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News, Transgenderism

Trump says what few dare about transgenderism madness

A Donald Trump campaign video made almost a year ago resurfaced after he secured his second term as American president. In Canada, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has spoken against transgender “surgeries” on children, and south of the border, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis denounced them more pointedly, labeling them “mutilation.” But neither was anywhere close to as plainspoken as President Trump in this 4-minute presentation. It is remarkable enough to warrant printing in full:

“The left-wing gender insanity being pushed on our children is an act of child abuse, very simple. Here's my plan to stop the chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our youth. On day one I will revoke Joe Biden's cruel policies on so-called ‘gender affirming care’ – ridiculous – a process that includes giving kids puberty blockers, mutating their physical appearance, and ultimately performing surgery on minor children. Can you believe this? I will sign a new executive order instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex- and gender-transition at any age. I will then ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures, and pass a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states. It'll go very quickly. I will declare that any hospital or health care provider that participates in the chemical or physical mutilation of minor youth will no longer meet federal health and safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare, and will be terminated from the program immediately.

“Furthermore, I will support the creation of a private right of action for victims to sue doctors who have unforgivably performed these procedures on minor children. The Department of Justice will investigate Big Pharma and the Big Hospital networks to determine whether they have deliberately covered up horrific long-term side effects of sex transitions in order to get rich at the expense of vulnerable patients – in this case, very vulnerable. We will also investigate whether Big Pharma or others have illegally marketed hormones and puberty blockers, which are in no way licensed or approved for this use. My Department of Education will inform states and school districts that if any teacher or school official suggests to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body, they will be faced with severe consequences, including potential civil rights violations for sex discrimination, and the elimination of federal funding. As part of our new credentialing body for teachers we will promote positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers, and celebrating rather than erasing the things that make men and women different and unique.

“I will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female and they are assigned at birth. The bill will also make clear the Title IX prohibits men from participating in women's sports, and we will protect the rights of parents from being forced to allow their minor child to assume a gender which is new, and an identity without the parents’ consent. The identity will not be new, and it will not be without parental consent. No serious country should be telling its children that they were born with the wrong gender, a concept that was never heard of in all of human history – nobody's ever heard of this, what's happening today. It was all when the radical left invented it just a few years ago. Under my leadership this madness will end. Thank you very much.”

As thankful as we can be for the President’s courage – can you believe he actually said this? And imagine if he follows through! – Christians mustn’t overlook what he didn’t say, because someone still needs to.

Trump has guts, no doubt, but he took this stand more as a matter of smarts – he understood this is still what most of his country believes. But we know from history that this sort of common-sense conservatism is shifting sand. Traditional marriage was once common sense, and only about a decade back everyone knew that killing our elderly was murder, not medicine. That sense isn’t so common now. In Canada, we have Pierre Poilievre and other conservative leaders heading our own “common sense revolution,” and it too has appeal. But what it doesn’t have is staying power: the conservative common-sense of today is merely the liberal’s position of 10 years back. We’re sliding, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, but always in the same downward direction.

The only way to turn it around is to set our feet on something solid, and we know the only unshakeable foundation is God and His Truth. It’s up to the Church, then, to tell a very confused world where they can find traction. Will they join us atop the Rock? We can’t know what the Holy Spirit will do with the Truth we share, but we can be certain that we’ll honor God in the sharing of it.

So, let’s say what no one else dares to: that God made us male and female, and that only He decides our gender. And let’s explain that when we ignore reality as He has made it, then craziness results, like men playing women’s sports, and people cutting off their genitals. Let’s speak what even our most courageous, common-sense politicians are scared to: that it isn’t just crazy when it is done to children; it is abuse too when mentally ill adults are maimed for some doctor’s profit.

We know God’s Truth; our neighbors need to hear it. May God grant us the courage to speak.

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Saturday Selections – Nov 9, 2024

Letters from war In remembrance of the many who fought for us... Ants build landmarks for navigation Ants have brains a quarter the size of a honeybee's brain and yet they can navigate across salt plains that have no landmarks. This is a bit of a technical read, but it rewards the effort. Minuscule marchers though they might be, ants shout God's glory. Use any of these 8 phrases every day, and you’re more emotionally mature/secure than most A secular psychologist pitches 9 phrases, but as John Beeson noted when sharing these, one is not like the others "(but I'll let you spot which one is problematic)." His two favorites are "Am I like that?" and "Let me think about that before I respond." Can a Christian be a lawyer? (15-min read/ 25-min listen) The short answer is, yes, of course. The longer answer is, yes, but the job does come with some real challenges. Looking for a loving dentist "Can you help me find a loving dentist? I’m not interested in a loving person who simply hates plaque and cavities. I do not want him to offer wise suggestions based upon what he knows about teeth. Instead, it would be nice for him to just agree with me about my teeth and my diet. I don’t want anyone who will suggest mouth wash, flossing, or brushing – or make me feel badly for not using them. In fact, I simply want one who will agree with all my decisions related to my mouth." The trust about Auschwitz guards Jordan Peterson on how the Holocaust was caused by "ordinary men." We've reviewed Ordinary Men, the book Peterson mentions. ...

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Alberta to ban men from women’s sports

The Alberta provincial government has proposed legislation to prohibit male athletes who claim to be females from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. Their “Fairness and Safety in Sport Act” (Bill 29) would apply to most amateur competitive sports organizations in the province, including public and private school leagues, as well as college and university athletics. While about half of all U.S. states have similar laws, this would be the first time that a Canadian province would issue a clear delineation against such unfair and potentially dangerous competition. God made men and women vastly different from each other, and part of this difference is that men are typically bigger, stronger and faster than women of the same age. When males compete against girls and women, the competition is often one-sided, with predictable results. Average male athletes become champions and record-setters when they stop competing with boys and instead race, box and wrestle against girls. In addition to the lack of fairness, such competitions can be dangerous, especially in sports that encourage physical contact between participants, or where a ball or puck is involved. In one high-profile case in North Carolina, high school volleyball player Payton McNabb was badly injured when a male opponent spiked the ball at her head, resulting in a concussion and neck injury, and long-term memory problems and headaches. McNabb has become an outspoken advocate to keep women’s sports for female participants only. Anyone who has witnessed male swimmers dressed as women competing against females can attest to how unfair the competition is, and how clear it is that these men have an enormous physical advantage. Sports leagues for youth are often divided by age categories: we would not expect a 17-year-old to compete against 12-year-olds! Common sense dictates that males should not be permitted to perpetuate the fantasy that they are females, by acting in a way contrary to how the Lord made them. That's all the more obvious when their act hurts not just themselves, but others too. In Romans 1, Paul reminds us that those who rejected the Lord “became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” Citizens of Alberta may be thankful that some of this foolish thinking may be discouraged by this legislation....

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Saturday Selections – Nov 2, 2024

The robot repairman inside you (12 min) In the latest must-see episode of Dr. Michael Behe's "Secrets of the Cell" series, we look at some of the amazing repair mechanisms inside the cell. That our cells have so many different ways of breaking down, and need so much upkeep, creates another “chicken and egg” problem for evolutionists. As Dr. Behe explains: “You can’t have one without the other. The first life necessarily had a complete maintenance system. And just like so much else we’ve seen about the cell, its remarkable repair machines, which sustain you every moment of your life, are products of forethought and purposeful planning. That is, they are products of intelligent design.” Behe's "Secrets of the Cell" series should be required viewing in our Christian schools. For more, check out Season 1 and Season 2. YOLO and FOMO forget you don't only live once (5-min read) This is a bit of a philosophical read, but one worth considering for our own sake, and to help out our kids. When they are battling FOMO because they have to choose to do one thing or the other, or we're contemplating that we not likely to ever go on an African Safari, it's worth remembering that this life is not all we have – God has given us eternity! Euthanasia for homelessness? When you can call murder "medicine" what reason could you give not to extend the metaphor and see it as a medicine for other societal "ills" like homelessness or loneliness? And as this AP News report details, it is happening in Canada. What they don't offer is the only firm line that can be drawn to prevent such abuses - the biblical understanding that life is a gift from God, and therefore not ours to dispose of as we will. "The committee noted that legally mandated safeguards likely were not met in nearly 2% of cases. Despite that, experts say, no doctors or nurses have ever been prosecuted." The state of Christian persecution God has no interest in hypocrisy (Isa. 29:13, Amos 5:21-27), which is one of the Christian basis's for religious freedom – God doesn't want us forcing anyone to go to church, or compeling them to say what they do not believe because He isn't interested in fakery. That's not true of many other religions, including our culture's secular religion, which demands we use "preferred pronouns" no matter that we all know better. Just do it anyway! That's why, then "...over 365 million Christians, or about one in seven globally, face high levels of persecution today, including one in five Christians in Africa and two in five in Asia. And it’s getting worse. In 2023, 4,998 Christians were martyred, an average of over 13 per day." The pot experiment has been a disaster "Legalizing pot correlates with a rise in auto crashes, as well as property and violent crimes. Also, despite the fact that this is now a multibillion-dollar industry, legalizing pot has grown rather than reduced the black market. Promises of health benefits have also proven to be more smoke than substance. Pot’s most devastating impact has been in the arena of mental health, which has declined to epidemic levels in the U.S. This is largely due to the increased potency of pot that is sold today..." Fade to black One that'll grow on you. ...

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John Rustad, latest conservative leader to promote IVF

During the last month’s provincial election campaign, BC Conservative leader John Rustad promised that, were he elected, he would expand access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) by funding a second round of treatments. The NDP government had previously pledged to fund one round of IVF, starting in 2025. Rustad’s pledge made him the latest conservative politician to promote IVF. South of the border, less than two months earlier, Republican presidential contender Donald Trump promised to get IVF treatments covered by insurance companies or by the government. Then, in September, US senator, and fellow Republican, Ted Cruz put forward a bill that would penalize any state governments that banned IVF. Why has the political right come out for IVF now? The impetus might be an Alabama Supreme Court decision back in February that initially looked like it might stop IVF. The decision allowed couples to sue an IVF clinic for the “wrongful death” of their frozen embryos who had died in a storage accident. The ruling wasn’t a full acknowledgement of the personhood of these preborn children, because the parents could have killed these same children without consequence. But for the IVF industry, it meant that if they killed these children against parents’ wishes, they could be sued for a wrongful death. And when these frozen children are protected and treated even a little bit like the children that they are, then the IVF industry can't function because killing these children is a standard part of IVF "treatments," with far more embryos killed or frozen than are ever born. So three of the state’s IVF clinics put themselves on pause as they sorted things out. Sadly, “conservative” politicians were among those who came to their rescue, the previously pro-life Ted Cruz among them, proposing legislation that would shield the clinics. With IVF in the news, the formerly pro-life Donald Trump promised to make IVF free. Rustad took the trend north of the border with his own “pro-family” pledge to double the current government’s IVF pledge. If there is a silver lining to the NDP getting back into power in BC, it would be that Rustad won’t be able to implement his pledge, and perhaps Christians can get him to reconsider before he makes it again. As even the Alabama courts’ partial protection of the frozen preborn shows, the IVF industry can only operate when we ignore the humanity of the embryos being created. What's also evident is how badly the Church needs to speak out about the horrors of IVF, if even “pro-lifers” and conservatives don’t understand it is not pro-family to freeze and murder preborn babies. We have reason to hope they might even listen....

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Stats Canada: birth rate now at just 1.26 children per woman

Statistics Canada is reporting that the country’s birth rate has dropped to among the lowest in the world, at just 1.26 children per woman, and British Columbia leads the downward trend with a birth rate of just 1 child per woman. To put these numbers in context, for a country’s population to remain stable – neither growing nor shrinking – each woman needs to have, on average, 2 children – one to replace her, and one to replace her spouse. The real number is even a smidge higher at 2.1, to account for children that don’t make it to adulthood. But outside of Nunavut, at 2.48 children, no province or territory is even at replacement level. Saskatchewan is next best, at 1.63 children. So how might this impact Canada’s population over the coming decades? For simplicity’s sake, we’ll drill into this using a sample population of just 100, with 50 men and 50 women. If each of these women averages 1.26 children, then in one generation we’re down to a population of 63. Let’s round that up to 64, or 32 men and 32 women. If those 32 women then average 1.26 children each, we’re down to a population of just 40. In just two generations we’ve seen the population drop by 60%. Applied to Canada’s current population of 40 million, that would see us drop all the way down to 16 million in two generations. So why is Canada’s population still growing, and growing fast? We’re up by more than a million over just the last few years! This is due to an influx of immigrants – more than a million over the last few years. The growth isn’t coming internally. Massive immigration is one short-term means of forestalling population collapse, but it isn’t a long-term answer, because birth rates are falling all over the world. And if the population decreases everywhere, there won’t be immigrants knocking on our door. What’s the solution? Everyone seems to be looking to the government, but to this point, no program in any country has done much to slow the decline. The case could be made that the government isn’t the answer, but it is part of the problem – every childcare program meant to make having children easier needs to be paid for with higher taxes, and higher taxes make it that much harder to get by for one-income families where a mom wants to stay at home. So what is the answer? Our culture needs to turn to God, not government. Do we sometimes find that a hard message to share? Well, thankfully, God is making it easier for us, by “platforming” us via the size of our families. It used to be you'd need to have 6 children or more to stand out, but now just 4 will give you an opportunity to let your light shine as people ask why so many? We can glorify our God, and help our country, just by speaking to the blessings He has given us in our children. This chart is adapted from Stats Canada’s “Fertility indicators, provinces and territories: Interactive dashboard” posted to StatsCan.gc.ca on Sept. 25, 2024. Used with permission. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product....

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Saturday Selection – Oct 12, 2024

Click on the titles for the linked articles... Public school vs. home school The Babylon Bee, helping us tell the difference... Noise cancellation: a remarkable design solution in biology Here are some biological features that require precise design (and which therefore evidence a precise Designer) that you've probably never thought of before: "Snakes should be immune to their own poison. Electric eels should not shock themselves. And protection from self-generated noise requires a preplanned noise cancellation system." Kevin DeYoung on making better arguments The key here is to argue the facts of the matter – the what rather than the why. You might think you know why your opponent is taking their stand, but if they haven't stated it, then don't pretend you are a mind-reader. Address the argument they have made, rather than the secret motivations they may or may not have. The four gifts children need from their fathers It's not complicated. It does take effort. Here's an article every father would benefit from reading. The four gifts are: Presence Other mentors Wisdom Blessing 3 painfully obvious suggestions to reduce your child's screen time "A major concern of paediatricians today is excessive screen time in children. Here are three (painfully obvious) suggestions for avoiding and reducing screen time. Unfortunately, these are increasingly becoming viewed as unnecessary or unreasonable by some parents: Read a lot of books Talk to your kids about normal life every day Don’t use digital devices as the default activity..." Anne Wilson - Sunday Sermons Catchy song, with a curious video about a helpful man who stops to help a stranded woman... but first takes time to teach a kid how to hit a baseball. Guess he knew she wasn't done singing yet. ...

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Saturday Selection – Oct 5, 2024

Click on the titles for the linked articles... Christian filmmakers are getting creative... The knock on Christian films has always been two-fold: poor production values, and a shallow depiction of good and evil with the good guys simply too good and the bad guys utterly soulless. There are some bad folks who are simplistically wicked – I just saw a chilling bit about a euthanasist in Canada who reveled in her death-dealing – but as the Bible shows us with the wise and weak Solomon, the righteous and murderous David, the believing and mistrusting Abraham, God's people sure aren't saved by their own merits! Even the best people are seriously flawed. Now, I've only watched the trailer for Average Joe (see below), so I can't speak to the characterization. But I wanted to share it for the production value side – it shows a level of skilled playfulness that we haven't seen often in Christian films. Coming out later this year, Average Joe is the true story of a public high school football coach who got in trouble for praying publicly after games. Funnest bit of the trailer is when the coach and his wife break the fourth wall, the two of them sharing their different recollections of a kiss. I hope the film is as good! Did God create life on other planets? Otherwise, why is the universe so big? "The Bible’s ‘big picture’ seems to preclude intelligent life elsewhere" but it wouldn't seem to preclude something like bacterial life, or even animals, on other planets. So why haven't we found any? Might it be because, while the Bible would allow for alien life, evolution needs it? Evolutionists argue that life from non-life is plausible, and if it is, and it has happened here in abundance, then of course it must have happened elsewhere amongst the billions of stars and planets. So the lack of alien life is a message from God – another blessing from Him – highlighting just how impossible life from non-life, without an Omnipotent Creator, really is. How was the pronunciation of God's Name lost? Today Christians treat many words as absolutely forbidden - you won't find a Christian novel using the F-word, and Christian movies don't have anyone, even farmers, using the other four-letter word for "poop." But you will regularly find both using God's name in vain. Thousands of years ago, the Israelites had it the other way around, being so careful about God's Name that the pronunciation of it was lost – no one living today knows how to pronounce YHWH. So, "why did the Israelites go from swearing by Yahweh’s name, and using it in prayer, song, and greetings, to forbidding its use altogether?" Tim Challies: Stop swiping, start serving You probably didn't get drunk this past week. But you likely succumbed to other forms of escapism whether it was hours of video games, Netflix binging, or swiping through your phone's feed. 11 reasons two-parents is the ideal Sometimes it isn't possible, but let's not lose sight that it should be the goal. Contra mundum Here's one for Church History teachers when you're tackling Athanasius. And here's one for politicians when the media, or your party leader, directs their attention your way. And here's one for all the rest of us when we are tempted to back down, not because we are wrong, but only because we are standing against the room. ...

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Alberta to help pay for independent school construction

A massive growth in population had Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announce $8.6 billion in funding, over three years, towards building new schools in the province. And for the first time ever, a provincial government has said it will help cover the construction costs of new independent schools too. It’s this decision to fund private schools' construction that has received the attention and predictable outcry. “This policy shift increases the siphoning by funneling what sounds like unlimited public capital funds to pay for the construction of exclusive buildings that most Albertan kids cannot access,” complained the communications director of the activist organization Support Our Students Alberta in a column in the Edmonton Journal. Independent schools in Alberta currently qualify for 70 per cent funding of operating revenue, but they have to cover all their own capital costs. Michael Van Pelt and Catharine Kavanagh, from Cardus, defended the premier’s announcement in their own hard-hitting article, also published in the Edmonton Journal: “Public education includes 45,000 Alberta kids attending independent schools. They too are members of the public — and their education is as much public as it is in any government-run school.” Van Pelt and Kavanagh explained that every child that is educated at an independent school leaves an open space in a “big-board” school. And that saves the province $3,400 per student. Further, independent schools have grown at three times the rate of public schools since 2022, so they are experiencing far more expansion pressure. Specific details haven’t been shared yet about how the province hopes to help fund capital projects for independent schools. While government funding can be a massive relief to Christian parents, increased funding can so easily result in an increased reliance on the government. It was only six years ago that a previous Alberta government demanded Christian schools add terms like gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation to their policies, allow “gay-straight alliance” clubs, and remove some of their references to the Lord and the infallibility of Scripture from their policies. Schools that didn’t bow their knee were threatened with a loss of funding and accreditation. So, while funding can be a blessing, let’s be careful to not make our children’s education dependent on it....

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Sports betting explodes across Canada

Since Canada legalized sports betting in 2021, the industry has exploded, and last week the Edmonton Oilers and the Alberta government were just the latest to cash in. On Sept. 9 the Oilers announced that they were getting sponsored by Play Alberta – the government’s own online gambling platform – to put a patch on the team’s home jerseys. Many fans weren’t impressed; an online poll by the Edmonton Journal’s hockey writer David Staples had the majority annoyed with the Oilers for degrading their uniform. But what about a government that promotes a vice that harms their own citizens? Those harms aren’t limited to Alberta. With three years of data on hand, the Christian think tank Cardus has just published an extensive report about the hidden harms of sports betting in Ontario. Their report shared that sports viewers in Ontario now get hit with 2.8 gambling references every minute of a live sports broadcast. The advertising is effective – the number of sports betting accounts is climbing quickly in Ontario, from 492,000 in the first quarter of 2023, to 1.3 million today. The average being lost by each of those 1.3 million gamblers is $283 each month. As is always the case with gambling, the biggest winner is the company, organization, or government behind the scheme. Revenue from betting increased from an already huge $368.1 million to a staggering $588 million just from 2023 to 2024. It isn’t only sports betting that has taken off. Revenue from casino gaming saw an even greater spike, doubling from $854.8 million to $1.78 billion. Gambling is bad stewardship of what God has entrusted to us, because the odds are always stacked in favor of the house. Even if you do win it is only because your neighbor has lost, and lost big. And gambling is also addictive – sadly, those who have the least to steward are often the most likely to be hurt by this addiction, adding the additional yoke of debt to their already-challenging lives....

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Liberal MP reminds journalist who holds the purse strings

Ongoing funding of Canada’s media by the federal Liberal government appears to be emboldening some government officials to demand favorable reporting. On Sept. 7, Liberal MP Taleeb Noormohamed weighed in on a tweet made the previous day by Terry Newman, a senior editor at the National Post. Newman’s tweet on X was critical of immigration minister Marc Miller specifically and the Liberal government overall, and that didn’t sit well with Noormohamed who replied with his own public post: “Your paper wouldn’t be in business were it not for the subsidies that the government that you hate put in place....” Newman was quick on the draw. “Okay. You win. You pay my salary,” she replied.  “I’ll stop criticizing your government now. Please don’t fire me.” Mr. Noormohamed is well aware of the National Post’s funding, since he sat on the “National Forum on the Media” parliamentary committee this summer where he argued that since reporters were taking government money and were still remaining critical of the government, clearly such funding wasn’t a problem. However, now, only a couple months later, he is the one making what appears to be an implicit threat to a journalist who dares challenge his government. For years now the Liberal government has been channeling hundreds of millions of dollars to media outlets that meet their criteria. “We’re pretty close, by my estimation, to a 50 percent wage subsidy on journalist salaries up to $85,000 per year,” noted Rudyard Griffiths, executive director of The Hub, a relatively new non-profit media organization that has been very intentional about not taking government funding. A recent poll has found that more Canadians say “a lot of the news is just government propaganda” than “the news is fair and transparent.” And almost twice as many respondents said “I don’t think I get the truth from mainstream news in Canada,” as said “I get the truth from the news.” Media outlets have been struggling financially in recent years as the public is increasingly unwilling to pay for a publication, relying instead on social media and other online content to stay informed. The federal government stepped in to help with direct funding, including a $595 million dollar bailout and a “Special Measures for Journalism” fund that provides tens of millions in cash to numerous publications each year. But one of the inevitable consequences of a government-funded media is that it makes it difficult for the public to trust that such media is independent of the government, and able to report objectively about the government’s decisions....

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Saturday Selections – September 14, 2024

Why not raise the minimum wage to $100? Transgender thinking has infected economics too, with politicians applying the same wishes-can-reshape-reality thinking as they hike the minimum wage. They've decided if they say workers are worth $15 a hour, then they will be. But if such wishing really did make it so, why not hike it to $25 an hour? Or $50? Or as this video (from 7 years back) asks, why not $100? It's because in the real world, the minimum wage is actually an employment ban on anyone who can't bring that amount of value to their employer. Inexperienced workers, handicapped workers, or elderly workers who might work at a slower gear could all be barred from employment. And if we made the minimum wage $100 an hour, that would ban a lot of people. But why is it okay when we ban smaller numbers of people at $15 a hour? And how did it become the government's role to decide not simply whether or not people should be allowed to offer their labor at a lower rate, but whether they should be allowed to work at all? Why did God create viruses and bacteria? While we don't understand all that bacteria and viruses might have done before the Fall into sin, some of their current useful functions give us some clues. 4 arguments against doctor-assisted murder These are 4 really good arguments to stack on top of the foundational truth that our lives are given by God, and therefore are not our own to dispose of as we would. As He has said, don't murder. Psychology of marriage There's an old joke about a band of scientists and researchers who set out to scale Mount Intellect, rising up from the valleys of ignorance. They scrape their way slowly up, and as they finally summit the highest peak, they find a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. God made us for marriage, for commitment, and thus that's so much better for us than "shacking up." And now some psychologists have discovered and explained how making the choice to commit is better for us. Welcome to the summit, gentlemen. A Christian’s practical guide to reproductive technology 3 key takeaways: Doctors create an average of 15 embryos in a single round of IVF. Unfortunately, only 3-7% of all created embryos result in the live birth of a child. The outcomes of IVF are not neutral. Children born through IVF have a higher likelihood of cancer, autism, minor cleft pallet, or a congenital heart defect. A diagnosis or season of infertility does not mean that a couple will never have children; only that it may require more work and time than they initially expected. Is Gen Z really the poorest generation?  God forbids covetousness in the 10th Commandment, and one powerful way to counter temptation in this direction is to count our blessings. So, yes, many are worse off than they were just 5 years ago. But even the struggling Gen Z is probably doing a lot better than their grandparents were in the 70s. This video is American, but there's a lot of transfer to what's going on north of the border. ...

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President Trump runs from his pro-life past

Donald Trump once had the distinction of being the most pro-life president in living memory. In his first term in office, he put into place the Supreme Court judges that overturned the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision which had legalized abortion across the country 50 years before. Roe getting struck down was a ruling no one had expected, and almost no one could even have imagined. Yet, it happened, thanks largely to President Trump. But in a campaign stop in late August, the former president made quite the reversal. Instead of helping the unborn he pledged to put more babies in harm’s way. He told a crowd at Potterville, Michigan: “I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump Administration, your government will pay for, or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for, all costs associated with IVF treatment, fertilization for women.... because we want more babies, to put it very nicely.” He positioned the policy as pro-family, but because abortion is regularly part of IVF treatments, this is far from pro-family. As John Stonestreet explained in a recent Breakpoint.org column: “As commonly practiced, IVF almost always involves creating multiple embryos, since ‘excess’ embryos improves the chance of achieving pregnancy. In most cases, the embry- os that are created are then screened for ‘viability.’ Those deemed unviable are either destroyed or stored. Embryos are transferred into the woman’s uterus, either one at a time or multiples at a time. If pregnancy is achieved before all embryos are transferred, the rest are frozen, disposed of, donated to medical research, or stored for later use. If multiple pregnancies are achieved, a ‘fetal reduction’ is often recommended and performed.” By one estimate, more unborn children could be be murdered under Trump's announced policy than are currently being murdered via legalized abortion. Roughly one million American children are aborted annually, and the estimate is that another 1.2 million unborn children are also intentionally killed each year via the IVF process. Should IVF become free, as under Trump's plan, there's reasons to believe that IVF treatments could double, which would also double the death total. That's the result of what Trump is promising. Trump's personal life, his frequent crudity, and more so, his promotion of homosexuality and gambling, have all been marks against him as a candidate. So the case for Trump has always been that despite his lack in so many important areas, he was still (clearly) the lesser of two evils compared to his pro-abortion Democratic opponents Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. However, even while the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is every bit as bad on abortion as her predecessors, this time, with his IVF policy, Trump may have managed the impossible, outdoing Harris's body count by as many as a million dead children a year. That would make him the lesser of two evils no more. Does that mean Christians should vote for Harris? Or does it mean that sometimes candidates are just too evil to support, even if they are less evil than their rival? Picture credit: Lev Radin / shutterstock.com...

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