IBFL episode 22-04 for Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Jason Shanks, President of Our Sunday Visitor Institute in Huntington, Indiana

Today our guest is Jason Shank, who serves as president of the Our Sunday Visitor Institute in Huntington, a small community in north central Indiana. Founded in Our Sunday Visitor is an organization that evades easy description. It’s a publishing house, university, consulting group, retail giant, grants foundation, and think tank all under one roof. The part that seems to most resemble a think tank is the Our Sunday Visitor Institute, and Jason has headed that department since 2020 when he moved his wife and family of five to northeast Indiana. Chris Mann recorded this conversation with Jason at a local restaurant, so you will have to forgive the sounds of clanging dishes and Tom Petty playing in the background, but pay attention to what Jason is getting at regarding his hope for a pro-life movement in the wake of the fall of Roe versus Wade just a month ago, which returned abortion regulation back to the fifty states. Jason hopes that the pro-life movement won’t waste time spiking the football and gloating about this legal win, but instead move into a renewed zeal for high care of our vulnerable neighbors. If you feel a bit uncomfortable by the end of this conversation about who he might be talking about, well, that’s probably his point. Jason is calling the pro-life movement to consider how to exceed some of the generous pro-family policies ironically championed among the most pro-abortion businesses and institutions like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and more. Jason’s thinking is unconventional, but what else would you expect from the head of a think tank?