Josh Brahm is one of the most brilliant pro-life thinkers in the pro-life movement today. Not only has he developed sound philosophical lines of argument to defend the pro-life position against virtually any claim the other side offers, he’s put those arguments into practice and has actually changed hearts and minds.
Brahm, a LifeNews blogger, has developed a way of talking about abortion with people that is relational in nature — and his ability to build relationships with even the most hardcore abortion supporters, such as formerly pro-choice atheist lesbian Deanna Young, has allowed him to move well beyond the bumper sticker-style debates that normally dominate abortion discourse. Brahm is able to actually build a relationship with abortion backers in part because he asks good questions about where they are coming from and why they support abortion.
You see, Josh wants to understand what makes people who support abortion support abortion because he genuinely wants to dialogue with them and understand their reasoning with the hopes of persuading them to adopt the pro-life perspective. He’s moved beyond the typical name-calling that takes place in most debates on abortion to produce reasonable and effective discussions about the human rights issue of our time.
His techniques have been so successful on college and high school campuses that he’s launched a new pro-life organization, the Equal Rights Institute, to train others.
“I’ve been in the pro-life movement full-time since I was 18 years old. 13 years of hard work later, it became clear to me that the best way for me to maximize my impact would be to launch an organization that is dedicated to the unique things that I bring to the table: effective dialogue techniques and relational apologetics,” Brahm tells LifeNews.
He says: “I’ve spent 13 years honing my skills in abortion dialogue with pro-choice people. Thanks in large part to my mentors and friends who are exploring dialogue techniques with me, I have amazing results almost every time I talk to somebody. This organization will give me the chance to teach people practical dialogue skills that are helping me persuade pro-choice people to the pro-life position.”
Brahm has been implementing these successful pro-life strategies on the local level and he says it’s time to take them national, which he and his brother Tim Brahm are doing through the Equal Rights Institute.
“I turned 30 last September. I didn’t think that would be a big deal, but I suddenly started thinking a lot more about how I was spending my time. It was becoming more important to me that I spend as much time as possible working on things that could have a great impact for the pro-life movement,” Brahm says. “I truly believe that we can make a great impact for the pro-life movement and God’s kingdom. We’re going to help pro-life people to think clearly and communicate better with pro-choice people. Do I think that’s a silver bullet for ending abortion? No. There are no easy or quick methods to end abortion. Helping the pro-life movement communicate with the best arguments we have to offer is not a sufficient condition for ending abortion, but I think it’s probably a necessary one.”
“We’re going to largely accomplish our mission through speaking, writing and campus outreaches. We’re excited to be partnering with Students for Life of America to be training as many of their campus clubs as possible. We have several books we’re planning to write,” he says.
Right now Josh is focused on the boring-yet-unavoidable logistics of developing a new organization — but he’s excited about the prospects of training pro-life people to change hearts and minds.
“I’ve never been this excited about anything I’ve ever done before. It is so clear that this is what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. Even the administrative minutia of launching an organization doesn’t bother me because I’m so excited about what the end result will be,” he said.
