Pastor Dan Burrell from Life Fellowship Church invited ERI President Josh Brahm to be interviewed for a four-episode series on pro-life dialogue for their podcast, LifeTalks. This is the first episode in that series, where they discuss ERI’s dialogue style and how it contrasts with the way many pro-life advocates talk about abortion.
Questions:
- 2:20: What made you decide to try a different approach to this issue than many had before?
- 7:03: What arguments and dialogue techniques do not work? What is it that we often do that doesn’t change minds?
- 10:06: What works more frequently than some of the other things?
- 14:45: How do you get into these conversations?
- 16:50: I hear a lot of questions in your approach. People often start with declarative statements. Why do questions work better?
- 18:41: People on both sides of this issue tend to talk about extreme cases like rape or sex-selection abortions. How do we keep the conversation focused on core principles?
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Josh worked in the pro-life movement starting at age 18. After 12 years of full-time pro-life work he launched Equal Rights Institute to maximize his impact on the movement.
A sought-after speaker, Josh has spoken for more than 29,000 people in six countries and in 25 of the 50 states.
Josh’s primary passion is helping pro-life people to be more persuasive when they communicate with pro-choice people. That means ditching faulty rhetoric and tactics and embracing arguments that hold up under philosophical scrutiny.
He has publicly debated leaders from Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), Georgians for Choice, and one of the leading abortion facilities in Atlanta.
Josh also wants to bring relational apologetics to the pro-life movement. “Some pro-choice people will not change their mind after one conversation on a college campus. Some of them will only change their mind after dozens of conversations with a person they trust in the context of friendship.”
Josh is formerly the host of a globally-heard podcast turned radio/TV show, Life Report and the Equipped for Life Podcast. He’s also written dozens of articles for LifeNews.com and the ERI blog. He has been interviewed by the Washington Post, NPR, and Focus on the Family.
He directed the first 40 Days for Life campaign in Fresno, resulting in up to 60 lives saved.
Josh has been happily married to his wife, Hannah, for 19 years. They have three sons, Noah, William, and Eli. They live in Charlotte, North Carolina.