Whenever someone criticizes in vitro fertilization, the same response tends to come quickly: pictures of smiling toddlers, grateful parents, and testimonies from couples who spent years praying for a child.

For many people, that response feels decisive. How can something that produced such a beautiful little boy or girl be spoken of as morally troubling or wrong?

The public image of IVF — one happy baby — hides an unseen reality: other babies who never made it out of the laboratory.

On the surface, that reaction makes sense. Infertility can be a deep heartache. It is the repeated pain of empty nurseries, unanswered prayers, and hopes that seem to die month after month. People who have walked through that kind of grief are understandably drawn toward anything that promises relief.

My wife and I understand that heartache more than we wish we do.

We have lost multiple children through miscarriage. We have walked through a decade of infertility. We know what it is to ask God for life and hear silence. We understand the deep inward pull toward anything that might finally bring hope into reality.

This conversation is difficult. No decent person wants to speak carelessly into someone else’s suffering.

But moral questions do not disappear because suffering is involved. Pain can explain why a person reaches for something, but it cannot, by itself, make the solution righteous.

That is where the public conversation about IVF has gone extremely wrong.

RELATED: IVF CEO says conceiving naturally is for those with ‘genetic privilege’

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IVF is almost always presented to Americans as a compassionate medical service. The happy nursery photos become the public face of the debate, and because those photos are emotionally powerful, very few people ever stop to ask what the IVF process itself actually entails.

Modern IVF does not only involve the creation of one embryonic child who is then implanted in the womb; it involves the creation of several embryonic children at once.

Some are chosen for transfer, some fail in the process and are discarded, and some are intentionally destroyed during testing. And more than a million embryonic children are now estimated to remain frozen in cryogenic storage facilities across the United States, suspended indefinitely because they were the extras in someone’s attempt to have a baby.

That means the public image of IVF — one happy baby — hides an unseen reality: other babies who never made it out of the laboratory.

This is not a rare malfunction of an otherwise innocent process. In 2024, when Alabama courts recognized frozen embryos destroyed at a fertility clinic as children under wrongful death law, the fertility industry immediately panicked, and lawmakers rushed to shield IVF providers from liability.

The death of embryonic children is not an unusual accident hovering at the edges of IVF. It is the standard practice.

We should be willing to say clearly what that means.

When embryonic children are intentionally destroyed because they are unwanted or medically inconvenient, that is murder. When embryonic children are frozen indefinitely because they were not selected, that is not a harmless pause in treatment. It is human beings placed in suspended imprisonment.

At this point, defenders of IVF usually return to the same emotional appeal: “Yes, but look at the children it has produced.” Some will even say, “Look at my child.”

And this is where the deepest confusion is found. Because the children produced through IVF are not the issue under dispute. Of course those children bear the image of God. Of course they are worthy of every ounce of love their parents can give them.

RELATED: Fertility doctors are bullying women into IVF

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Their value is not diminished in the slightest by the means of their conception. But the value of the child is not the same thing as the morality of the process. We understand this distinction instinctively in other tragic circumstances.

A child conceived in rape is no less human because of the violence surrounding his conception. His life may be full of joy, dignity, and meaning. And he certainly has the image of God stamped upon him.

Yet no one would argue that the beauty of that child makes rape morally acceptable, because we know that a precious child does not retroactively justify wicked circumstances.

That same principle must be applied to IVF.

Yes, IVF has produced children who are deeply loved, but those children do not morally absolve a process that routinely murders some embryonic children, freezes others, and treats human life as laboratory surplus in order to obtain a successful outcome.

In fact, those surviving children prove the very point many people are trying to avoid.

If the child in the nursery photo is an image-bearer now, then the embryonic siblings destroyed, discarded, or frozen in the same process were image-bearers then.

The question is not whether children conceived through IVF have value. The question is whether the existence of those loved children gives us permission to ignore the murdered and imprisoned children involved in producing them.

A good gift does not justify an evil method. And gratitude for one surviving child cannot erase the moral guilt of the children that modern fertility medicine leaves frozen, discarded, and dead.

​In vitro fertilization, Ivf, Ivf debate, Moral questions, Infertility pain, Image of god, Infertility, Embryos, Opinion & analysis 

Imagine you’re traveling down a road in a bus, and your driver suddenly passes out. What emotions would you and other passengers feel in that moment? Surely it’s a terrifying situation.

Now imagine that scenario taking place aboard a bus filled with middle schoolers — and the only adult around is the one who just went limp behind the wheel.

‘It started gaining speed. I didn’t know it had air brakes, so whenever I clicked the brakes, it about threw me out the windshield.’

Well, that’s exactly what happened aboard a Mississippi school bus recently, WLOX-TV reported.

Driver Leah Taylor experienced a medical emergency while operating a Hancock Middle School bus on the afternoon of April 22, and she suddenly passed out, the station said.

The terrifying scene was captured on bus surveillance video.

“She kind of fell over, like flopped over, and everyone started standing up,” McKenzy Finch, a sixth grader, told WLOX.

Amazingly, the middle schoolers took fast action and worked together.

RELATED: Heroic HS football players rush to wrecked car as smoke pours from hood — and rescue woman trapped inside: ‘These kids really did run right into danger’

Jackson Casnave, a sixth grader, grabbed the steering wheel, the station said.

“I saw that the bus was veering off to the side. Then I grabbed the wheel,” Jackson told WLOX.

“It was just adrenaline pumping,” he added.

Darrius Clark, also a sixth grader, hit the brakes as the bus started going faster, the station added.

“So she passed out again, and then the bus started rolling forward. And, I mean, it started gaining speed,” Darrius told WLOX. “I didn’t know it had air brakes, so whenever I clicked the brakes, it about threw me out the windshield.”

Kayleigh Clark, an eighth grader, called 911, the station said, and Destiny Cornelius, also an eighth grader, gave the bus driver her medicine.

“I saw her medication in her hand, and I saw her reaching for it,” Destiny noted to WLOX. “I knew that’s what she needed.”

Video soon shows the bus having finally come to a stop as the students continue to shout instructions and rally around Taylor, their driver.

RELATED: Kindergartners on hijacked school bus asked armed intruder so many questions that he got ‘frustrated’ and let them off, hero bus driver recalls

Melissa Saucier, principal of Hancock Middle School, told the station that her students handled the emergency correctly.

“I’m not surprised to hear that our kids remained calm and acted swiftly,” Saucier added to WLOX. “This emergency situation could have definitely been detrimental. And they handled it exactly how they should have, and we’re extremely proud of them.”

In fact, the students later were recognized for their actions at a school pep rally, the station said.

As for Taylor, she told WLOX she’s back to normal, feeling better, and naturally very grateful and thankful for her young passengers.

“I’m very proud of them,” she told the station. “I couldn’t ask for any better students than my students on my bus. I love every single one of them.”

“I’m gonna think of how they saved my life,” she added.

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​Good news, Hancock middle school, Heroic kids, Middle school students, Mississippi, Runaway bus, School bus driver passes out, Video, Human interest 

Speculation is mounting that comedian and podcaster Theo Von is on the path to becoming a true Christian. Recent clips of him getting emotional about Jesus, attending Bible study with country music star Morgan Wallen, and asking God for a “new story” have gone viral, sparking Christian commentary and reactions about his faith journey. Von has even described himself as searching for the Lord and spiritual healing.

But is he really on the path to salvation in Christ?

BlazeTV host Rick Burgess asked this question and evaluated the evidence on a recent episode of “The Rick Burgess Show.”

“We know a pretty good friend of Theo Von … I reached out to that brother yesterday,” says Rick, noting that this person is “a man of God.”

He inquired about Von’s faith journey, and the message he received back was surprising: “I think sometimes people like Theo Von … has more trust in what Jesus can do than many people who already profess their faith in Him.”

Rick is encouraged by this message.

“Theo Von seems to know that Jesus Christ is going to transform his life,” he says.

The costliness of this transformation, Rick notes, is one of the more painful parts of the Christian walk.

“When Jesus says count the cost, usually what we think of are the martyrs. Nothing wrong with that. Or we think of I might lose my job, I might lose friends … I might have family members who abandon me. That’s all true,” he says, “but what Jesus is talking about that I think sometimes the most difficult for us is it’s going to cost us our sin. He is going to call us to a new life.”

To Rick, it seems like Von is “being honest” about this reality of the Christian faith.

“Theo Von seems to be fully aware of what is at stake here, and he’s being honest. He’s not sure that he wants it,” he speculates.

Rick then plays a recent clip of Von that he says captures this authentic wrestle he believes Von is currently caught up in.

In the video, an emotional Von recaps the story of Jesus healing a chronically ill man in Bethesda.

“Jesus asks him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’ … and that’s a crazy question because, you know, if I get healed then I’m different. You know, if somebody gets healed, they have a new story,” he said.

“So that’s just been something that I’ve been having to ask myself. It’s like, yeah, do I want to be healed? Do I really want something different? And sometimes, a lot of the answer is no, I don’t,” he continued, fighting tears.

“I don’t know if I’m scared of it. I don’t know what I am. I don’t know if I don’t want to do what it takes to get, I can’t even tell what it is. And it’s hard for me. Some of this stuff’s a little bit hard for me to say. I think I don’t even know why, but I think I want a new story.”

Rick is blown away by Von’s willingness to be so authentically vulnerable about his wrestle.

“That’s honest right there, folks,” he says, emphasizing that Von’s use of the word “hard” reflects a genuine understanding of Jesus’ warning in Matthew 7 about the two paths — an easy one that leads to death and an incredibly difficult one that leads to life.

It is clear to Rick that Von is aware choosing the path of life will prove costly to him.

He hopes, however, that someone who knows the Lord is teaching Von that if he chooses life, he won’t be walking the costly path alone.

“Theo knows something’s going to change, but I hope he understands that Jesus will do the changing,” he says, citing John 15:4: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”

While he doesn’t know what decision Von will ultimately make, one thing is clear to Rick: “The Holy Spirit is working on Theo.”

To hear more and see the clip of Von vulnerably admitting his wrestle with the gospel, watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Blaze media, Blazetv, Christ, Christian, Comedian, Faith journey, Matthew 7, New life, Podcaster, Rick burgess, The rick burgess show, Theo von 

Spend enough time around atheists, and you’ll hear a familiar refrain: the Bible as a bundle of fairy tales about a “sky god,” stitched together long after the fact and taken seriously only out of habit.

That tone has filtered down into the culture more broadly, where it is not always argued so much as assumed. The biblical world is treated as distant and half-imagined — useful for moral lessons, perhaps, but not something you would expect to intersect with recoverable history.

In 2004, work in Jerusalem uncovered a stepped pool that matched the description of the Pool of Siloam — where Jesus sends a blind man to wash.

Archaeology doesn’t answer the larger questions of faith. It doesn’t attempt to. But it does something more modest and, in its own way, more disruptive: It keeps turning up evidence that biblical events actually happened.

RELATED: 5 reasons this ‘Noah’s ark’ discovery is harder to dismiss than skeptics admit

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1. The Tel Dan Stele

It was once common to hear that King David belonged more to tradition than to history — a useful founding figure whose existence could not be confirmed.

That position became harder to hold after fragments of a ninth-century B.C. inscription were found at Tel Dan. Written by a neighboring kingdom, it refers to the “House of David,” using the standard language of dynasties.

It doesn’t tell us everything about David. It does show that, within a couple of generations, surrounding nations recognized a ruling line traced back to him. That’s not how ancient peoples spoke about fictional ancestors.

2. The Pontius Pilate Inscription

The Gospels place Jesus within a very specific Roman context, under a prefect named Pontius Pilate. Historians had references to Pilate in written sources, but for years nothing material.

A stone inscription found in Caesarea in 1961 supplied that missing piece, naming Pilate and identifying his office.

It is the sort of detail that rarely makes headlines. But it reinforces something the Gospels assume throughout: They are describing events within a functioning Roman administration, not an abstract or symbolic setting.

3. The Dead Sea Scrolls

Before the mid-20th century, the gap between the oldest surviving Hebrew manuscripts and the time of their composition left room for speculation. Some assumed the text had shifted substantially over the centuries.

The 1947 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls changed the terms of that discussion. Dating back more than a thousand years earlier than previously known manuscripts, they preserve large portions of the Old Testament.

What stands out is not perfect uniformity, but consistency. Variants exist, as they do in any manuscript tradition. Yet the overall stability of the text across such a long span is difficult to ignore.

For anyone concerned about how Scripture was transmitted, this matters more than any abstract argument.

4. The Pool of Siloam

The Gospel of John has often been treated as more theological in tone, with less confidence placed in its geographical detail.

Then, in 2004, work in Jerusalem uncovered a stepped pool that matched the description of the Pool of Siloam — where Jesus sends a blind man to wash.

What began as a partial discovery has gradually expanded. Last year, ongoing excavations revealed more of the pool’s full extent — confirming that it was not a small ritual basin, but a prominent landmark used by pilgrims making their way up to the Temple.

The discovery wasn’t driven by an attempt to confirm the Gospel. It emerged from routine excavation and has been clarified piece by piece since. Its alignment with John’s account has led even cautious scholars to acknowledge the text’s familiarity with pre-A.D. 70 Jerusalem.

5. Hezekiah’s Tunnel

Biblical accounts of kings often face skepticism, especially when they describe large-scale projects under pressure.

In 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, King Hezekiah prepares Jerusalem for an Assyrian invasion by securing the city’s water supply — redirecting the Gihon Spring so that it can’t be used by enemy forces outside the walls. It’s described briefly in Scripture, almost in passing, but the implication is significant: a major engineering effort carried out under the pressure of an approaching army.

In Jerusalem, the tunnel itself has long been known and even traversed — an ancient water channel cutting through bedrock. What wasn’t clear for centuries was whether this was the tunnel described in Scripture or simply one of several.

Significant doubt was removed in 1880, when two boys exploring the passage discovered an inscription a few meters from the southern exit. Carved into the wall, it describes workers digging from opposite ends and hearing each other’s voices as they broke through. Jerusalem was part of Ottoman-ruled Palestine at the time, and the inscription was taken to Turkey, where it remains today.

The tone is practical, even understated. It reads like the kind of record people leave when they have completed something difficult — not the kind they invent later.

6. The Cyrus Cylinder

The Book of Ezra depicts Persia’s Cyrus the Great permitting the exiled Jews of Judah — the southern kingdom centered on Jerusalem — to return and rebuild their temple.

Some skeptics have regarded this account as suspiciously convenient — exaggerated to fit a theological narrative presenting Cyrus as a kind of divinely appointed liberator for Judah.

A clay cylinder discovered in Babylon in 1879 complicates this view. It describes Cyrus restoring displaced peoples and supporting their religious practices across the empire — not as a one-off gesture, but as a governing approach.

It doesn’t mention Judah directly, but it does place the return from exile within a broader, historically plausible imperial pattern.

7. The Ketef Hinnom Scrolls

Debates over when parts of the Old Testament were composed often turn on how early we can place recognizable text.

Two small silver scrolls found in a burial site near Jerusalem in 1979 contain a version of the priestly blessing from Numbers: “The Lord bless you and keep you …”

They date to the seventh century B.C., before the Babylonian exile.

Delicate and tightly rolled, they show that passages still read in churches today were already in use centuries earlier than some theories allowed.

None of this proves the claims that matter most to Christians. It doesn’t attempt to weigh miracles or settle theology.

It does, however, narrow the distance between the biblical text and the world it describes. Enough, at least, to make the old habit of dismissing it as a collection of late-arriving myths seem a little less secure than it once did.

​Apologetics, Christianity, Cyrus cylinder, Hezekiahs tunnel, Ketef hinnom scrolls, Pontius pilate inscription, Pool of siloam, Tel dan stele, Faith