Nonfiction for the New Year

Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments

Randy Alcorn

“Those who look to the Supreme Court to grant us an abortion-free America will be disappointed.” While supportive of legal challenges to Roe v. Wade, pro-life pioneer Randy Alcorn wrote this book in 1992 to equip individuals, churches, and organizations to fight abortion on another battlefield: the hearts and minds of the American people. While the updated 2000 version contains some out-of-date statistics, Alcorn’s overall arguments remain powerfully relevant. Within categories like social issues and hard cases, Alcorn lists pro-choice arguments such as “It is uncertain when human life begins.” He then details pro-life answers including scientific evidence, Bible passages, and sound moral reasoning. The table of contents makes the book easy to navigate, and the appendix includes counsel for post-abortive women and a sample sermon.

The Walls Are Talking

Abby Johnson

Soon after Abby Johnson left her work in the abortion industry, she became a powerful voice for the pro-life movement. See her book, Unplanned, and the 2019 movie version of it. This 2016 book reveals more of her firsthand experiences as well as the experiences of other former Planned Parenthood workers. From botched abortions to abused women, these witnesses show the real-life horror of abortion. One former abortion worker describes a mother who becomes hysterical after seeing her aborted baby. Workers lock her in a bathroom to keep her from disturbing other clients. Johnson sees God at work in all these stories, writing in a final chapter, “It was Christ who changed me.”

Mama Bear Apologetics Guide to Sexuality

Hillary Morgan Ferrer and Amy Davison

From smartphones to school classrooms, kids today face an onslaught of lies on the topic of sexuality. In this follow-up to Ferrer’s 2019 book, Ferrer and Davison equip families to see through those lies and embrace God’s good design for sex. They first lead moms on a deep dive into Scripture, noting “sexual holiness is a non-negotiable for disciples of Jesus.” The book’s humorous, conversational style will keep moms reading, even through thorny topics like addiction to pornography, Marxist roots of Queer Theory, and public school “Genderbread Man” curriculum. Busy moms—whether alone or in a study group—will appreciate the authors’ prayerful approach and end-of-chapter questions and action steps.

Christians in a Cancel Culture

Joe Dallas

Joe Dallas begins with this question to conservative Christians: “Someone’s telling you to shut up, so what are you going to do about it?” Dallas then explains the development of “woke” threats to conservative Christians, including firsthand accounts of pushback he received in his Biblical ministry to gay communities. Later chapters offer bullet point arguments against politically and theologically liberal beliefs on topics like transsexuality, race, and abortion. At its best, the book equips readers to clearly and kindly state Biblical truths like “I think marriage is by design a male-female union.” Dallas also includes open-ended questions to keep tough conversations going. While he excels in discussions of sexuality, Dallas isn’t as helpful on the topic of racism, and he largely ignores threats to civility on the political right.