Category Archives: News

Prepare to defend innocent unborn children with these 10 points

Last week, secular leftist domestic terrorists fire-bombed the offices of a pro-life group. Let’s see the news story, then we’ll look at an article to prepare you to make the case for the right to life of unborn babies. And I’ll give some tips for being able to discuss these points without being fire-bombed. I have something for regular people, and something stronger if you work in a professional environment.

The New York Post reports:

Fire broke out at the office of an anti-abortion group in Wisconsin on Sunday, and cops say they suspect arson.

The blaze at Madison’s Wisconsin Family Action — a political-action committee that according to its Web site works to “advance Judeo-Christian principles” — started around 6 a.m. when flames were noticed in its office, police told Madison.com.

A wall on the building of the organization also had been spray-painted with the message, “if abortions aren’t safe, then you aren’t either,” authorities said.

[…]Police also said a Molotov cocktail that had not been lit was found inside the building.

People on the secular left seem to be very comfortable using threats and violence to get their way. And I guess if you value recreational sex without consequences so much that you’re willing to use violence against unborn babies, then anything is possible.

 A leftist radical threw Molotov cocktails into Wisconsin Family Action’s office
A leftist radical threw Molotov cocktails into Wisconsin Family Action’s office

Life News had more to report:

Abortion activists planned to “raise hell” at churches across the country on Mother’s Day with protests and, some fear, violence as outrage grows in response to a leaked draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court that overturns Roe v. Wade.

Pro-life pregnancy centers and pro-life advocates already have been the targets of vandalism, violence and harassment this week in response to the news.

[…]Ruth Sent Us, a pro-abortion group that allegedly posted the addresses of the Supreme Court justices online publicly to encourage harassment, is calling for protests outside Catholic churches this Sunday, Mother’s Day.

How do you respond to someone who is willing to use violence in order to punish people who stand up for tiny little babies? Well, That’s what the second half of the post is about. Many independent voters support Democrats in elections, not because they are morally evil, but because they are just lacking in information. And I’m going to give you the information you need to change their minds.

unborn baby
Unborn baby is a real human being, with human DNA, from conception

Here’s a good article written by pro-life apologist, Scott Klusendorf.

He lists 10 points:

  1. Pro-life advocates present a formal case for their position.
  2. A pro-life advocate can defend that syllogism in 1 minute or less.
  3. That abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being is conceded by many who perform and defend the practice.
  4. The Bible is pro-life even if the word “abortion” does not appear.
  5. The Bible’s alleged silence on abortion does not mean that its authors condoned the practice.
  6. Preaching on abortion is not a distraction from the Great Commission responsibilities of the local church, but integral to it.
  7. The pro-life position does not rely on personal perspectives.
  8. Pro-life Christians tell a better equality story.
  9. Abortion-victim photography changes the narrative.
  10. The remedy for post-abortion guilt is not avoidance. It’s forgiveness.

Let’s look at number 2:

“I am pro-life because the science of embryology establishes that from the earliest stages of development, you were a distinct, living, and whole human being. You didn’t come from an embryo; you once were an embryo. True, you were immature and had yet to visibly develop, but the kind of thing you were was not in question. And there is no essential difference between the embryo you once were and the adult you are today that justifies killing you at that earlier stage of development. Differences of size, development, environment, and dependency are not good reasons for killing you then but not now.”

I like this, because this feels to me like arguing for the origin of the universe, or the cosmic fine-tuning, or biological information in the origin of life, or the sudden origin of body plans in the Cambrian fossils. I love when I can argue from science. Science is strength in a debate. Science works, and that’s what we should be relying on.

Abortion isn’t a political issue. It is a science issue. We aren’t discussing politics. We aren’t discussing feelings. We aren’t discussing personal experiences. We aren’t discussing your pastor. We aren’t discussing your parents. We aren’t discussing your church. We are discussing scientific evidence. I’m not interested in your feelings. I’m not interested in the community that gives you social approval. I’m interested in facts. Have you got any facts? I have scientific facts. I want to live my life in a way that respects science. I don’t form my worldview on the basis of what feels good, or what makes people like me. That’s for children.

Don’t get fire-bombed by secular left domestic terrorists

If you are having conversations within earshot of domestic terrorists, e.g. – Democrats, antifa, secular leftists, etc. – then you can just say that this is what a pro-lifer said to you. The important thing is to get the arguments out there. Just tell them that your friend Wintery told you why you should be pro-life, and gave you the Klusendorf article. Get the evidence out there, but take no position. That still does the work of persuading people.

Also, if you are in a professional environment, I found this PDF by Dr. Maureen Condic very useful. That’s a peer-reviewed article with footnotes, useful for grad school or white collar offices. Just leave the article on your desk, and say Wintery e-mailed it to you. If you just want quotes piled on top of quotes from science textbooks, print out this PDF. It’s filled with quotations from embryology textbook, all confirming the full humanity of the embryo.

We have elections in November. We can’t allow the political party of selfishness and sexual anarchy to win those elections. Now is the time to debate. It’s not good for our character to do harm to little living creatures with human DNA. We are better than that.

Knight and Rose Show – Episode 4: Strategies for Making More Effective Christians, Part 1

Welcome to episode 4 of the Knight and Rose podcast! Last week, we talked about what we found in campus ministries and churches. In today’s episode, we suggest ways for the church to build more effective Christians. If you like episode 4, please subscribe to the podcast, and subscribe to our new Youtube channel. We would really appreciate it if you left us a 5-star review on Apple iTunes / Apple Podcasts.

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 4:

Episode 4 Summary:

Last week, Wintery Knight and Desert Rose discussed how the church is falling short in evangelism and discipleship. In this episode, we discuss strategies for improving mentoring and discipleship of young Christians. We talk about how to help Christians love God more. We talk about strategies for talking about Christianity to non-Christians. We talk about forming teams to advance the gospel. We talk about which areas of knowledge can help you become a stronger, more effective Christian.

Speaker biographies

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.

Notes

At one point in the podcast, I mentioned reading papers and books that feature atheist perspectives in order “to learn how to defend it“. I meant to say “to learn how they defend it”. I recommend reading atheist perspectives in debates, so you get both sides. Lots of debate transcripts can be found on William Lane Craig’s web site Reasonable Faith.

We recorded this episode way back in February 2022. There’s been an update about Rose’s atheist neighbor who is a scientist. In the podcast, she says that after a dozen conversations with her, he thinks that there are good scientific reasons to think Christianity is true. This week, Rose told me that he now thinks that Christianity is the best explanation for the scientific evidence around the creation of the universe, and the cosmic fine-tuning.

References

Responding to the Philosophical Problem of Evil by Steven B. Cowan

The Origin Of Life, Part 2 Of 2: Biological Information by Wintery Knight

Recommended books by famous black economist Thomas Sowell

Money, Greed, and God 10th Anniversary Edition: The Christian Case for Free Enterprise by Jay Richards

The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution by Barry Asmus and Wayne Grudem

Institute for Family Studies (web site that features studies of interest to Christians on social issues)

William Lane Craig’s Secret Weapon Is His Amazing Wife Jan by Wintery Knight

Dr. Craig’s Secret Weapon (Reasonable Faith podcast)

About Wintery Knight (lists some of the movies I think have something to offer Christians)

Rifleman Dodd: A Novel Of The Peninsular Campaign by C. S. Forester

Are Christians Responsible For Making Plans And Making Good Decisions? (about Rifleman Dodd) by Wintery Knight

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

Free health care? How much does Canada’s universal system cost?

I had a talk with a Canadian recently about health care. He had a lot to say about his own country’s free health care system, and how wonderful it was to not have to pay for health care. I was skeptical about the rosy picture he painted. After all, I have friends in Canada, and they have told me about their country’s high tax rates. And I’ve heard about the waiting lists, too. Let’s look at the evidence.

The Fraser Institute is a non-partisan think tank based in Canada that looks at policies to see whether they are achieving good results for Canadians. Each year they release statistics about the cost and performance of Canada’s health care system. The most recent report is for 2021 (preliminary numbers).

The report (PDF) says:

In 2021, the average unattached (single) individual, earning an  average income of $49,215, will pay approximately $4,296 for public health care insurance. An average Canadian family consisting of two adults and two children (earning approximately $150,177) will pay about $15,039 for public health care insurance.

Do Canadians really pay $15,039 per year for health care? Or are they paying to get on a waiting list for health care?

Let’s see another 2021 report, this one about health care wait times:

Specialist physicians surveyed report a median waiting time of 25.6 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment—longer than the wait of 22.6 weeks reported in 2020. This year’s wait time is the longest wait time recorded in this survey’s history and is 175% longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks.

The waiting time for a referral to a general practitioner to a specialist increased from 10.5 weeks in 2020 to 11.1 weeks in 2021. And the waiting time from seeing a specialist to actually getting treatment  increased from 12.1 weeks in 2020 to 14.5 weeks in 2021. And remember, this is Canadian health care. This isn’t the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, or Johns Hopkins. This is not the best health care in the world. That’s why Canadian politicians who swear their loyalty to the government health care system pack their bags and make for America when they need treatment. And they pay out of pocket for the best care.

Well, maybe these wait times are because the government is spending less on health care?

No. Actually, costs have been going up, and faster than other products and services.

Canada Health Care Costs Inflation 2021
Canada Health Care Costs Inflation 2021

Why is it going up? Well, like the public school monopoly, most of the money goes to administrators. There is no competitive free market system, where providers compete with each other for the dollars of their customers. No one cares about reducing costs to consumers while improving quality. Why would they? Canadians have zero choice in who gives them health care.

I did a quick search of Canadian news stories for the last week, to see what Canadians say about their health care system when they are talking to each other, instead of to Americans.

Here’s a story from the Globe and Mail, the more leftist of Canada’s national newspapers. (archived here)

It says:

One of the biggest problems such provinces are facing is a critical shortage of family doctors. One in five people in B.C. don’t have one, with more people pouring into the province every day. Last year, 100,000 people arrived – a record number that only exacerbates a desperate situation.

[…]According to Statistics Canada, 4.6 million people over the age of 12 did not have a family doctor in 2019.

[…]The shortage of physicians is a problem that has been growing over the years. Canada now ranks 51st in doctors per population, according to Index Mundi. In the 1970s, we ranked anywhere between fourth and eighth. The nursing shortage in Canada is just as severe.

And they confirm the Fraser Institute’s per-capita cost number:

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has placed Canada 31st in hospital beds per population among the 38 countries that the OECD rank. In the meantime, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, total health care spending in the country was estimated to be $308-billion in 2021 – or $8,019 per Canadian. This number represents 12.7 per cent of our GDP, which puts our health care spending among the highest in the world.

$8,019 per Canadian! That’s “free health care”?

The article talks about British Columbia in particular:

B.C. Liberal MLA Shirley Bond pointed out that, on one day this week, almost every urgent- and primary-care centre in the city of Victoria was at capacity and not taking patients. The only one that was had a 4.5 hour wait.

My Canadian challenger said that Americans were dying in the streets, because they couldn’t get health care. But I think he was actually talking about his own country. Can you imagine not being able to get into an emergency room, or an urgent care provider? That’s what they have in British Columbia.

Where I live, I can go to 3 different hospital systems within 10 miles of my house. And that’s not counting the urgent care clinics on every city block. 24-hour pharmacies open on Easter at 3 AM. My health insurance costs $85 a paycheck. And when I needed an MRI, I got it the same week.

Still think you want Canadian health care? Still think you want a government monopoly to make everyone “equal”?