John and I were away for Memorial Day weekend enjoying the warm, sunny weather in the pool at our hotel. I had been reading The Case For Life, by Scott Klusendorf, and had left it face-up on the table next to my lounge chair. As we are in the pool, I see a lady walk past my table and stop. She cocked her head almost upside down to read the cover of the book—long pause. I said, “Look, she’s checking out my book. This could get interesting.” She then got into the pool. When I got out of the pool, I wasn’t in my chair for one minute when I saw her staring at me from the pool. She got out, and came and sat down in the chair next to me, and said, “That’s an interesting book. Who wrote it? What are his credentials?” With that question, I knew exactly where this conversation was going to go, so I said a quick prayer and trusted God.
Through the course of our forty minute conversation, we talked about abortion, Christianity, different religions, and she tried to go into politics but I told her, “I’m not going there. Let’s stick to the original topic.” She agreed.
There are many reasons given for one’s position to be pro-choice. But once we start conversing with a pro-choice advocate, we realize that what they’re really advocating for is not women’s health. What is really at stake is one’s autonomy, one’s convenience, or to justify one’s choices. No different in this case as I found out later. As we conversed, Jennifer brought up a few objections to the pro-life side.
How Do We Know Christianity is True?
After questioning the authors credentials, and since the sub-title Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture gave away the fact that the book is written from a Christian perspective, her next move was to discredit Christianity. So her first question was, “How do we know Christianity is true when all other religions believe the same about theirs?” I told her, “Sure, every religion believes theirs is true. But can they all be true? Look, these religions have similarities in how one should live their life. But they are all very different in these five areas: How they view God, Jesus, sin, salvation, and what happens to a person after they die. They all contradict each other in these areas (I explained how). So they can all be wrong. But they can’t all be right, because they all contradict each other. One of them can be right. But only one. Each of these religions believes that in death you go to various different places. Can you be in all these places at once?” She said, “No”. I said, “Right. You can only be in one place at a time. They can’t all be right. All roads don’t lead to Heaven.”
Then she asked, “How do you know Christianity is the right one?” I said, “It all boils down to one thing. Either Jesus rose from the dead, or He didn’t. If he didn’t, we are all wasting our time by going to church. If He did, then Christianity is true, and there’s excellent reasons to believe that He did. Besides, the tomb was empty.” I asked her if she knew that there were over five-hundred witnesses that saw Jesus after His resurrection and that he stayed on the earth for forty days before He rose to Heaven. She said she hadn’t heard that before. I told her that when the Gospel writers wrote down these historical facts, that there were people who were alive to witness the events they wrote about. If the events weren’t true, those witnesses could have come forward and stated that, but no one ever did.
How Do We Know The Gospel Writers Didn’t Lie?
When she questioned whether or not we know the gospel writers lied, I said, “Who goes to their death for what they know is a lie? These guys were changed after meeting the risen Christ and they were martyred for their beliefs. No one dies for what they know is a lie.” She said, “What about the suicide bombers? They die for what they think is true.” I said, “Sure they do. But they never met Mohammed. He’s dead in his grave. The difference between a terrorist and the disciples, is that the disciples walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, ate with Jesus, watched Him perform miracles, and they lived with Him. Then they saw him after he rose from the dead. They were eyewitnesses who went to their death for what they knew was a fact, and they never recanted their faith. The terrorists can’t claim that.”
At this point, she asked, “Are you a professor?” I said, ” I teach and speak and I have a master’s degree in religion.” It was easier at the time to say religion rather than apologetics. I didn’t want to go down another rabbit trail.
Men Shouldn’t Have A Say-So When It Comes To The Topic Of Abortion
After we covered Christianity, then she told me her story. As I had suspected, she had an abortion when she was younger. So her second objection was that she didn’t think that a man should have a say as to what a woman does with her body. I reminded her that the nine Supreme Court Justices who legalized Roe-V-Wade were all men. No one had a problem with it then. She gave me an irritated look that stopped just short of an eye-roll.
In Klusendorf’s book, The Case For Life, he explains that not only did nine Justices make Roe-V-Wade law, but he made two other important points, which I had not read at the time. First, he said, “Arguments don’t have genders, people do.” He points out that many pro-life men and women alike have the same arguments, so what difference does it make who’s making the argument? Gender should not be fallaciously attacked. Second, Klusendorf continues,
“Lesbians and post-menopausal women cannot naturally get pregnant. Must they be silent on the issue? Since only generals understand battle, only they should discuss the morality of war? Because female sportscasters have never experienced a groin injury, they have no right to broadcast a football game on national television?”[1]
Just because a man has never given birth, does that mean we can’t learn from a man regarding his issue? Do you see the logical fallacy here? People who have objections to an argument should present their argument, not attack someone based on their gender or race, or anything else. An attack is not an argument. It does not answer the question at hand. Whether or not Klusendorf has the right to write a book about the Pro-Life issue because he’s a man does not qualify as her argument for abortion.
Last, let us not forget that a man is the other half of the equation. Women don’t get pregnant by themselves. We are not parthenogenetic like some animals. I think this entitles men to speak into this topic.
Bottom line is that the argument she offered me was that abortion is what was convenient for her at the time. The baby was an inconvenience. Here is where I should have asked her to give me the pro-abortion argument. I didn’t do that. I just assumed that her story was her argument. I believe it was, since she had nothing else to offer me.
The Crusades
At some point in the conversation, I told her that Christians are pro-life because we believe that all babies are human, and humans are made in the image of God. She said, then how can Christians justify the Crusades? I asked her, “Do you know what the Crusades were about?” Blank stare. I said what the Christians did was a response to what Islam was doing. “They were trying to stop the Muslims from taking over northern Africa, northern Europe, Turkey, etc… It was a response to what the Islam religion started by force.” I then got into a little bit of historical theology, explaining what we know about Mohammed, that Islam is not a peaceful religion, and how we know that, and why Mohammed was taking over by force.
Our conversation was long, but it was respectful on both sides. We both had to be somewhere, so she shook my hand when we were finished, and I thanked her for coming over to engage me in conversation.
These answers are what I came up with at the time. I don’t think that I convinced her of the Pro-Life position. But I gave her a lot to think about. We talked about moderate Christians, and moderate Muslims, and how most, regardless of their religion, don’t take the time to find out if what they believe is true. I hope our conversation will cause her to do just that.
I’m The Unexpected Apologist
From her body language, I honestly think she was surprised, and my responses were unexpected. I think she had planned on coming over and blitzing me with objections that she thought I would not know how to handle. I suspect that is what she usually encounters, which is what gave her the boldness to come over and talk to me in the first place.
I was very grateful for the education behind me, and for the great authors whom I’ve read, and professors from whom I’ve learned, and how the Lord prepared me for that encounter. It wasn’t perfect by any means on my part. But it went better than it would have gone five years ago. Even with a Masters Degree, I don’t always answer objections in the most effective way. It’s one thing to have the knowledge. It’s another thing to know how and when to use it. That is what wisdom is. I pray for that every day.
There is one very important takeaway from this conversation. There will come a time when every Christian will be asked why they believe what they believe. You never know where or when it will happen. It could be about politics (Make no mistake—abortion is political), or it could be about religion. 1 Peter 3:15 says to always be ready in season and out of season. That’s a command. Will you be able to answer these questions from skeptics? Or will you shrink away? You don’t need a Masters degree in Apologetics to be prepared for conversations like the one I had. Klusendorf’s book is excellent to help one defend the Pro-Life position. Scott Klusendorf is the founder of Life Training Institute, where he trains pro-life advocates to defend their views. You can find his website here. There are several other blogs, and podcasts you can access to help you defend your faith and the Pro-Life position. I will list some at the bottom of the page. Last but not least, my alma mater, Biola University has an excellent Apologetics program if you’re serious about learning how to defend your faith and key issues of our time.
Know why you believe what you believe my friends. It will strengthen your faith and help you to shape the culture, rather than be shaped by it.
Podcasts:
1.Stand to Reason Weekly Podcast with Greg Koukl
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stand-to-reason-weekly-podcast/id370282268
2. Cross Examinded with Frank Turek
3. Coffee House Questions with Ryan Pauly
Blogs:
Please subscribe to my blogs at my website http://straighttalkwithclaudiak.com, which you are probably at right now. But Besides mine, here are some others that I read:
Greg Koukl, Tim Barnett and Amy Hall at Stand To Reason
Lisa Quintana at Think Divinely
Natasha Crain at Christian Mom Thoughts
Tim Stratton at Free Thinking Ministries
Bob Perry at True Horizon
Books:
For Books, please see my “Booklist” on my website.
[1]Scott Klusendorf, The Case For Life: Equipping Christians To Engage The Culture (Wheaton Ill., Crossway, 2009) 183