Estimated reading time: 9 minutes. Imagine there is an eager pro-life high school student named Jared. He has spent hours talking with his pro-choice friends on Facebook, but their conversations never seem to go anywhere. Although he sometimes thinks that his friends make good points, he doesn’t always know how … Read More
Debate vs. Dialogue: How Do They Differ?
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes. Debate is fun for me, but I’m odd like that. I’m an academic and ethics teacher, so I’ve debated abortion formally and informally, in academic settings and elsewhere. The subject arises most every time I’m in a panel discussion, too. In that time, I’ve come … Read More
The Foster Care Fallacy
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes. When I have conversations about abortion with pro-choice college students, they regularly express concerns about what would happen if abortion were to become less accessible or even illegal in the United States. One of the concerns I am hearing more and more frequently is about … Read More
What’s Wrong with Saying “Fetus”
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes. Discrimination? Microaggression? Propaganda? These are common labels against pro-lifers. Anyone arguing for the rights of the unborn can expect to be characterized as enemies of women, of liberty, and of human rights. Sometimes we can learn from these accusations and pick better terms or listen … Read More
Pay Attention to Who Should NOT Be in a Given Conversation
If you are a part of a dialogue-oriented outreach, you should be paying attention to who should be in a given conversation, and who should not be. Estimated reading time: 16 minutes. It was our second day of outreach at Davidson College and after having had several conversations, a lull … Read More
Circumventing Philosophy Hell
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes. Imagine you’re out hiking with a friend in the beautiful (and fictional) country of Florin, as depicted in The Princess Bride. You’re both clueless tourists but you’ve casually looked at some maps and you think you can handle yourselves. As you’re walking by a ravine, … Read More
Don’t Dialogue Like Hamilton OR Aaron Burr
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes. The character of Aaron Burr in Hamilton: An American Musical stands in stark contrast to the title character. Alexander Hamilton is brash, aggressive, tactless, and always reaches for what he wants, while Aaron Burr is polite, careful, and hesitant. When he initially meets Hamilton, Burr … Read More
Building Rapport with a Benevolent Dictator
Employ this dialogue tactic to build rapport with a pro-choice person and increase the likelihood that your conversation about abortion will be successful. Estimated reading time: 4 minutes. Many conversations about abortion succeed or fail because of your rapport, or lack thereof, with the pro-choice person. Even a perfectly articulated … Read More
Four Practical Tips for Responding to the Burning Fertility Clinic
A pro-choice argument in the form of a series of arrogant tweets recently went viral. You would think that with all that bravado, there would have been something new or interesting, but, no, it was just the same argument that has been around for decades. Disappointing as the argument was, … Read More
How Your Brain Tricks You into Thinking the Other Side Is Stupid
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes. Sometimes your brain plays tricks on you. For instance, when you look at a stick in the water, it looks bent, even though it isn’t. Or, when you’re driving on a hot day, it looks like there is water on the road at the horizon, … Read More