Students For Life hold apologetics discussion

The CSB+SJU student organization ‘Students for Life’ (SFL) had an apologetics discussion this Monday in the Henrita Academic Building. An apologetics discussion is an organized discussion about a specific topic and refers to systematic argumentative discourse.

The group focuses on the sanctity of life, and this session looked at being able to explain their viewpoints.

The meeting was the second of the year as they were starting from scratch. Preston Sherman, the president of the club, led the discussion.

“We’re just a club on campus that’s promoting life, which is not just the Catholic teaching…It’s also just an important position that a lot of us pull to,” Sherman said.

During the meeting, the group watched videos from ‘Ascension’ and ‘pro-life’ activist Lila Rose that explained how to have discussions with others and communicate the group’s perspective. The SFL club emphasizes that they are open to all different viewpoints and look to have civil discussions with all people.

“Respect and having stuff like this where…everyone is invited… If there were people that were dissenting or didn’t believe in that, I would certainly encourage them to come because I think that’s what’s most at stake; most important especially on a campus where there’s definitely people from every kind of perspective…,” Sherman said. “It’s definitely something that’s open for everyone, and it’s also something that’s not meant to be judgmental or hateful…Our hope is to make it a little bit less polarizing or to make it a little bit more of a conversation.”

The club focuses on promoting life on campus and takes local action, like going to pregnancy centers, abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood. Although they have meetings on campus and locally, some leadership members in the club also participate in marches like the ‘March for Life’ and town hall discussions with Minnesota State Senator Aric Putnam.

“[We] as a leadership team went to Aric Putnam’s…town hall [discussion]…We went there and talked about some of the things we believe as a club on campus here. We also did go to the ‘March for Life’ in 2021, and we hope to next year as well,” Sherman said.

Aric Putnam, a state senator from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, represents the 14th District of Minnesota, which includes Benton, Shelbourne and Stearns counties. The ‘March for Life’ rally takes place each year in Washington, D.C., around the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. The march has been done annually since 1974 and will continue even after the overturning of the court decision.

According to Sherman, there was a ‘pro-choice’ club that tried to form previously but fell through. Back in the spring semester of 2016, the creation of a ‘pro-choice’ club was denied due to a contradiction with Catholic beliefs. Now-Abbot Doug Mullin explained why there is not a ‘pro-choice’ club on campus in The Record’s Feb. 24, 2017, edition.

“Students, and everyone else who is a member of the CSB+SJU community, have the right to express their own personal beliefs—even on campus—so long as they do so in appropriate ways and forums,” Mullin said. “It is not reasonable to expect CSB+SJU to institutionally endorse, support or approve clubs, organizations or any activities that are not consistent with the CSB and SJU institutional missions.”

Currently, there is not a ‘pro-choice’ club on campus, but Sherman believes if there were one, they would be able to have a civil discussion.

“If we were to get any push back, again, we would just be like, ‘hey, if we want to both sponsor an event together…have like a debate or dialogue session,’ I would really like that, but we just haven’t gotten anything like that,” Sherman said.