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John Knight

John Knight is a Donor Officer at Desiring God. He is married to Dianne, and together they parent their four children: Paul, Hannah, Daniel, and Johnny. Paul lives with multiple disabilities including blindness, autism, cognitive impairments, and a seizure disorder. John writes on disability, the Bible, and the church at The Works of God.

How to Serve Families with Disability

I was enjoying some friendly conversation with old friends after church when my teenaged daughter whispered in my ear, “Dad, he’s losing it.” A quick glance at my son confirmed her assessment of her older brother with disabilities. Experience had…

New “Strict” Abortion Laws — Really?

For some children, the new “strict” abortion law in Texas is no protection at all. Last month Texas Governor Perry signed a bill that banned aborting a child after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The headlines about the law suggested significant…

When So Much Is Against Us

Do you ever forget how dark and cruel and lost you really were before the light of Jesus broke through? Is your first reaction to the sin in others anger? Or is it broken-hearted grief at the stench of death…

Singing to Silence the Enemy

Two weeks ago I took an oath, “so help me God,” in a courtroom where two lawyers asked me questions about my son with multiple disabilities. At the conclusion of their questions, the judge determined that my son did not…

Beyond the Rhetoric: Gosnell and the Late-Term Reality

“It is a highly needed and valuable procedure.” That statement above is referring to late-term abortion. In other words, says LateTermAbortion.net, it is highly needed and valuable that deadly poison be injected into the heart of an unborn child if…

A Child Is Not Chattel

A Child Is Not Chattel

One of the common hopes and repeated phrases around the pro-life movement is that “abortion will become as unthinkable as slavery.” I long for such a day. The only problem is that the elements that made slavery possible are still…

The Light Does Shine in the Darkness

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5) Sometimes the darkness is overwhelming: The Chinese health ministry reported that more than 336 million children have been eliminated through abortion since 1971. Joe Carter…

Help Save the Ones Around You

Recently a healthy young woman went to see her doctor for a prenatal checkup on her baby girl. She had named her Madison. Then she went to an abortion clinic to end her daughter’s life. Four days later, this mom…

To Those Hurting This Christmas

I know some of you are praying you’ll make it through Christmas — just make it through — not anticipating anything good will come from gathering with extended family and friends. It has become a cliche — right next to…

You Are Valuable and I Love You

I was recently looking over The New York Times when I stumbled onto an article they recommended: British Conservatives Play the Abortion Card. And there it was. A health secretary wanted to reduce the time frame of abortion to…

God Is Up to Something

Sometimes I just want to cry. The editor of The Journal of Medical Ethics recently wrote in Readers Digest that parents will have the moral obligation to genetically enhance their children for preferable traits, including personality traits. Part of his…

Do We Ignore the Bible?

I can remember it clearly. I was at a conference on how to make places of worship more accessible to people with disabilities when a woman asked a panel of religious leaders, “what should we do with the hard passages…

“Just As Long As It's Healthy...”

Every couple experiencing pregnancy gets this question: do you want a boy or a girl? Many will respond this way, “we don’t care, just as long as it's healthy.” But "healthy" exists on a spectrum of possibilities just like disability…

The Battle Is Not Cordial: Four Ways to Fight

The United States House of Representatives took a closer look at sex-selection abortion this week. It’s about time this abhorrent practice was dragged into the light. The United States has seen a rise in the number of children being aborted…

Standing Against a Vicious "Gospel"

I recently had the pleasure of joining a group of people that included a Christian man from Ghana. He loves Jesus and holds tightly to the promises of God in ways that are beautiful and humbling. He has been evangelizing…

For Leaders, and for All of Us

It was the contrast that caught my attention. One of my colleagues said he knew the blog series "How to Stay Christian in Seminary" was for a niche audience, yet I knew I'd been helped by it (though I'm not…

When God Launched a New Ministry

What date is burned into your memory? Many people impacted by disability can tell you the day it started. It is the day the child was born, or the diagnosis was made, or the accident occurred, or the virus attacked…

Those Children Have Names

The argument isn't my primary concern. Articles like "After-birth abortion: why should the baby live" are more treacherous for the outcome of their argument than the argument itself, as silly as it is. Ideas really do have consequences.…

The Glory of God's Sustaining Grace When Our Prayers Aren't Answered

It doesn't happen often, but it does happen — people see my son Paul and ask if they can pray for him. At places like WalMart (where it has happened) I usually accept their offer after quietly and quickly assessing…

No, We're Not God

When the Journal of Medical Ethics released the article, “What makes killing wrong?” in January, they set off a mini-storm of outrage and controversy. The authors, from Duke University and the National Institutes of Health, asserted that ‘universally…

A Plea to Not Grow Weary

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9) January 22 makes the 39th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court ruling that overturned every…

The United States Eugenics Movement: Outrage and What We Can Learn

Every January we rightly turn our attention to Roe v. Wade — the poorly argued Supreme Court decision that was driven by ideology rather than by actual case law. It was not the first unjustly decided case that impacted tens…

An Unwed Teen with an Unplanned Pregnancy

There is a murderous logic to those who advocate aborting children with disabilities. It goes something like this: People with disabilities suffer in this world. Abortion is a kindness that prevents such suffering. The caregivers (primarily parents) of children with…

One Way a Small Church Is Blessed

A true story and an example to emulate. . . . Kristina (my niece) is a young woman with a complicated life. She was born with a rare genetic disorder that resulted in orthopedic issues across her entire body alongside…

When the Whispers of Discontent Have No Chance

As the father of a child with severe disabilities, one of the things I am asked frequently is "what can I do for you?" I can understand that. We are oriented toward action. And if we can’t be doing something…

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