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President Trump rules out Greenland tariffs and military force · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining us for the Thursday, and you are the 22nd, 2026 edition of the Daily Article Podcast from Dinnison Forum.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins, new reading today's Daily Article, written by Dr. Jim Dinnison, Cultural Theologian.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: President Trump announced yesterday that he was canceling his plan tariffs on U.S. allies in Europe over U.S. control of Greenland.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The announcement came after he and NATO Secretary Mark Ruta agreed to the framework of a future deal on Arctic security.
• 0:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump also stated that he was ruling out military force to acquire the island.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: As Dr. Ryan Dinnison explained in Tuesday's edition of The Focus, missile defense systems that form a primary deterrent against attack on the U.S. rely heavily on Greenland's location.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Milding ice caps of open shipping lanes that were previously closed, Russia and China have increased their presence in the region.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are also significant rare earth minerals, oil, and hydrocarbon reserves on the island.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: All of this argues for Greenland's escalating geopolitical and military significance for the U.S. in these four days.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then the last Mr. Trump's statement that he would not use military force or tariffs to acquire the island was met with approval.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, only 17% of Americans support the
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: only 8% support using military force to do so.
• 1:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Such redness senses understandable.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: A basic principle undergirding the world order is that nations are sovereign and that no country has the right to impose its values on another.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's apply this thesis to the most urgent moral issue of our day.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Gen. 22nd is the saddest anniversary of the year.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: More than 65 million babies have lost their lives in the U.S.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Since the Supreme Court discovered a right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution on this day in 1973.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: More than a million babies in the U.S. were aborted in 2024.
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: This makes abortion the leading cause of death in America far outstripping heart disease, the second leading cause of death with 680,981 fatalities.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: abortion is also the leading cause of death worldwide, globally more than 73 million babies were aborted just last year.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to World Health Organization estimates, abortion accounted for nearly 52% of total deaths worldwide.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Think about that for a moment.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: More than one in two deaths around the world were by abortion.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: If a disease was causing such horrific fatalities, it would lead the news every day.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: As it is, I would presume that you're only now learning this.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, the world is facing an escalating demographic crisis.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: The global fertility rate for 2025 was 2.2 children per woman, the lowest in recorded history.
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: For the fourth year in a row, China reported more deaths than births last year as its birth rate plunged to a record low.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: This matters because people are living longer than ever, meaning that fewer young people will be working and contributing to the support of more retirees.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Over time, there will also be fewer people to buy goods and services, so economies will shrink further exacerbating financial pressures.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine the difference millions of aborted lives would make to this burgeoning crisis.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to wonder, according to the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, $6.9 trillion is lost each year from work that aborted individuals would have contributed to the American economy.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there is a worldview factor here as well.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: A dear friend and I were discussing this issue the other day, and he noted that when people have no children or grandchildren, they are less invested in the future, and more focus on what seems best for them in the present.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: As a result, they mortgage the future for themselves, and everyone else as well.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite these global consequences, it is commonplace for Americans and even many evangelical Christians to respond to the abortion epidemic with the claim, I don't believe in abortion, but I have no right to force my beliefs on others.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've heard this personally in conversations, radio interviews, and responses to speaking engagements over the years.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I understand the sentiment.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I was in St. Petersburg, Russia some years ago, we were warned that our hotel was likely bugged by the government, and that my roommate and I should not discuss our religious beliefs even in the quote-unquote privacy of our own room.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: When I was in Beijing, China, I was permitted to teach the Bible only inside an international church close to Chinese citizens.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Cuba, I had to be very careful to say nothing negative about the communist government, even in private conversations on the assumption that government infiltrators were listening.
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: to have the government or anyone else force their beliefs on us feels like an invasion of our basic freedoms.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: The same sentiment is behind a pro-abortion protestor sign, my body, my choice, and it is behind those who advocate for same-sex marriage and transgender rights, and those who champion the right to death by youth in Asia.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: What makes abortion different?
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: In a recent survey, 96% of the 5,577 biologists who responded affirmed the view that human life begins at conception.
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was not a survey of evangelicals.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: 89% of the respondents also identified as liberals and 63% as non-religious.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nonetheless, their scientific position aligns with the clear declaration of Scripture.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: David said to God, for example, you formed my inward parts.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: You knitted me together in my mother's womb, in Psalm 139 verse 13.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: This means that an unborn baby is scientifically and biologically just as human prior to its birth as it is after its birth.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Consequently, it has the same scientific and biological right to
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: as anyone else, but he or she obviously has no way to defend themselves in their mother's womb.
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is what separates abortion logically from all other rights.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Abortion advocates claim that pro-life proponents are forcing their beliefs on them, but is a woman who chooses abortion not forcing her belief on her unborn child?
• 6:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Which of the two is more vulnerable?
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: At their core, criminal laws impose societal values on would-be perpetrators to protect those who would otherwise become their victims.
• 6:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: We do this to defend those who might not be able to defend themselves.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Can a baby in a womb defend himself or herself from abortion?
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mahatma Gandhi reportedly observed, quote, the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members, in quote, how would the most vulnerable members of our society measure you today?