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Pictures, Logic Can Change Minds, Says Gray

Logic is good.

Pictures are better.

That’s what Stephanie Gray seemed to be saying at the Baltimore Archdiocesan Respect Life Conference at St. Joseph’s Church, Fullerton, November 13.

“Often, we can’t get into people’s minds unless we first get into their hearts,” the young pro-life apologist explained.

“We live in a visual culture.  Pictures have a way of burning images into people’s minds.

“When we say ‘abortion,’ people think of ‘choice,’ and that has a good connotation.  But if we put a picture of abortion in people’s heads, that will stay with them if they have a crisis pregnancy.”

When we confront the culture of abortion, we’re confronting a wounded culture, said Gray.

She noted that Pope John Paul II said the greatest sin of the 20th century was the loss of a sense of sin.

The secular response to sin is to deny that there is any sin.

“The Christian response to sin is to take ownership of our guilt, and that’s unpleasant,” she said.

To illustrate the power of pictures, she ran a two-minute video which showed, first, a healthy, living baby in utero, then a series of bloody remains of aborted babies.

No commentary accompanied the photos; the horrifying images told their own story.

But pro-lifers must be able to back up the pictures with logic, said Stephanie.

“The morality of abortion is a simple issue.  Pro-abortionists like to make it complex:  what about poverty, back-alley abortions, etcetera?

“But the issue is, what is the unborn?”

Some people say there is no consensus in the medical community as to when human life begins.  But medical texts clearly say that life begins when a sperm fertilizes an egg, said Gray.

“At fertilization we have a whole human being.  He or she has its complete genetic make-up.”

Stephanie used the acronym, SLED, to show how pro-lifers can argue that the humanity of the unborn cannot be denied on the grounds of Size, Level of development, Environment, and Degree of dependency.

Nevertheless, she warned, people will counter that the unborn is not actually a person.

“There was a time in history when women, African-Americans, Native Americans and Jewish people were deemed non-persons,” said Gray.

“Certain groups are deemed non-persons when society decides they are a burden, or that they have something that is useful for us.”

In the case of unborn children, she said, “They have little body parts for embryonic stem cell research.”

Stephanie offered several tips for pro-life apologists:

Ask more questions rather than making declarative statements.  “Socrates and Jesus asked questions.  When you do, you force them to think about the flaws in their argument.”

If the person supports abortion in some cases but not in others, take the opposite side:  i.e., “If you think a woman shouldn’t have five or ten abortions, then what’s wrong with her having one abortion?”

Communicate your point in a story, as Jesus did.

Find common ground.  Most people support abortion because they think they are helping women.  Build on their desire to help women by showing how abortion, in fact, harms them.

Stephanie’s talk at the conference was part of a five-day lecture tour sponsored by Defend Life.

At her first talk, on November 10 at University of Maryland College Park, she said, “The pro-abortionists came and marched in protest, but they did come in and listen.”

Gray said that after her talk, one student came up and told her, “I didn’t know what to think, but you just blew me away!”

She added quickly, “I’m not telling you this to praise myself!  You need to pray a lot, because it’s God who ultimately changes minds.”