Another Excerpt from The Jericho Plan: Breaking Down the Walls Which Prevent Post-Abortion Healing
No matter what your views are on abortion, or what your religious tradition, this book will be useful to you and we encourage you to adapt it to your needs.
This book is prepared from what is clearly a Christian and biblical perspective. But the basic messages of outreach, reconciliation, hope, and community support are common to all faiths and can easily be adapted for use in any religious tradition.
This book is also prepared from a pro-life perspective; indeed it is a major part of our pro-woman/pro-life initiative. Our ultimate goal is to create a society where meaningful help and support are offered to those in crisis, where no vulnerable woman, girl or family will ever be coerced into abortion, and where individuals and families who have been hurt by abortion are allowed to grieve and heal from their pain.
We want people to know that abortion exploits and harms those involved and ends the life of their unborn children. But we also want them to know that our faith communities are places where those at risk or those who have been directly or indirectly involved in abortion can find support and help. We should be careful in what we say, think and do and conscious of the ways that our response can drive away those hurting from abortion. We never want either our attitude or their own feelings of isolation or shame to prevent anyone from seeking, finding, and experiencing God’s help, hope and healing.
If you consider yourself to be “pro-choice,” this book can still be helpful to you. For example, all pastors and other church leaders should be aware of evidence that most abortions involve significant personal and/or professional coercion, not “choice” as most understand it. This can include deceptive, coercive or negligent information and counseling, often in concert with personal coercion that may occur during a time of vulnerability or crisis.
Regardless of individual circumstances, there are people in your congregation who are at risk of coercion or hurting after abortion. Many of them need assurance that God loves them and wants them to find help and healing from their experience. Some need the assurance that their community will not reject them. Many need the assurance that it is okay to grieve for the children who are now lost to them.
In addition, if you feel that some pro-life members of your congregation seem too judgmental of those who have had abortions, you can help change attitudes by educating your congregation about widespread exploitation and abuses, or immense pressure, coercion and even force that often precede abortion. Regardless of one’s perspective, it is important to make people aware of the exploitation, professional negligence, deception and coercion that are often part of the abortion experience.
In brief, this book is intended to help teach a greater understanding of the abortion experience in order to build bridges among people on all sides, and especially between those who have had abortions and those who have not. The result, we believe, will be a society that is more committed to preventing abortion and the perceived need for abortion through a more active outreach to those facing difficult pregnancies.
Join the project to read more and get a free book to share with your pastor.
To read more, join the Church Awareness Project and receive a free book (in pdf format/no e-reader required) — The Jericho Plan by Elliot Institute Director, Dr. David Reardon. You’ll also receive a cover letter for your pastor(s) and a packet of outreach ideas.
Give a copy to your pastor and encourage him to teach and preach about this issue, using this book as a guide.
Donate $20 or more and get two hard-cover copies
For a donation of $20 or more, participants can receive two free hard-cover copies of the book to share with your pastor and church leaders. Consider donating a copy to church libraries, too.
Participants will also receive a sample cover letter for their pastor(s) to go with the free book, plus an education and outreach kit.
Easy outreach ideas for Coerced Abortion Awareness Week … or anytime!
Click here for a list of available resources and project ideas for Coerced Abortion Awareness Week or anytime.
