PBS100Y: The Mission

more action-oriented mission statement, like 2015 clubs fair materials

this sense of mission needs to be better instilled, per PBS101Y.

• Why does this matter even more in our demographic on campus?
  • young women having the most abortions
  • people's worldview being challenged and set during post-secondary years (e.g. far fewer students identifying as pro-life in college versus high school)
  • tomorrow's politicians, lawyers, doctors, families, voters, etc.

Go around the table and have each person introduce themselves:

• Name, plus adjective starting with the first letter of your name, e.g. Magical Matt
• Year and area of study
• Why are you here, or why do you think it's important to be in a pro-life club on campus? need a better ice breaker question – this leads to repetitive and unfocused answers

• Introduce your role, and what activities you're leading for members (e.g. seminars, volunteer outreach, website.)

• Do you know the law in Canada?
  • There is none.
  • http://www.weneedalaw.ca/resources/international-law
• Do you know how many abortions happen in Canada each year?
  • ~100,000
  • http://abortionincanada.ca/stats/annual-abortion-rates/
  • For every four children born, one is killed by abortion
  • “One in three Canadian women will have an abortion in her lifetime, Dunn said, citing the findings of a 2012 study by University of British Columbia researcher Wendy Norman.”¹⁾
  • Repeat abortions: the post-abortive are the pre-abortive
  • age demographics, teens and 20s most likely to have abortions
• What does this tell us?
  1. This is not a charitable cause; this is an emergency. 275 children were decapitated, dismembered and disemboweled in our country today.
  2. Our culture is deeply wounded – it's safer too assume and probably more likely when talking to someone on campus that they've had an abortion experience or that a friend or loved one has than that they're untouched by abortion.
     • Killing our relatives

Key point: We need to change people's attitudes about abortion so that this human rights violation becomes unthinkable, to change how people feel and think about abortion so that they will act differently towards it.²⁾

But, given the cultural context – the emergency, the woundedness – we need more than just moral arguments.

• Aristotle on persuasion³⁾
  • ethos (credibility): we tend to believe people whom we respect (Collins: build a bridge) – hands
  • pathos (emotional) (Collins: touch the heart) – heart
  • logos (logical): persuasion by use of reason, argument (Collins: deliver the message) – head
• Qualities of effective pro-life ambassador
  • knowledge (logos/head) – science, evidence, reason
  • wisdom (pathos/heart) – how to communicate the knowledge that we have
  • character (ethos/hands) – everything we say and how we say it is complimented by who we are. If we talk about respect, we need to show respect. If we talk about love, we need to show love.

“Whom you would change, you must first love, and they must know that you love them.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

concrete example, e.g. Joe Marsilla's story about early Summer CLCY activism, father who's daughter had an abortion – an example of how a true ambassador can reach someone wounded by abortion

We must…

• convert the unconvinced (head)
• activate the converted (heart)⁴⁾
• train the active to work effectively (hands)

• Head: we grow our knowledge through…
  • weekly seminar discussions on apologetics, strategy, politics, in bioethics, biology, moral philosophy, medicine, law, history, etc.
  • pro-life speakers series, bringing great speakers to our club members
• Heart: we stretch our hearts through…
  • approaching the issue from this posture, as ambassadors reaching out to a wounded culture
  • dialogue: a strategy of outreach that emphasizes dialogue and relationship with our peers on campus, to change hearts and minds in order to save lives – being “right” isn't enough
    • listening
    • asking good questions
    • not just knowing what to say, but how to say it
  • heart apologetics: being conscious of the heart and mind of a woman in a crisis pregnancy, and of post-abortive woundedness
• Hands: we lend our hands through…
  • putting our ideas and our empathy into action
  • this is not a charitable cause, this is an emergency – emergencies demand action
  • weekly activism
  • weekly volunteer outreach
  • getting active off campus, e.g. TRTL Speakers Bureau, March for Life, etc.

http://abortionincanada.ca/facts/why-women-choose-abortion/

Important things to note:

1. the hard cases that people constantly appeal to are rare – if abortion were only legal is cases of rape, we'd have ~1000 children killed each year instead of 100,000 (still important to address the hard cases, but need to understand they're a minority)
2. the common cases of things that material, emotional, spiritual support can seriously address
   • Family Care Office
   • Aid to Women / Sisters of Life
   • What can we do to decrease the perceived need for abortion?

Pass out interest sheets here.

• seminar for training, formation, growth (apologetics, science, politics, strategy, etc. – we need ALL THE SKILLS, interdisciplinary approach)
• special events: debates, lectures, symposiums, panels
• volunteer outreach
• activism
• opportunities for leadership and involvement
  • assisting or joining the exec
  • writing for our blog or campus publications
• mention some upcoming events planned for the seminar/year

• Networking and connecting you to the broader movement (NCLN, TRL, CCBR/CLCY activism, etc.)
• Participating in other activism projects (“Choice” Chain, Defund Abortion)
• Volunteer Outreach (Aid to Women, TRL Christmas Card Campaign)
• Political Activism: March for Life, Defund Abortion Rally
• Education and Training: Conferences, Symposiums, Events

“Instill within your club members a sense of mission (why it’s critical to be actively pro-life on campus), a sense of belonging (why they are needed in this particular club), and provide them with opportunities to be formed as pro-life activists.”⁵⁾

Set the tone for the club, on the issues, and the perspective from which we will be approaching them.