - 8:30 PM Central (with a break for dinner from 6:00 PM - 6:30 PM Central)
Are you a man and intimidated by conversations about abortion? - Resource List
Links mentioned in Jon’s post (above):
“A Woman’s Response to ‘Men Can’t Talk about Abortion’” (Rebekah Dyer, Human Defense Initiative)