Interview with John Ensor

1. Lots of Scripture and plenty of Shakespeare?

People note that I use a lot of Scripture in my books. That’s because I really don’t have much to say worth reading that has not come from the outworking of specific biblical truths in my life. I choose Shakespeare as a second primary source because he is generally recognized genius in exposing all matters of the heart. He bears witness to so many of the biblical truths we are exploring, and in ways that land so pleasant on the ear, and with so many picturesque metaphors that I couldn’t help but let him speak. He makes the truth attractive. And truth embraced with a smile is soul-satisfying and thereby, life-changing.

For example, when Shakespeare says “I am not so nice to change true rules for odd inventions” doesn’t that capture what needs to be our attitude toward the whole scheme of things in relationships today? We must challenge our current ideas and not dismiss too readily wisdom from the past. There is a new website called, “The Rebelution” advocating the same values as this book. When I saw that title I broke into a big grin; that is the feisty, fight back, call to bold and confident biblical living that will is needed. And if such an attitude and faith becomes contagious among young Christians, they will not only save themselves many tears; they will shake the gates of hell.

Take for example, the abortion industry. It requires an ideology of low expectations: that young people are dogs in heat and have no self-control. To stay in business, they require a steady flow of young women who conform to these low sexual expectations. They need predatory young men who think of sex as their due when they purchase two movie tickets. But with a rebelution, abortion becomes unnecessary and unprofitable; which is prerequisite to it becoming unthinkable!

I’ve thought about this book for about 10 years. I wrote a tract version about 5 years ago in preparation for speaking at a college/grad student retreat. My original prod was John Piper and Wayne Grudem’s critical work, Manhood and Womanhood According to the Bible (Crossway Books). I wrote John about writing a battlefield manual version for those in the cross-hairs of destruction. He wrote back and said, “Have at it.” So this book reflects the lessons, sermons and counseling that I have given to equip and train young adults to win the war for their own happiness.

As for target audience, people can’t figure out if it is for single or married folk. My answer is that it is for anyone interested in doing things right in matters of the heart, no matter their status. It traces out the central truths that form a solid relationship and seeks to illustrate what this looks like as it grows and matures through dating, marriage, family and a long life together.

Yes, he is the youngest of our three, and went in at 19. Now at 22, he is a petty officer in a squad of F/A 18 fighter jets that are assigned to the Regan. Their next deployment (to the Persian Gulf, I suspect) comes in January 08. I think his highlights so far have been surviving a crash landing on the deck one night, when the debris went flying, and being the “shooter” one night, the guy who launches the jet off the deck.

Then I have a daughter, Megan, 24, a 2006 graduate of Wheaton College, who is single and working in marketing, while preparing for a missions career.

And my oldest son, Nathanael, is 26, married, and works in culinary arts. He and his wife, Alisha, just made us grandparents for the first time. Lilly Grace arrived in May. So we are excited about our family, though we miss them terribly.

I am also familiar with your passionate involvement to defend the weak and the innocent through the establishment of pregnancy-help medical clinics, otherwise known as pregnancy centers.

Yes, I describe it as cross-bearing for the child-bearing. For the last 15 years I have labored to inspire the Church to abolish the inhumanity of abortion as earlier generations abolished the inhumanity of slavery. We established 6 pregnancy help clinics in Boston and saw thousands of women and couples helped to give life, parent or place for adoption. Currently, I am leading an initiative called Heartbeat of Miami, organizing the larger Christian community to open Pregnancy Help Clinics in Miami’s neediest neighborhoods. After that, we are looking to do so in LA , DC and other urban areas.

In chapter 2 of your book you provided an experiential illustration in which 5 girls walked into the pregnancy center; two of which needed pregnancy tests. I was initially taken back by how you began conversing with those young ladies, but soon realized the wisdom as to why you approached the situation that way.

Yes, sometimes you have to cut to the chase. These young women were reaping all the painful consequences of what our popular culture encourages people to do. What was there to lose? They actively engaged my questions and comments; they were so hungry to learn that there was another way to pursue matters of the heart.

I had an amazing parallel experience with three young men who came in with a friend who needed a pregnancy test, which is not in the book. I put them through my manhood test (“There are two types of men when it comes to women; protector/providers or predators; which are you?”). Their eyes lit up and we were soon wrestling with what it means to be a man. No one had ever talked to them this way. And they liked it! “Doing Things Right” is what I would have loved to send them home with.

a. Are you familiar with Ronald Reagan's pro-life tract, Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation and do you agree with him that abortion is the greatest moral crisis facing our nation? Why or why not?

There are many heinous evils and horrible systemic injustices in this fallen world that rightly call for courageous and compassionate response. But abortion is our greatest moral evil of our generation. My full answer as to why is found in Answering the Call: Saving the Innocent One Woman At A Time (Focus on the Family, 2003). But my short answer is that in abortion, death is unleashed at every level of human existence, and begets death. Abortion not only kills; it keeps on killing. It kills the innocent baby; then moves on to destroy the guilty mother and father. Abortion kills womanhood itself, destroying the emotional and psychological health of women; who otherwise see themselves as women who would die to save their children if need be. Abortion is always at heart, a spiritual act; aborting the work of God in their lives.

Abortion destroys manhood; the inherent instinct to protect women and children is aborted. It sears and eventually kills the conscience and wets the appetite for predatory sexual behavior. This is why all the early feminists, like Susan B. Anthony were radically anti-abortion. They understood that abortion only strengthens a sinful man’s ability to exploit women sexually by lessening the consequences.

Then it keeps on killing; it kills a woman’s respect for her man (who failed to support her in her time of need and then pressured her to do what her heart screamed was wrong). This of course strikes at the foundation of marriage. It destroys honesty, as we must lie about it and hide the truth. It renders future children “abortion survivors.” They are no longer alive merely because they are treasured as people created in the image of God, but for some lesser utilitarian reason they were allowed to live. This is horribly destructive. It then spreads death to a church and community for the shedding of innocent blood brings us all into blood-guilt (Read Dt 21:1-9). Pastors are silent, passive acceptors of abortion making it the unspeakable sin in our midst while giving permission to others to kill still more babies (“if it was wrong, surely my pastor would say so.”)

Abortion is the atom bomb of destruction against human health and happiness. One can survive it, but the scars, even when healed, are lasting. It comes by realizing that there is no forgiveness for the shedding of innocent blood, except by the shedding of innocent blood. And this is the blood of Christ, which can cleanse our consciences so that we may serve the living God (Heb 9:14). But it is a tear- bought redemption, as many can testify.

b. In your experience, what do you feel is the best way to approach counseling a young lady that has entered a pregnancy center who is set on having an abortion?

Pregnancy Help Centers specialize in training their counselors to handle crisis intervention situations. Please allow me to amend the question to something immediately helpful to all your readers: what is the best approach to talking to a friend or co-worker who tells me they are considering abortion?

Boldly speak the truth in love! Yes, it is awkward. Yes, it is difficult. And yes, it is the right thing to do. “Speak up for those who can not speak for themselves!” (Proverbs 31:8).

A friend of mine developed the L.O.V.E. Approach to help people remember how.

L- Listen and learn: Take the time to understand the sense of abandonment, fear, or particular circumstances that are pushing her towards abortion. I always say, listen well and a woman will tell you how to save her baby. She will express some ambivalence and that is the point to enter in on.

O- Open her options: Help her understand that when she says she has “no choice” that that is not true. And help her think through this choice; what is abortion? What did she think of abortion prior to this situation? What does her faith teach her about it? Help her look at her other options: like confirming that her pregnancy is even viable (miscarriage is common) and parenting, and placing for adoption.

V- Value both her and her babies lives, and help her get a vision for her future. Frightened young mothers see their pregnancy as the end of their lives. They see abortion as saving their own lives. They believe if their baby lives they will die- their dreams, their plans, their lives as they project it. It is important to remember that the umbilical cord that connects them is not just physical, but emotional and psychological and spiritual. They will both live or die together. Help them see a future where both live.

E- Empower them to choose life. Pledge your personal willingness to help her find a way forward. Promise her that she shall not be alone. Be the Good Samaritan and express your love for God in verb form: pick up, take, pay for, check back. etc. And by the time it all works out, your love and witness will prove not only life-saving, but life-changing.

4. My favorite illustration was within Chapter 5's section entitled, The Grit and the Gold. An illustration that you believe sums up this entire book and to me sums up beautifully a picture of Biblical manhood and womanhood. Many evangelical leaders seem to believe that if we want to reach the lost we must become like them... conform Christ to men instead of men to Christ. In light of this, what do you believe the greatest challenge in communicating true Biblical manhood and womanhood is and how do we effectively face this challenge?

I think the single greatest challenge to biblical manhood and womanhood is peer pressure and conforming to the world around us. It’s called “the fear of man” and is the desire to win approval from others more than sense the good pleasure of God. The antidote is “the fear of the Lord”; this is the beginning of wisdom. Man-pleasing leads to conforming to the world. Living to please God leads to a muscular faith and a radical joy.

When I was a brand new Christian, at 17, the life-changing word that grew roots into Christ and produced fruit in my faith was Romans 12:1-2. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” This word gave me the confidence to rebel against my times: and this was in 1972, the height of rock and roll, drugs feasts and free love.

So they GREAT need of the hour, from the pulpit to the back pew, is for Christian to be gripped with moral courage and quiet confidence that God’s ways are good; all the time.

5. Do you have any more books in the making? How can we pray for you and your family as you continue to passionately serve the Lord? And please tell us how we can contribute to your ministry?

I have been blessed to write books on the three things I am most passionate about: the outworking power of the Gospel, the sanctity of human life and now with Doing Things Right, on the pleasure of purity, marriage and family. Through these books I hope to advance these great things. I am hungry to speak on these matters wherever God should open a door for me and to continue in my urban ministry in between. I am among those who enjoy having written more than writing; so I am in prayer about the future.

The best way to pray for me and my wife in the work we are doing is to track our efforts at Heartbeat of Miami. We opened our first pregnancy help medical clinic just two weeks ago, and then last week we were broken into and robbed of our ultrasound machine. So we are praying for God to turn what was meant for evil, to do us harm, “into the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). And your readers may join us in this prayer and bear the sacrifice needed by donating on our website. Then they too will be cross-bearers for child-bearers!

Words cannot express how deeply I appreciate how the Lord has raised up John Ensor and his wife to passionately pursue this ministry. As I read Ensor's answers to my questions, I found myself weeping. As I have told you before, I was pro-life until I had an abortion. What he says here about the consequences of abortion are painfully true. I was especially struck by these words: Abortion is the atom bomb of destruction against human health and happiness. One can survive it, but the scars, even when healed, are lasting. It comes by realizing that there is no forgiveness for the shedding of innocent blood, except by the shedding of innocent blood. And this is the blood of Christ, which can cleanse our consciences so that we may serve the living God (Heb 9:14). But it is a tear- bought redemption, as many can testify.

I am still doing a book give-away of John Ensor's newest book HERE. I have extended the deadline until Friday, July 27th.