Having just transitioned from a season that required a peaceful coexistence with lots of dust, many are asking, what’s this new vocational adventure with ERI?
A simple way my predecessor uses to communicate what ERI does is to say…
“We help prolife people be less weird.” 😊
I love this line, and what he’s provocatively getting at is that, sadly, the prolife movement is often only associated with bullhorns, billboards, and graphic images.
Having previously served at the center of the national prolife movement, I certainly acknowledge the beautiful, unsung, life-saving work that many are involved in. Without a doubt, this is how I would describe the work of Care Net, the organization I served in for six and a half years. But the movement also has a dark side that’s full of arrogance, disrespect, and a strange beholdeness to conspiracy theories and the dehumanization of those who don’t share their views.
Candidly acknowledging and addressing this reality is where the work of ERI is laser-focused: We equip others to do relational pro-life apologetics that are intellectually honest and civil.
By intellectually honest, we mean:
- “believing in things for good reasons, not just because that’s what you were taught to believe.
- always being open to the possibility that you’re wrong about something, even something important, because you may be lacking important information.
- always following the truth wherever it leads, instead of aiming for a certain conclusion and then reasoning backwards to figure out how to argue for that position.”
Or, to put it differently, part of reasoning well is being willing to evaluate arguments honestly. It is very easy to go into an argument with your conclusion already decided, but doing this opens yourself up to self-deception. ERI encourages pro-life advocates to be open-minded, even about abortion. While this may sound like we aren’t confident that abortion is wrong, it is quite the opposite. One should only exhibit stubbornness and an unwillingness to go where truth leads if you’re afraid you’re wrong. We want to see productive dialogue between people who disagree, and open-mindedness makes productive dialogue possible.
By civil, we mean treating all humans, regardless of their views, with gentleness and respect. We believe that respect itself is a life issue, and that the most fundamental form of respect you can show to another person is to listen to them. We also believe civility is a life issue. As the ancient Proverbs says, “death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
For us, the protection of vulnerable, pre-born human life is a justice issue, but our approach is compassionate and requires “listening conversations.”
ERI tries to do two seemingly contradictory things at the same time. On the one hand, we train pro-life advocates to think clearly, reason honestly, and argue persuasively. On the other hand, we love and humanize prochoice people, equipping others to interact with the best pro-choice arguments.
We take the truth seriously that people don’t care what you know until they know that you care.
Or as Maya Angelou observed, “people may forget what you said or did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”