News

DeSantis: Florida schools will teach students about the historical record of communism

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I have some exciting news! Everyone knows that conservatives are monitoring people who could run for President on the Republican ticket in 2024. Some people want Trump again, but he’s looking pretty old right now… Other people are looking for a governor who has a good record of advocating for conservatives. Ron DeSantis is at the top of that pile. And there is news about him!

Daily Wire reports:

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday morning at Miami’s Freedom Tower that will require “Victims of Communism Day” to be observed in the state’s public high schools.

The bill, HB 395, mandates that public schools instruct students on the horrors of communism each year on November 7 or a preceding school day. The “Victims of Communism Day” legislation passed the Florida House and Senate unanimously earlier this year.

“We want to make sure that every year folks in Florida, but particularly our students, will learn about the evils of communism, the dictators that have led communist regimes, and the hundreds of millions of individuals who suffered and continue to suffer under the weight of this discredited ideology,” DeSantis said at a press conference.

And don’t forget, DeSantis has already signed bills to:

Many cynical people like to say that there isn’t much difference between Republicans and Democrats on social issues. But those people aren’t following the legislation. If you watch the legislation, Republicans do a lot for social conservatives.

Communism in the Soviet Union

Let’s take a look at what Josef Stalin did during his rule of the Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s.

The Library of Congress offers this in their “Soviet Archives exhibit”:

The Soviet Union was the first state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. Toward that end, the Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated atheism in the schools. Actions toward particular religions, however, were determined by State interests, and most organized religions were never outlawed.

The main target of the anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and 1930s was the Russian Orthodox Church, which had the largest number of faithful. Nearly all of its clergy, and many of its believers, were shot or sent to labor camps. Theological schools were closed, and church publications were prohibited. By 1939 only about 500 of over 50,000 churches remained open.

Let’s see more from a peer-reviewed journal article authored by Crispin Paine of the University College, London:

Atheist propaganda and the struggle against religion began immediately after the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917. While social change would, under Marxist theory, bring religion to disappear, Leninists argued that the Party should actively help to eradicate religion as a vital step in creating ‘New Soviet Man’. The energy with which the Party struggled against religion, though, varied considerably from time to time and from place to place, as did its hostility to particular faith groups. The 1920s saw the closure of innumerable churches and synagogues (and to a lesser extent mosques) and the active persecution of clergy and harassment of believers.

I used to meet Christian women as an undergraduate who had learned how wonderful communism was in their non-STEM classes. Clearly, the professors were not teaching the truth about communism’s record to these Christian women. Communism is atheistic at its core, and that communism is totally hostile to Christians. To the point of mass murder.

The Ukraine Famine

Take a look at this UK Daily Mail article about a great achievement of the atheist Josef Stalin, which occurred in 1932-1933.

Excerpt:

Now, 75 years after one of the great forgotten crimes of modern times, Stalin’s man-made famine of 1932/3, the former Soviet republic of Ukraine is asking the world to classify it as a genocide.

The Ukrainians call it the Holodomor – the Hunger.

Millions starved as Soviet troops and secret policemen raided their villages, stole the harvest and all the food in villagers’ homes.

They dropped dead in the streets, lay dying and rotting in their houses, and some women became so desperate for food that they ate their own children.

If they managed to fend off starvation, they were deported and shot in their hundreds of thousands.

So terrible was the famine that Igor Yukhnovsky, director of the Institute of National Memory, the Ukrainian institution researching the Holodomor, believes as many as nine million may have died.

[…]Between four and five million died in Ukraine, a million died in Kazakhstan and another million in the north Caucasus and the Volga.

By 1933, 5.7 million households – somewhere between ten million and 15 million people – had vanished. They had been deported, shot or died of starvation.

And over in communist China, the death toll was 45 million in 4 years.

Communism in China

Story here in the left-wing UK Independent.

Excerpt:

Speaking at The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival, Frank Dikötter, a Hong Kong-based historian, said he found that during the time that Mao was enforcing the Great Leap Forward in 1958, in an effort to catch up with the economy of the Western world, he was responsible for overseeing “one of the worst catastrophes the world has ever known”.

Mr Dikötter, who has been studying Chinese rural history from 1958 to 1962, when the nation was facing a famine, compared the systematic torture, brutality, starvation and killing of Chinese peasants to the Second World War in its magnitude. At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years; the worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55 million.

If you are ever debating with a communist, you should know about the book “The Black Book of Communism“, which puts the total death toll of communist regimes at over 100 million. And it’s published by Harvard University Press.

News

Democrats schedule Senate vote to abolish all state-level restrictions on abortion

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Back in 2020, there were two kinds of Christians talking about policy. On the one hand, we had people like David French, Tim Keller, Russell Moore, John Piper, Beth Moore, etc. They were focused on Trump’s mean tweets. On the other hand, there were policy-oriented conservatives, who were looking at legislation that the Biden administration was likely to pass.

I was one of the latter. I talked about the Equality Act, which makes it illegal for Christians to state and defend traditional Christian moral teachings about sex and sexuality. And I talked about the Women’s Health Protection Act, which rolls back every single restriction on abortion from conception to birth, in all 50 states. Legislation should have been the priority for the “Evangelicals for Biden”. But it wasn’t. Because they thought that the election was an opportunity for them to virtue signal to their liberal friends. Who card about laws and policies?

The Wall Street Journal reports: (archive)

Protesters marched on the homes of conservative Supreme Court Justices over the weekend, an ugly attempt to scare them into saving Roe v. Wade. This week the drama moves to the Senate, where Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer plans a vote on a sweeping bill to override state laws and set a national abortion policy.

[…]The WHPA would guarantee abortion access “at any point or points in time prior to fetal viability,” about 23 weeks. Women seeking such services could not be asked to “disclose the patient’s reason.” Some states have tried to prohibit sex-selective abortion, the practice usually of terminating a girl merely because a boy is desired. The WHPA appears to protect that choice.

After fetal viability, the WHPA would assure a right to an abortion whenever the physician’s “good-faith medical judgment” is that “the pregnancy would pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health.” What counts as “health”? This is sometimes defined to include mental, emotional or familial factors, a loophole that permits elective abortions, more or less, through all nine months of pregnancy.

As long as a single health care provider agrees that the pregnancy is a risk to the mother’s health or life, then the abortion is legal, in any state, through all 9 months of pregnancy.

Conscience protections would be gone:

The legislation also exempts itself from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is why Ms. Collins says it would undercut “basic conscience protections” for religious healthcare providers. In its findings, the bill says abortion access “has been obstructed” by state “parental involvement laws (notification and consent).”

Can you imagine being a doctor or a nurse and being forced to perform an abortion, or lose your job? Would you like to live in a world where the only people who can provide health care are people who think that it’s OK to kill a 9-month-old baby a few minutes before the baby is born? That’s what the Democrat party wants. And Evangelicals for Biden agrees with them on abortion. This is my worst nightmare. Imagine choosing between feeding your family or performing abortions!

I can just imagine that it will become illegal to speak out against abortion overnight. The Democrats would love that. Look how they are using threats and violence already against crisis pregnancy centers and churches.

The bill has already passed in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. Biden will sign the bill, if it passed the Senate. Please pray about this, because this vote is happening this week.

News

Prepare to defend innocent unborn children with these 10 points

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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.