Civil Conversations: Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, Pro-Dialogue

Title

Civil Conversations: Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, Pro-Dialogue

Published Date

2012-09-26

Publisher

Type

Presentation

Abstract

Keywords

Description

WITH DAVID GUSHEE AND FRANCES KISSLING HOSTED BY KRISTA TIPPETT, "ON BEING", AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA Frances Kissling and David Gushee belong to a constellation of reproductive choice and rights activists who are exploring real relationship with their political opposites. These encounters are scarcely imaginable against the backdrop of the absolute poles that frame better-publicized confrontation. David Gushee, who opposes abortion, has written this: “Our legal stalemate about abortion is like a football game, with the two rival teams pushing each other back and forth across the 50-yard line and neither team able to win -- especially if winning is defined by either the total banning of abortion on the one side or its unhindered legalization and funding as a routine health care practice on the other. The pro-life and pro-choice establishments appear committed to the continuation of this game of smash-mouth abortion football until the end of time. It is quite a spectacle, but the legal struggle is actually a distraction from the unresolved cultural and moral issues that have created it.” This civil conversation will start there – with what is really at stake – and break out of the confines and categories of the usual debates. The Civil Conversations Project is brought to you by public radio’s Krista Tippett (“On Being”), in collaboration with the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the Brookings Institution, and the John C. Danforth Center for Religion & Politics. REV. DR. DAVID P. GUSHEE David Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University. Professor Gushee, who teaches both undergraduate and seminary students, is the author, co-author, or editor of twelve books in ethics, including Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust (Paragon House, 1994/2003) and Kingdom Ethics (2003), and most recently The Future of Faith in American Politics (Baylor, 2008) and Religious Faith, Torture, and Our National Soul (Mercer, 2010). A noted progressive evangelical scholar, activist, and commentator on issues of faith and public life for outlets such as USA Today, Huffington Post and the Washington Post, Dr. Gushee, his wife Jeanie, and their cat Noah reside in Atlanta, Georgia, along with their grown children when they visit. He is a rabid Atlanta Braves fan and, at 50, still enjoys playing tennis with his students. FRANCES KISSLING Frances Kissling is a visiting scholar at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania where her major interest is the intersection of religion, reproduction and women's rights. She has an additional interest in US organ transplant policy.has been the leading international voice on women, religion and reproduction. A prolific writer and lecturer, Kissling is the co-author of Rosie: The Investigation of a Wrongful Death (The Dial Press, 1978). She has published in the New York Times, LA Times, Boston Globe, SF Chronicle, The Nation, American Prospect, New Republic online, Salon.com, Irish Independent, The Guardian, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, OGlobo,(Brazil) Gazeta Wyborza (Poland) and numerous other journals and publications. For 25 years she was president of Catholics for A Free Choice. Best known for combining serious political advocacy with humor, Kissling once noted that she spent 25 years looking for a government she could overthrow that couldn't put her in jail and she found it in the Vatican. KRISTA TIPPETT Host Krista Tippett is a Peabody-award-winning broadcaster and New York Times bestselling author. As the creator and host of public radio’s On Being, she takes up the great animating questions of human life: What does it mean to be human? And how do we want to live? Krista and her guests reach beyond the headlines to explore meaning, faith, and ethics amidst the political, economic, cultural, and technological shifts of 21st century life. The program is heard on radio across the U.S. and globally via podcast. Krista was a journalist and diplomat in Cold War Berlin and holds a masters of divinity from Yale University. Her books include Einstein's God - Conversations about Science and the Human Spirit; and Speaking of Faith – Why Religion Matters, and How to Talk about It.

Related to

Replaces

License

Series/Report Number

Funding information

Isbn identifier

Doi identifier

Previously Published Citation

Other identifiers

Suggested citation

Jacobs, Lawrence R. (2012). Civil Conversations: Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, Pro-Dialogue. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/217685.

Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.