Prominent pastors reflect on abortion and use of victim images in their churches

Just before the March for Life last month, three prominent U.S. pastors who are actively involved in the pro-life movement gathered for a round-table discussion of their work as pro-life ministers and the challenges they face in their ministry. The video of their discussion was sponsored by PassionLife, and the conversation centers on exposure to the reality of abortion, which includes the use of abortion images in order to bypass the semantic circumvention of the gruesomeness of abortion. The pastors explain that words like “abortion” do not call to mind the true reality of what abortion is until a person knows what abortion looks like.

Stand for Life 2014: Francis Chan, John Piper, John Ensor

The discussion was moderated by Pastor John Ensor, author of pro-life books like Answering the Call. Pastor John Piper illustrated the contrast between society’s willingness to use shocking images to demonstrate the reality of many historic human rights injustices, including slavery and the Jewish Holocaust.

Asked how to properly display graphic images, taking the proper pastoral care necessary to display images of abortion within his own church, Pastor Francis Chan explained:

Pastor Chan shares that he was confronted by women who were offended by his church’s display, because it made them feel bad about their abortions. John Piper chimed in, encouraging pastors to always address post-abortive women at the very beginning of any presentation: