At a time of deepening polarization and social division, it’s easy to become discouraged, disillusioned, and depressed. In this special roundtable episode, Braver Angels leaders Ciaran O’Connor, John Wood Jr., April Lawson, and Monica Guzman come together to discuss how they keep the faith in our work and in each other. The group also discusses the recent abortion decision by the Supreme Court and what it means for Braver Angels’ efforts to bridge the divide.
‘Mind The Gap: Atlanta’ performance uses theater to ‘depolarize’ politics
06/17/2025 No Comments
By Jim Bass, Published in Decaturish
3 thoughts on “Keeping the Faith | John Wood, Jr., Monica Guzman, April Lawson, & Ciaran O’Connor”
Early in this podcast, A.L. Lawson made a vague allusion to the fact that the underlying Dobbs decision is a jurisprudential decision that says the Roe case had been wrongly decided. The entire remainder of the conversation proceeds as if the Dobbs decision hinged on determining the limits that may be placed on abortion, and ignores the fact that the Dobbs decision only hinges on the fact that the Constitution places the right to make that determination with the states.
And the expressions of hurt and loss on the part of pro-choice persons have nobody to juxtapose that with the hurt and loss of the 60 million aborted babies since Roe.
In this podcast, J. Wood Jr. prefaced his remarks about storytelling with a comment that accepts framing about the pro-life side that comes from the Left. Beginning at 49:30, he challenges the pro-life side to “put your money where your mouths are” and to “show that you’re better than the stereotypes that attach themselves to you as people who only care about life when it’s in the womb but don’t care about people when they’re on the other side of the womb….”
Because this information does not get reported in the Fake News, I would like to see some basic information included in Braver Angels discussions about abortion. There are over 2700 crisis pregnancy centers in America, supported by very little government funding in only a couple of red states, and otherwise supported by the donations of pro-life people. These centers provide a staggering amount of support for families in distress. And, in just one instance of support that went unreported in the Fake News, the State of Mississippi was so pleased after the oral arguments in the Dobbs case that they anticipated a victory. Well before the Dobbs leak this past spring, they decided to provide state support for the additional babies that they could anticipate would be born to families on the economic margin. They voted for 3.5 million dollars in state grants to the crisis pregnancy centers of Mississippi. This is “money where their mouths are” that is not known except to pro-life activists. This information should not be excluded in Braver Angels discussions of this topic.
News about the rash of vandalism and arsons of crisis pregnancy centers did get reported. What they do has been the subject of Fake News defamation. Here is some information:
https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/23/crisis-pregnancy-centers-that-democrats-smeared-as-fake-clinics-saved-800000-lives-since-2016/
Great discussion. Thanks to you all! April, I was unable to listen to the debate on abortion. Is it available to view somewhere? Also, to your assertion that most people know, at some level, that abortion is murder, I would like you to know that is not the case for me. To me, and I believe many who respect a woman’s right to choose, believe there is a point in time when the fertilized ovum only has the potential to be a human. During that time, biologically, it is a group of dividing cells with only the potential to become human. I, and many others would never consider murdering any human being. I share this in hopes you will understand this perspective. Please keep up the wonderful work!