Category Archives: News

Religious liberty and freedom of association under fire in Washington state

Lately, I have noticed some Christians trying to attain an appearance of piety by claiming that it is more holy to not get involved in politics. These claims remind me of my early days as a Christian, when I would bring up C.S. Lewis and other easy apologetics, and people would act as if I were discussing the occult. “Only people with doubts care about evidence!” they’d cry. And today, the new heresy is Christians who care about what laws they live under.

Anyway, you regular readers will know all about this. On this blog, we talk about how different cities, states and countries make it difficult for serious Christians to do Kingdom business.

So, today, we have a new story about what happens in states where the majority of Christians think that “Jesus never cared about politics” or “Jesus was neither a Democrat nor a Republican” or “Jesus was a refugee”.

Here is an Alliance Defending Freedom article about case:

The Washington Supreme Court recently reinterpreted state law to prohibit religious organizations, including Yakima Union Gospel Mission, from only hiring individuals who share and live out its religious beliefs. State officials are threatening the mission with significant penalties for using its constitutionally protected right to hire employees who share and live the ministry’s religious beliefs.

According to their timeline, the Washington Supreme Court “effectively gutted” the Washington Law Against Discrimination’s exemption for religious employers in March 2021. This prevented Yakima Union Gospel Mission from making sure that the people who work in their Christian ministry are actually Christians.

By the way, this is the same Washington Supreme Court that went after that nice Christian florist Barronelle Stutzman, who ended up having to pay $5000 to two gay activists according to the far left NBC News. Washington is a fascist state, I don’t recommend that Christians live there.

Anyway, there’s some good news about that Yakima Union Gospel Mission case reported in the Washington Stand:

A blue state’s “anti-discrimination” law targeting Christian organizations has been struck by a federal appellate court as blatantly unconstitutional. In 2023, Union Gospel Mission of Yakima, Washington, filed a lawsuit to block enforcement of the state of Washington’s “Law Against Discrimination” (WLAD), arguing that the law’s prohibition against employment discrimination on the basis of certain protected characteristics violated the Christian group’s First Amendment rights to hire only fellow Christians who adhere to a biblical understanding of sex and marriage. The U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with Union Gospel Mission in a ruling this week.

The funny thing about this ruling is that this was from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. I used to listen to the Michael Medved Show when I first came to America, and he (a resident of Washington state) used to call this court the “9th Circus Court of Appeals”. Well, a funny thing happened to the 9th Circus Court of Appeals. They became centrist – the 9th Centrist Court of Appeals!

Here’s another 9th Circuit case, from December 2025, reported in The Federalist:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled Friday that the University of Washington is not allowed to punish a professor for making fun of the “land acknowledgments” they tried to force on their staff.

The win at the circuit level comes after the district court sided with the school.

“A public university investigated, reprimanded, and threatened to discipline a professor for contentious statements he made in a class syllabus. The statements, which mocked the university’s model syllabus statement on an issue of public concern, caused offense in the university community,” Judge Danial Bress, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote in the majority opinion. “Yet debate and disagreement are hallmarks of higher education. Student discomfort with a professor’s views can prompt discussion and disapproval. But this discomfort is not grounds for the university retaliating against the professor. We hold that the university’s actions toward the professor violated his First Amendment rights.”

The court found that the school subjected computer science professor Stuart Reges to punitive employment actions and reprimand, based entirely on his speech disagreeing with their policy.

In conclusion, please be cautious about people who are urging Christians not to be involved in politics. These are either atheists or Christians who have no serious life plan consistent with Christianity. There are no exceptions. People who have Christian life plans understand that those plans cannot be carried out if their country turns into North Korea. Or Venezuela. You can’t buy apologetics books to read in those countries. You either don’t have the money or the books are banned. Owning a Bible is a capital offense in North Korea, which is officially atheist.

This is something that these “Jesus didn’t care about politics” fools never think about. They’re usually philosophers who dropped math in Grade 10 and never worked a day in the private sector. They just don’t know enough about how the world works, and that’s why they try to make a virtue out of their laziness. Either that or it’s atheists wagging their fingers at Christians, telling them not to vote, because they don’t want any restrictions on all the new atheist hobbies: sex-selection abortion, race-selection abortion, transing the kids for social media clout, etc.

Don’t listen to these people. Read Thomas Sowell, Wayne Grudem and Jay Richards, and then go vote. Put up lawn signs and car magnets. And maybe switch your monthly donations to Alliance Defending Freedom.

Dr. James Tour discusses the case for design in nature with Tucker Carlson

Every time an intelligent design scholar appears on a popular show, I like to write something about it. We’ve been blessed lately to hear the case for design presented on Joe Rogan and Piers Morgan and Ben Shapiro. So, people are starting to learn about the origin of life, the fossil record, the structures inside the cell, and other pieces of evidence that are terrible for naturalism. And now another big show (Tucker Carlson) has had Dr. James Tour on.

Here’s the video: (1 hour and 40 minutes)

Topics:

  • Tour’s professional background: Professor at Rice University teaching organic chemistry and nanotechnology, with appointments in chemistry, materials science, nanoengineering, and computer science; conducts research, mentors PhD students, publishes papers, and has founded companies in pharmaceuticals, materials, electronics, including AI computing and memory chips.
  • Active involvement in scientific research beyond teaching, spending most time on research rather than lecturing.
  • No internal conflict between science and Christian faith; scientific understanding enhances belief in God.
  • Molecular basis for wood’s properties: polysaccharides strands held by hydrogen bonds providing impact strength, explaining why a tree withstands a car crash better than the car.
  • Comparison of wood’s durability (1,000-year-old structures) vs. plastics decomposing in 5-10 years, highlighting divine material design.
  • Challenges in building robots from biological molecules (polysaccharides, polypeptides, lipids, nucleic acids) vs. using plastics, wires, silicon; humans mimic nature but can’t replicate molecular construction.
  • Photosynthesis in leaves: magnesium atom in porphyrin funnels light, ejects electron, processes CO2 into tree structure and releases O2.
  • Vision mechanism: rhodopsin molecules change configuration upon photon impact, relax back to enable sight.
  • Memory formation: electronic interactions lead to protein synthesis, which during sleep forms hardwired brain interconnects.
  • Scientists sometimes worship creation (e.g., trees) instead of the creator, per G.K. Chesterton quote.
  • Private admissions by scientists: no full understanding of life, origins, or mechanisms; some privately agree with Tour but stay silent.
  • Community pressures: exclusion from societies and academies for admitting uncertainties or diverging from norms.
  • Science requires honesty and admitting unknowns, but COVID revealed dishonesty, eroding credibility.
  • Peer review biases: papers challenging established views often rejected, especially if contradicting reviewer’s career work.
  • Grant funding tied to aligning with certain narratives; hard to introduce field-shaking ideas.
  • Evolutionary process lacks detailed chemical explanation; molecular interactions for changes not clarified.
  • Two-day meeting in St. Louis with colleague to discuss evolutionary chemistry, but left unconvinced.
  • Characteristics of life: responsive to environment, growth/change, metabolism, homeostasis, cellular composition, trait inheritance.
  • Efforts to redefine life minimally to claim synthetic creation, but such claims lack full characteristics like homeostasis (e.g., maintaining internal temperature, pH, ATP production).
  • Origin-of-life researchers use “proto-life” to hype lab results; media exaggerates to “scientists created life.”
  • Challenges to researchers: inability to link two amino acids or glucose molecules prebiotically without interference.
  • Unfulfilled predictions: e.g., Jack Szostak (2014: life in 3-5 years), Dmitry Tarseslav (5 years), Steve Benner (paradoxes solved), Lee Cronin (2011: life in couple years)—none achieved.
  • Creating life: turning inorganic to living meeting life criteria.
  • Four compound classes for life: lipids (cell membranes), polysaccharides (energy/channels), nucleotides (RNA/DNA), polypeptides (proteins/enzymes).
  • Inability to form these polymers or even monomers prebiotically.
  • Miller-Urey experiment (1953): produced amino acids but unusable mixtures without handedness.
  • Molecular chirality: right- and left-handed forms (mirror images like hands); biology needs one handedness, prebiotic methods yield mixtures.
  • Modern techniques achieve chirality but not via early Earth mimicry; chiral surfaces fail to produce pure handedness.
  • Inability to assemble cell even with all components, ions, and DNA code provided.
  • Simplest cells: similar in modern and fossil records; biophysical calculations show minimal operable cell needs 15 unmade prebiotic components.
  • Progress illusion: new discoveries (e.g., chiral induced spin selectivity, interactome) move target farther away.
  • No scientific idea how life originated; Bible says God spoke it into existence, science seeks details.
  • Projections of nearing life creation due to mob mentality, career inertia.
  • Cop-out responses: e.g., Benner leaving assembly to younger researchers.
  • Cloning: duplicates existing life, not creates; starts with cells, inserts genetics.
  • Ethical concerns: cloning humans could create superhuman races or enhanced individuals (e.g., 10% faster, 20% smarter).
  • Genetic engineering: potential to correct disorders (e.g., autism, breast cancer predisposition) vs. abuse like preemptive surgeries.
  • Chinese embryo modification abuse: led to imprisonment, career ends, funding bans; community condemned.
  • Evolution: from LUCA (last universal common ancestor) to diversity via adaptation to environment.
  • Microevolution: observed small changes (e.g., bird bills, bacterial antibiotic resistance via mutations or population selection).
  • Bacterial resistance: often surviving resistant individuals propagate; finish antibiotics to eliminate all.
  • Bacteria share DNA via tubules; respond to stresses, suggesting cellular “consciousness” or adaptive behavior.
  • Macroevolution: body plan changes (e.g., invertebrate to vertebrate) never observed.
  • Fossil record: supports microevolution but not body plan transitions; hypotheses link fossils without direct evidence.
  • Regulatory genetic networks: early wiring lethal if clipped; requires coordinated downstream changes (not single mutations).
  • Lenski experiment (1988-present): bacterial evolution under stress equivalent to 2 million years; no body plan changes, only minor (e.g., citrate use via existing gene activation).
  • Cambrian explosion (540M years ago): sudden burst of species over short period, no transitional forms.
  • Punctuated equilibrium (Gould): stasis then sudden changes, no gradual ramp from single cell.
  • No animal macroevolution to new species; some plant genome doubling.
  • Unicellular to multicellular: not observed, requires regulatory network changes.
  • Design language implies designer; some admit “looks designed” but deny it.
  • Resistance to questioning evolution: funding cuts, grant denials, academy exclusion for Tour’s skeptical statement.
  • Unsolved: sleep consolidates memory via protein strengthening, hardwired interconnects.
  • Cell anatomy: extraordinary, can’t mimic.
  • Mimicking materials (e.g., wood as nylon-carbon composite) but not structures.
  • Phenomena: sensing stares (evolutionary prey detection?), maternal intuition.
  • Dark matter/energy: 70-90% of universe, inferred by difference from Big Bang matter/energy.
  • Electromagnetic spectrum: narrow visible range; tools detect beyond (e.g., radio waves).
  • Fine-tuning: physical constants (e.g., water dipole moment) precise for life; slight changes preclude life.
  • Unique Earth: atmosphere, breathable, viewable heavens; universal periodic table.
  • Cell as factory with systems engineering.
  • Synthetic molecular brain: voltage pulses for simple gates (AND/OR), vs. child’s complex brain.
  • Mosquitoes: coordinated flight via pheromone sensors from tiny brains.

Nice to see Dr. Tour bringing up additional evidence that is not related to his usual domain: the origin of life. Specifically, he brought up the fine-tuning, habitability, and sudden infusions of information in the fossil record, e.g. – the Cambrian explosion. I want everyone to know about these things.

I’m not keeping track of the controversies with Tucker Carlson, etc. I’m only posting this because I want you to share it, and pray for the people who watched it who are still not yet reconciled with God, through Christ.

Knight and Rose Show #70: E. Calvin Beisner: Climate and Energy

Welcome to episode 70 of the Knight and Rose podcast! In this episode, Wintery Knight and Desert Rose discuss the climate and energy policy with Dr. E. Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance. If you like this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We would appreciate it if you left us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Podcast description:

Christian apologists Wintery Knight and Desert Rose discuss apologetics, policy, culture, relationships, and more. Each episode equips you with evidence you can use to boldly engage anyone, anywhere. We train our listeners to become Christian secret agents. Action and adventure guaranteed. 30-45 minutes per episode. New episode every week.

Episode summary:

Wintery Knight and Desert Rose welcome Dr. E. Calvin Beisner to discuss climate and energy policy. They explore Biblical dominion and stewardship, contrasting the Christian worldview with the pantheistic roots of environmental movements. Beisner explains Earth’s natural resilience through Le Chatelier’s principle and the Genesis perspective. He critiques climate alarmism, highlighting warming benefits like longer growing seasons. Beisner compares energy sources, advocating for abundant energy to aid human flourishing.

Outline and transcript

Here is a transcript of the show provided by TurboScribe AI. TurboScribe AI allows you to translate the transcript into many, many different languages. You can also export the transcript into many different formats, with optional timestamps.

Episode 70:

Speaker biographies

Dr. E. Calvin Beisner is the founder and national spokesman of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, Dr. Beisner established The Cornwall Alliance in 2005, building on years of research and teaching in theology, economics, environmental ethics, and public policy. With a background in historical theology and social ethics, he has lectured worldwide, testified before government bodies, and authored numerous books and articles on environmental stewardship and economic development. His early experiences in Calcutta, India, witnessing both the beauty of creation and the tragedy of poverty, deeply shaped his vision for Cornwall Alliance. He is the author of Climate and Energy: The Case for Realism.

Wintery Knight is a black legal immigrant. He is a senior software engineer by day, and an amateur Christian apologist by night. He has been blogging at winteryknight.com since January of 2009, covering news, policy and Christian worldview issues.

Desert Rose did her undergraduate degree in public policy, and then worked for a conservative Washington lobbyist organization. She also has a graduate degree from a prestigious evangelical seminary. She is active in Christian apologetics as a speaker, author, and teacher.

Podcast RSS feed:

https://feed.podbean.com/knightandrose/feed.xml

You can use this to subscribe to the podcast from your phone or tablet. I use the open-source AntennaPod app on my Android phone.

Podcast channel pages:

Video channel pages:

Music attribution:

Strength Of The Titans by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5744-strength-of-the-titans
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license