The Equal Rights Institute Podcast

Josh Brahm recently sat in our new studio to give you an update on what's been going on behind the scenes at Equal Rights Institute. There are a lot of visuals in this video, so it's best watched instead of listened to on the podcast, but both are available.

Topics:

• 01:14 - New studio;
• 03:55 - Tim's resignation;
• 05:01 - New Director of Training and behind the scenes of the new Equipped for Life extension;
• 07:25 - Launch of the Sidewalk Counseling Masterclass;
• 11:29 - Encouraging testimonies from the Protect Life Michigan conference;
• 13:49 - Relaunching the Equipped for Life Podcast into a free, public feed;
• 18:42 - Our plans to make a bigger impact at the next March for Life.

Testimonials from the Sidewalk Counseling Masterclass:

"I would absolutely recommend this course to anyone wanting to get involved in sidewalk counseling. Before watching the course, sidewalk counseling seemed like an intimidating thing that should be left to others more knowledgeable and gifted. After watching this course, I feel very confident that I could get out there and do it." - Jessica

"This course has real-life lessons from seasoned sidewalk counselors. I appreciated so much that they not only make suggestions of what to do, but also shared their own mistakes and what they have learned. It's paced such that you don't need any experience in sidewalk counseling to follow it. The training is incredibly practical---- seriously, this course will be some of the best money you ever spend!" - Laura

"I found myself making exclamations out loud! I was totally drawn to the reasonings and stories. I felt I could finally put a finger on things that were wrong with my previous experience. I felt inspired to just go back out there (it's been a year). I am sure that if the material was presented in a teaching format, I could not have processed everything in a personal way. When one video ended, I wanted to just see what was next on the next video." - Debra

In November of 2017 the Holy Family Respect Life Committee, in conjunction with Charles County Right to Life, invited Josh Brahm and David Bereit to speak at their annual pro-life conference in Southern Maryland.

After the keynote sessions, Josh and David did a panel discussion and Q&A, joined by Michele Hendrickson, Capital Area Regional Director for Students for Life of America and Heather Sells, CEO of the Catherine Foundation, a local Pregnancy Resource Center. The panel discussion was hosted by Ali Rak from the Southern Maryland Pro-Life Symposium.

Apologies for occasional audio issues in the panel discussion. They used tabletop panel discussion mics and when Heather would turn her head away from the mic sometimes her mic sort of cuts out. We've made some edits where possible, and you can always get the gist of what she's saying.

Questions:

• 0:01:29 - From your standpoint, what does the pro-life movement need to do to become more effective?
• 0:16:00 - What should pro-life advocates avoid and what hurts our cause the most?
• 0:31:00 - What is access to abortion like in Southern Maryland? Where does a woman who is abortion-minded go to terminate a pregnancy? How many of them tend to go to the local Pregnancy Resource Centers? Paint a picture of what it's like to be in crisis in Southern Maryland.
• 0:35:49 - What does counseling an abortion-minded woman look like in your Pregnancy Resource Center as opposed to sidewalk counseling where you often only have a moment to start that conversation?
• 0:43:39 - How are college and high school students shaping the pro-life movement? How do we get more youth involved, and why should there be a Students for Life club at every school in the country?
• 0:51:26 - Josh, as a "connoisseur of good arguments and gracious conversation," how can pro-lifers use Facebook and social media as a force for good?
• 0:56:06 - How do we build the pro-life community locally, one that is engaged and motivated toward action, rather than just being pro-life?
• 1:04:53 - Can we learn anything from the effectiveness of the gay marriage movement that we can apply to our movement?
• 1:09:55 - It seems like there is so much emphasis these days on individual rights, where for some people, even if they personally feel like abortion is wrong, they don't feel like it's their place to speak out against abortion because they don't want to offend someone. How do you get beyond that?
• 1:13:10 - You said that you don't approach this issue from a religious standpoint, and I'm struggling with the idea of stopping at the concept of equal rights because I think equal rights come from a religious standpoint. I'm assuming you talk to lots of college students who don't believe in equal rights. How do you deal with that without getting into the religious aspect that we're created in God's image and not a product of evolution?
• 1:19:32 - Josh, you mentioned utilitarianism. Can you explain what that is and how it might come up in abortion conversations?
• 1:21:33 - I was really struck by a statistic that was shared about one in four women in church having had an abortion. How can we effectively express that graphic imagery and very strongly worded signs almost create a PTSD kind of moment for a lot of women who have made a very difficult decision in their lives, and would like to be involved in the pro-life movement, but can't abide by being in that presence? How do we overcome that obstacle?

Related Links:

Timothy Brahm for the ERI Blog: Abortion Images: A Case for Disagreement without Division: http://bit.ly/2uJWRcI

Live Speech Audio from Timothy Brahm: Using Digital Media to Save Lives: https://youtu.be/dRulvkh9Vuw

Josh Brahm for the ERI Blog: Understanding What Richard Dawkins Actually Believes About Abortion and Down Syndrome: http://bit.ly/2y4DZJq

Josh Brahm for the ERI Blog: Richard Dawkins Retweeted My Article, and What We Can Learn From That: http://bit.ly/2y496oG

Amazon: Blueprint for Revolution: https://amzn.to/2LnIRg4 (Affiliate link)

Amazon: After the Ball: https://amzn.to/2utEiKR (Affiliate link)

For more on utilitarianism, read Timothy Brahm's recent article, Thanos Would Be Pro-Choice: http://bit.ly/2H8zONi

Southern Maryland Pro-Life Symposium: https://www.som...

At the 2018 Students for Life of America Conference, Timothy Brahm gave a never-before-heard speech on social media dialogue. After the presentation, Tim answered some questions from the audience along with Josh Tijerina from Halcyon, another social media presenter at the conference who presented before Tim did. Below are listed some of the different points that he makes in the speech, in case you would like to jump around:

• 2:27: When people are in fight mode, they can’t hear you. It is not just about the arguments.
• 3:43: Social media conversations are extra challenging because they are public, not private
• 4:33: Social media breeds hypersensitivity to our own brand management.
• 6:07: The structure of comment threads work against you.
• 7:12: The “like” system influences how causal observers perceive your writing through an unfair filter.
• 8:15: People on social media are almost immune from normal social pressures.
• 10:07: Recent political hostility has conditioned people to be angry online.
• 11:03: Social media is structured as an engine for constant outrage.

• 16:08: Move your conversation to private message, Skype, or in person as soon as possible.
• 17:06: Make minimal persuasion goals.
• 18:00: Be aware of the lack of nonverbal communication.
• 18:34: Post things with your pro-choice friends in mind.
• 19:22: Try hard to assume the best about people.
• 19:34: Take a step back if you’re feeling defensive.
• 19:57: Point out every piece of common ground.
• 20:14: Try to only use neutral language.
• 20:31: Ask lots of clarification questions, make few statements and arguments. Try to wait to do so until the conversation is one-on-one.
• 20:48: Choose a friendly looking profile picture.
• 21:17: Don’t name-drop philosophers or logical fallacies.
• 21:36: Don’t feed the trolls.
• 22:08: Use links very sparingly.
• 22:28: Only cite neutral sources. Do not link to pro-life websites.
• 22:36: Point out when they teach you something.
• 23:18: Sow intentional, positive seeds with people who you hope to dialogue with someday.

• 25:25: “When is the appropriate time to use snark in dialogues?”
• 26:39: “In regards to your point about liking pro-choice friend’s comments when you think they are being charitable or gracious in dialogue, do you think that could be misinterpreted or come off as strange to your pro-life friends?”
• 28:01: “Have you done any studies on the effectiveness of graphic abortion images on social media?”
• 30:01: “In tip number four, you suggest we post on social media with our pro-choice friends in mind. I am a Christian and this influences my pro-life view, so sometimes I post Christian things or bible verses. What do you think about this?”

Related Links:

Listen to the ERI team tell stories from the SFLA 2018 Conference: http://bit.ly/2F0hRQy

Timothy Brahm: On Virtue Signaling: http://bit.ly/2FuIrSz

Timothy Brahm: Don’t Be Too Nice: http://bit.ly/2vPMDX4

Josh Brahm: Don’t Name Logical Fallacies: http://bit.ly/2ikWwed

ERI Website: https://EqualRightsInstitute.com

ERI Blog: https://Blog.EqualRightsInstitute.com

ERI Course: https://EquippedCourse.com

Even before ERI officially began, Josh and Tim cared a lot about helping pro-life people to think well and take pro-choice arguments seriously. They don’t think every single pro-choice argument is a good argument (there are a lot of really bad arguments on both sides), but we won’t be persuasive unless we can recognize and take the stronger pro-choice arguments seriously. In this piece, Josh addresses two bad pro-life responses to some of the stronger pro-choice arguments.

Related Links:

Josh Brahm: Understanding and Responding to Bodily Rights Arguments (includes Josh's speech): http://bit.ly/2mZugjg

The Alan Guttmacher Institute’s 2005 survey of more than 1,200 abortion patients: http://bit.ly/2IQs9VO Timothy Brahm: Autumn in the Sovereign Zone: Why “It’s My Body, I Can Do What I Want” Won’t Do: http://bit.ly/2x3TugP

Judith Jarvis Thomson’s violinist story or “people-seeds” analogy: http://bit.ly/2I0D4v0

Share the original article: http://bit.ly/2gBTlv8

ERI Website: https://EqualRightsInstitute.com

ERI Blog: https://Blog.EqualRightsInstitute.com

ERI Course: https://EquippedCourse.com

Josh spoke at Stonebridge Church in Charlotte again last November after they finished going through the Equipped for Life Course, to answer their questions.

The topics are listed below in case you want to jump around:

• 1:00: "Tell us a little bit about who you are and who ERI is."
• 3:59: "So you've talked about relational apologetics. Let's say I'm pro-life and I hate conflict. I don't want to offend people, so I basically end up never talking about my pro-life convictions. I'm pro-life, but I don't talk about it because it's a very controversial topic. How do I get over that fear? What do I do?"
• 14:21: "How do we make conversations about abortion more common and less weird?"
• 18:32: "In your opinion, how can we as a pro-life group at a large church, more effectively stir up passion for pro-life advocacy within our walls?"
• 22:59: "How can we have a greater impact in our community? In your experience and convictions, assuming that the foundational call is to love God and our pro-choice neighbor, what do you think are the most effective ways to turn the tide of our culture toward valuing the life of the unborn more?"
• 31:52: "I'm going into professional counseling and have been learning about not imposing values onto clients. So if a client came up to me and said that they want to have an abortion, how should I approach that without imposing my values?"
• 37:14: "If I'm buying a whole lot of baby diapers or something to give to the pregnancy center, and just by chance someone from Walmart or wherever strikes up a conversation, I think I'd probably keep it real short and sweet, but that was an idea that came to me."
• 39:08: "I didn't attend the [Equipped for Life] course classes and I don't want to cheapen your 35-hours of course material, but is there 60-seconds that you could give...?"
• 42:10: "I hear you saying that most pro-choice people believe that an [unborn] baby is a human being, but the woman's right to choose trumps that."
• 44:51: "In your opinion, if you were to give a state of the union address on the status of the pro-life movement in America and the culture, what's the wind of the culture right now when it comes to this? 60-second state of the union address. Where are we culturally? Is abortion going to end in 2017?"

Josh asked Eric to read the email he sent his friend to initiate a series of conversations about abortion. With Eric's permission, here is the full text of that, and you can feel free to copy any part of it if it would be helpful to you:

Awhile back I had mentioned the idea of the two of us sitting down to discuss our thoughts about abortion. I'm writing you now to tee that idea back up and hoping that you'll say yes. I've been taking a class that has been geared toward having great conversations with people who think differently about controversial topics, and one of the assignments is to literally have at least one actual conversation with someone about a controversial topic. All too often, people on different "sides" of a topic like abortion spend all their time defending their own view and criticizing opposing views without actually listening to and learning from people who have differing views. I want to be a person who listens and learns. Will you help me do that? I'd like to buy you breakfast, lunch, or just a cup of coffee sometime and learn from your views on this. What do you say?

At one point Josh talked about the idea that we don't change people's minds, but that people change their own minds. He neglected to cite him in the moment, but he owes that insight to Timothy Brahm.

Related Links:

Pew Research Center: Few Clinton or Trump Supporters Have Close Friends in the Other Camp: http://pewrsr.ch/2BgxW1Y

Timothy Brahm: How Your Brain Tricks You into Thinking the Other Side Is Stupid - Two Practical Tips for Better Social Media Conversations. (This post has the meme Josh mentioned.)http://bit.ly/2xCL0RK

Josh Brahm: Can You Explain Why You’re Pro-Life in a 30-Second Sound Bite? http://bit.ly/2lMvm15

ERI Website: https://EqualRightsInstitute.com

ERI Blog: https://Blog.EqualRightsInstitute.com

ERI Course: https://EquippedCourse.com