Apologist Teaches Students How to Defend Pro-life Views

Liberty University’s Student Government Association hosted an event in DeMoss Hall called “Defend Your Pro-life Views” April 5 to educate students on pro-life arguments.

Pro-Life Apologist with Life Training Institute, online professor, Bible Department Chair and Bible Teacher of Biblical Worldview and Ethics at Liberty Christian Academy Thomas Donovan spoke to a crowd of about 150 students.

“Media and social media today tend to cloud what the pro-life position is really about,” Donovan said.

In an effort to clarify the debate on abortion, Donovan defined the pro-life position as, ‘It is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings.  Abortion kills innocent human beings; therefore, abortion is wrong.’

Donovan used graphic images to help show who abortion kills. Before showing a brief video that depicts the aftermath of a first trimester abortion, a second trimester abortion and a third trimester abortion, he explained the value of images in a visual culture.  He explained that images have been used throughout history to raise awareness of issues such as slavery and the holocaust.  The images Donovan showed provided a definition to abortion that words could not.  For those not wanting to view the images, they had the option to simply close their eyes.

Equipping the audience to successfully engage the debate, Donovan stated that the whole abortion issue rests on one question, “What is the unborn?” He continued, “Before you can answer the question, ‘Can we kill it?’ We must answer, ‘What are we killing?’

Answering this question, Donovan turned to the authority on the beginning of human development, the science of embryology.  Leading embryology textbooks tell us that from the moment of conception, there is a full, living and distinct human being.

For the next step in engaging the debate, Donovan turned to philosophy to determine how the unborn should be treated.  He provided four things that separates adults from unborn children using the acronym SLED: size, level of development, environment and degree of dependency.

“None of these differences justify killing the unborn,” Donovan said.

Donovan became actively involved in the pro-life movement at the age of 15.  After he was engaged in a debate by a pro-choice individual and could offer no defense for his position, Donovan began to educate himself on the issue and now desires to train and equip others on how to successfully engage the debate, change minds, change culture and save lives.

Donovan not only has the opportunity to present this to his students at LCA, but is also available to speak in classes, chapel gatherings and church services. His wife, who is a Liberty psychology professor, organized the event and allowed psychology students to get credit for attending.

Kyle Eisenhuth, president of Lifeline, the pro-life club on campus, said he was hopeful the event would have an impact on Liberty students.

“A lot of people on campus are pro-life, and I am just glad that they are learning to do something about this,” Eisenhuth said.