20 Conversation Stories

I just sent this to our email list:

20 conversation stories (that you'll be glad you read) as a reminder to give a gift (that you'll be glad you gave)

As I thought about how to remind you to give a year-end gift to help JFA make abortion unthinkable one person at a time, I thought I'd point you to five collections of easy-to-digest conversation stories available for free on our website, like all of our other resources. These collections follow the train of thought of JFA's acclaimed "Abortion: From Debate to Dialogue" seminar.

I'm confident these will both encourage and equip you, and I hope you'll partner with JFA today by giving a generous gift!

Facing Abortion
Four Conversation Stories Illustrating the Importance of Pictures

Three Essential Skills
Four Conversation Stories Featuring Listening, Asking Questions, and Finding Common Ground

Trot Out the Toddler
Four Conversation Stories Teaching Readers to Refocus the Conversation

Living Human Organism
Three Conversation Stories Teaching Readers to Defend the Unborn as a Human Being, Biologically Speaking

Equal Rights Argument
Six Conversation Stories Illustrating the Equal Rights Argument

Note: This post originated in an email message to friends and supporters of JFA on Dec. 31.  It was posted on January 2, 2017 and backdated to reflect the original.

Ministry Notes for December 2016

Additional Christmas Reflections

1

In my Christmas letter, "Clueless in the Face of a Great Gift?", I shared an image of a page from The Psalter of St. Louis (image nearby) with the comment that Herod's response to Jesus, to attempt to kill him, was not the "appropriate" response to such a magnificent gift as the incarnation of the Son of God.  This is a bit of an understatement, of course. 

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When Herod found that the magi had not returned to confirm for him the whereabouts of Jesus, he sent soldiers to kill all of the males in Bethlehem aged two and under (Matt. 2:16).  Could there be a greater rejection of God's great gift than to seek to kill this boy, and indeed, to kill a whole lot of other boys at the same time?  

Indeed, when women and men prepare to have their unborn children killed by abortion, they are sadly, in the same spirit as Herod, making the same great rejection of a great gift.  And when we are silent about the horror of abortion, aren’t we also, in some sense, rejecting that great gift? 

2

The challenge of giving any gift is how we will respond when it is rejected, misunderstood, or even maligned.  For some of us, perhaps, there is a challenge in giving with a spirit of charity, a kind-hearted desire for the other person's good.  I suspect, though, that the greater challenge for most of us is to choose a charitable attitude towards the person once the gift is received, but not as we intended.  What will our attitude be if the point is missed, or if the gift is even detestable to the person?  In my Christmas letter, I emphasized how patient God is with me when I fail to appreciate his gifts to me.  I want to be like him and be patient with those who fail me to appreciate my gifts to them.

3

Any act of conversation about abortion includes the same challenge of “charity after the charity.”  We set aside time to go talk to people.  Perhaps you have set aside time to participate in a JFA event or to engage someone in conversation using our “Learn at Home” program.  What’s perhaps hardest about those conversations, though, is getting them started when we know that those with whom we are speaking may not receive our gift of time, listening, well-chosen questions, and reasons to protect the unborn.  We fear the gift will instead be rejected.  So, should we simply not give the gift?  Clearly not.  The gift is worth giving because of the intrinsic value of both the gift and the recipient.  Should we mock the person who rejects it?  No.  This rejection should cause us to be sad, and sad enough that we pray that God would change the heart.

Recent and Upcoming Events

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• See the JFA Event Calendar for upcoming and recent events.
• See our October 2016 Ministry Notes, which gives a quick visual of our events in September and October.  Although this is a fairly good snapshot of the busiest period in JFA's fall, it doesn't include our large exhibit outreach at the University of Oklahoma in November, as well as a number of other events in November and December.  See those events here.
• See our Photos page for photos from our spring 2016 events (and previous).

Clueless in the Face of a Great Gift?

Clueless in the Face of a Great Gift? (Conversations Letter, Christmas 2016)

Steve Wagner, Justice For All (jfaweb.org)

Download

Conversations: The Monthly Letter of Justice For All

Christmas 2016

Mine was a small gift, but they missed it.

One of my favorite panels from our new Art of Life Exhibit juxtaposes a classical painting of a woman holding her daughter with the words “Embracing child and career” and “better than abortion.” 

At the University of Oklahoma this fall, though, one free speech board (image nearby) showed that this panel made no sense to some viewers.  They pointed out, confidently, that sitting for a portrait isn’t a career, and a woman in 1786 couldn’t possibly have had a career anyway.

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Comments on Free Speech Board: “In 1786 this woman did NOT have a child and a CAREER!” and, [sarcastically], “Sitting for portraits is a career?”

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Panel from JFA’s Art of Life Exhibit (Image: Madame Vigée-Le Brun et Sa Fille, by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, France, 1786; More information: Art of Life web page)

Had these students looked with just a bit more curiosity at the panel in question (image nearby), they would have found etched just next to the date of the painting in the bottom right-hand corner the only clues they needed in order to discover the point of the panel — the title of the painting and the name of the painter: Madame Vigée-Le Brun et Sa Fille [by] Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.

This translates to Mrs. Vigée-Le Brun and Her Daughter [by] Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. 

Yes, indeed, there is little sense in displaying this lesser-known painting from the 18th century to illustrate the idea that a woman can embrace her child and her career, unless, of course, the woman pictured in the painting is...the painter...and the painting is her self-portrait!  A quick look at the website found on the panel (www.debate2dialogue.org) reveals that Vigée Le Brun was Marie Antoinette’s chief portrait painter.  Yes, at least one woman had a “bona fide career” in 1786!

I don’t recall talking to the students who wrote these comments.  When I came across the photos of the free speech board later, the fact that these students missed the point of the sign made me angry, and for a moment, I wanted to mock them and point out how foolish they were.  But then I caught myself.  Isn’t sadness a more appropriate response?  These dear people are missing out, after all. 

When people outright reject or miss the point of our outreach events, our good-faith attempts to dialogue with them, the beautiful wonder of life in the womb, the truth about human rights, or any other gift we offer, it makes me sad — sad, first, that they missed the gift, and second, that I, in my weaknesses, have sometimes made it harder for them to get it.

This reflection reminds me of another gift, a gift that is not only magnitudes greater than some of the gifts I’ve just been discussing, but indeed, it’s also in a category all by itself.  I’m referring to the gift of the incarnation of Jesus.

God’s gift was a great gift, but have I missed it?

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This page from The Psalter of St. Louis (circa 1191-1212) alludes to two very different responses to the gift of Jesus.  Above, Herod (right) talks with the magi and prepares to attempt to kill Jesus.  Below, the magi bring gifts to Jesus, showing a much more appropriate sense of awe and appreciation for the gift of Jesus.  (See Wiki Commons for more information about the image.)

I know I have missed it to some degree.  I know, because although I respond to the gift with private awe, I don’t often respond with public acts of sharing the Savior I know.  I am usually silent.

Contrast this timidity about the gift of Jesus with the confidence I feel when I am standing near the Art of Life Exhibit and have a chance to tell people about the point of this “Embracing child and career” sign.  I am so taken with the sign that I can’t wait to tell people about it.  I want them to experience that moment of wonder, that moment of recognition that comes when one sees that this woman is embodying the embracing of both child and career, all at once, right there in the creation of this painting.  I want them to experience the beauty of the optimism of the panel, the optimism that says women don’t have to kill their children in order to actualize their abilities.

My eagerness to share the truth about Christ, on the other hand, is somehow just barely limping along, even though the incarnation was a much more wondrous embodying — the embodying of God himself.  Perhaps my eagerness is suffocated by the dark skepticism and mocking spirit of the culture.  To be sure, I also fear that the gift will simply be rejected.  Is this the appropriate thankful response to God’s gift — a private hoarding and a repetitive withholding of the truth from others?  The troubling answer is a confident, “No.”

So, let’s resolve, shall we, to share our experience of this beautiful miracle of the incarnation of Christ — his taking on human nature that he might ultimately redeem us through his death and resurrection.  Let’s resolve to share this news more publicly, even if only in small moments with strangers or friends, when we have the choice clearly set before us: Do I now allow this moment to be mundane, or do I transform it by just saying something, taking the chance that this person will join me in a moment of recognition and wonder?

Let’s resolve not to wait, then, for only those few people we’re confident will appreciate Jesus.  And let’s resolve also to strengthen our confidence in the greatness of the gift of Jesus through study, reflection, and prayer, so that we may speak more boldly.  I have a hunch, though, that trusting God by going through the motion of “speaking forth the mystery of Christ”  (Colossians 4:3) might itself do the work of strengthening our confidence to continue to speak.

When I think about how God is patient with me in my reluctance to share all I know of his marvelous gift to me, I’m thankful for his mercy and forbearance.  Perhaps I’m just as clueless as the students who mocked the Art of Life sign.  Perhaps more.  Yet, God is patient with me, a seeker who longs to appreciate his great gifts with the response they deserve.  If God is patient with me, clueless in the face of his great gift, how much more can I be patient with those whom God has called me to engage in conversation, especially when they reject the gift I am offering them?

In awe of God’s great Christmas gift,

Steve Wagner

Executive Director,

Justice For All

After a Recent Workshop at UNK

Comments after a Recent Workshop at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK):

"I feel like I could apply most of this in a conversation." – Sierra

"I feel a lot more confident now with talking to other people about abortion.  The dialogue practice with a partner was especially helpful." – Marilyn

"[The day after the workshop, during a class discussion on abortion], I didn't know if I was going to say anything, but finally decided to use the argument I had learned [the night before]." – Megan

The day after the JFA workshop, Megan found herself in a class discussion of whether or not it is morally acceptable to abort children diagnosed with Down syndrome in utero.  See "Megan Schools Her Classmates on Abortion" by Jeremy Gorr for the whole story, including what Megan said, how it impacted her class, and a picture of Megan at the JFA outreach event later that same day.

You Can Help JFA Bring about Stories Like Zachary's

A Special Message from Steve Wagner

Dear Friend,

Whether you read JFA’s letters on a monthly or occasional basis, and whether you read them in paper form or online, I hope you see in every communication from JFA our passion for finding pro-choice advocates, starting conversations with them in a natural way, sharing a defense for unborn children, and responding to objections, all within a framework of loving concern.  Our work is some of the most difficult work pro-life advocates can do, but it’s also some of the most important, if we are ever to see a day when all unborn children are loved as equals. 

In our November 2016 Impact Report, “Small Decisions and Big Results,” I share the story of Grace, Clare, and Zachary, and then I close with a comment about the importance of small decisions.  As you read the last paragraph there, you might feel like the idea of participating with us “on the ground” creating conversations seems out of reach.  Perhaps encouraging your community to learn more about JFA or becoming an intern seems impossible.  Still, you can be a catalyst to help make all of these aspects of JFA’s mission happen – by giving financially to support JFA’s work.

You can be every bit as much a part of JFA’s mission by making a generous special gift or monthly commitment today.  At our Donate page, you can find everything you need in order to become a monthly partner with JFA or to give a special gift.  There you’ll also find information about gift designations and what your gift will accomplish, how to give online using a credit card, and automatic giving options. 

Your gifts to support a staff member designation, our Training Program Fund, our Intern Scholarship Fund, or to support our area of “greatest need” directly impact how many interns we’re able to hire, how many outreach events we’re able to produce, and how many relationships we’re able to build with churches, schools, and other organizations.  These things in turn directly affect the number of pro-life advocates we’re able to train and the number of pro-choice advocates we’re able to engage in conversation so that they can come to their own settled conclusion that abortion is unthinkable.  Thank you for considering partnering with JFA. 

In Christ,

Steve Wagner

Executive Director, Justice For All

P.S. I hope that when you read “Small Decisions and Big Results,” you will be just as encouraged as I was to see active, young pro-life advocates creating conversations that make abortion unthinkable.  I hope, though, that you and I won’t stop there, thinking that this is just the job of young people.  The task is too big, and the need is too great.  Please instead consider a small decision to partner with JFA and trust God with us to use each small decision to bring about the “impossible” result of making abortion unthinkable for millions.

Teach or Talk...or Do Both

JFA’s mission is to train thousands to make abortion unthinkable, one person at a time.  We have two simple ways to show that we are making progress on that mission.  We must teach others to talk to pro‐choice people about abortion, or we ourselves need to talk to pro‐choice people about abortion.  Sometimes our speaking events end up accomplishing both of these goals.  Below is a sample of reflections from high school and college students who attended a presentation, workshop, or seminar this fall.  Some of these students felt prepared to have conversations on their own.  For others, the content of our presentations made abortion unthinkable in their minds.

The video showed today really sealed the deal in my head that abortion is 100% murder.  It’s not that I wasn’t pro‐life, I just believed it [be]cause I was told to.  This video helped me form a complete opinion...that abortion is never the answer—very good presentation!

- High School Student, Presentation, St. Cecilia’s Catholic High School

To see five more student quotes and more commentary from Paul, continue reading The Kulas Kronicle, November 2016.

“I am pro-life, and I have marched in Washington D.C. with the pro-life march the past two years. I enjoyed the experience so much, but [I] never knew how to communicate with others. Thank YOU for teaching me how to talk about pro-life to people who are pro-choice.”

— High School Student

The letter also includes a picture collage of Paul's conversations in 2016:  Click here to see those pictures.