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Magazine, Past Issue
Nov/Dec 2025 issue
WHAT'S INSIDE: You can't fight screens with nothing
Given how popular our summer screen-fast challenge was, it’s evident that our tech usage is an issue that deserves ongoing attention in Christian homes. It was great so many of us could take a break from our phones, but if we’re going to limit our screen-time for the long-term, we need to think of what we’re going to do instead. So, what alternatives do kids (and adults) have to screens?
1. Get outside
One option: in this issue, school teacher Dave Penninga shares stories from his own childhood to speak to the impor- tance of risky play. He’s also working from Jonathan Haidt’s recent book The Anxious Generation - How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Penninga makes the case for parents to back off some, and allow more unsupervised outdoor play.
2. Stack bricks – our “Building Block” contest is back!
Lego is another great alternative to screens. Earlier this year, more than 500 youth pulled out their bins of Lego and entered our first-ever “building block” contest. It’s back and in time for Christmas break. Be sure to point your little, and not-so-little, ones to the back cover for details.
3. Write or record – we need you to share your training, experiences, wisdom, or story
In light of what we confess in Lord’s Day 12 of the Heidelberg Catechism, that every Christian shares in Christ’s anointing as a prophet, priest, and king, we are grateful to launch a new contest where you have an opportunity to share your own message in writing, audio, or video. Perhaps you have training and education that would be a huge help to others, or you have experienced a trial and have learned lessons that you could share to the benefit of many. Maybe you have a story to encourage or warn your siblings in Christ. This is your opportunity to inspire and bless Christ’s Church!
Not only could your work be published, thanks to the generosity of a donor, there is a whopping $7,000 in cash prizes! Find the details on pages 2-3.
Keep the printing presses rolling
As the year draws to a close, we respectfully remind our readers that Reformed Perspective is only able to publish this magazine (and produce many other resources) and give it away for free because of the generosity of people like you, who recognize the importance of thinking, speaking, and acting for God’s glory. As you can read on pages 82-83, our donors allowed us to take 4 big steps forward this year. Are you willing to help keep the presses rolling through 2026?
We have three options for you to read the magazine. First up is the flipbook edition, with its turning pages. Below that, you can click the cover to view the pdf in your browser, or click here to download the PDF (13 mb)
INDEX: RP Contest: Your Turn / What will Canada look like in 2040 / Vera's story: the fight for her life... / Why Charlie Kirk's death hit so hard / The importance of risky play / Introducing the ARPA Academy / Why you (or someone you know) should plan to go to Calgary's 2026 Summit Reformed Young Adult Conference / Why I don't have a bucket list / Christine Farenhorst's annual Christmas story: Learning / Interview with an artist: Paul Roth loves painting her studio / Come & Explore: Have you ever wondered... / Why it's good for teens and kids to do chores / In a Nutshell / Post Tenebras Lux: Martin Luther and the road to Reformation / More than the magazine / E.D. Update: our donors enabled us to take 4 big steps forward in 2025 / RP contest: can you build it better?
News
Saturday Selections – Nov. 15, 2025
Women don't belong in combat (5 min)
That world won't acknowledge that it is Who made us, and in Whose Image we are made (Gen. 9:6), that makes us valuable. So, instead, the world evaluates people on the basis of what a person might have, or how they look, or what they can do. All of these other evaluations cause troubles, especially the last. An abilities-based assessment is what's behind both dehumanizing the unborn, because they can't yet do many of the things the already born can do, and dehumanizing the elderly and disabled because they can't do what the young and more able-bodied can.
Valuing people on the basis of what they can do is also what's been behind the push for women in combat roles. If you are what you can do, then we would be forced to conclude that women aren't the equal of men if there is anything men can do that women can't. So, in rejecting God, the world also has to reject the reality that men are stronger and make more capable soldiers. The world puts on blinders, because the only alternatives are equally unattractive to them: either to believe that men are better than women, or to believe that our worth is found in God and not in ourselves or anything we can do.
Another problem with the minimum wage
It's said a person will judge himself by his intent – "It doesn't matter how it went, after all, I meant well" – and judge others by their actions... or, in other words, by whether it actually went well. The minimum wage is an example, implemented in the name of helping the poor, and therefore judged by its implementers to be a success, no matter what results.
But with the newly elected New York mayor having campaigned on a push for a $30 minimum wage, it doesn't take much imagination to see the harm that could result, with all sorts of businesses closing because they can't afford to pay those wages. Then, instead of the poorest getting paid more, you have the poorest getting fired.
Now a new study finds that the harm the minimum wage causes hurts blacks more. This is a US study, and the racial aspect doesn't translate directly to Canada. But the fact that the minimum wage hurts the most vulnerable certainly does.
The woke mob doesn't forgive, but God does
Malcolm Gladwell became one of the first big names to admit peer pressure cowed him into saying guys in dresses should be able to compete against women. His admission – both to being cowed, and owning up to it now – are remarkable in a culture in which forgiveness is in low supply.
A whole list of reasons to consider marrying younger
Tim Challies with a bunch of benefits that come with marrying younger.
On marital nakedness
What the world cheapens, God's people can enjoy as He intended.
Nick Fuentes: a name your kids may know (15 min).
Nick Fuentes is big in the US, and probably leaking across the border, so if your kids don't know about him yet, they may soon. Whether or not you've heard of him, there's a reason to watch this video – Fuentes' rise is an object lesson in how taking a strong stand against what's wrong can be both attractive and still really, really evil. Too many think we can find the the truth simply by pushing back against the lies of the Left. But that forgets that there is another side of the horse to fall off of. So, for example, feminists who say motherhood is slavery are calling good evil, but when Fuentes hits back at feminists by degrading women, he's just turning his followers in a different evil direction. So Truth isn't found by rejecting error but by turning towards Christ.
While Fuentes says he is Christian, he wears his "faith" like an outfit, to be put on or taken off whenever it suits. Maybe we can use this video with our kids to show how being loud while professing "Lord, Lord" (Matt. 7:21-23) can be a very different thing than being bold in our submission to the LORD (Matt. 10:32-33).
The one concern I'll offer with the video below, is that it includes, near the end, depictions of Christ as He has been portrayed by actors through the years, including some quite bloody, graphic portrayals.. I'd have loved if they'd steered clear of visually depicting Jesus (my concern is the 2nd Commandment), but share this anyways because of the insight offered.
Today's Devotional
November 15 - Children, youth, what is worth striving after?
“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.” - Philippians 3:14-15
Scripture reading: Proverbs 4:1-9
The worst thing in life might be this: to achieve your goal of amassing money, >
Today's Manna Podcast
Christ sold out; the treachery
Serving #1027 of Manna, prepared by P. Holtvluwer, is called "Christ sold out; the treachery".
