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Saturday Selections – April 5, 2025

Click on the titles to go to the linked articles.

Broken Window Fallacy explains what government gets wrong

Politicians can always point to the results of their spending. But what we don't see is what would have happened with that same money if they hadn't taken it from businesses and families and individuals in the first place. The jobs we would have created are unseen, because those jobs didn't happen – the government didn't let them happen.

So any time a government brags about creating jobs, it's akin to a company bragging about its revenue while refusing to account for its costs (Prov. 18:17).

Beast Games: family fun or mammon worship?

A bit of a late warning, but if you haven't already checked it out, here's why you shouldn't bother.

How murderous are you when even the UN says, "Whoah now, that's enough"?

Canada has murdered its millions – nearly 100,000 unborn babies a year for decades now – and that's nothing compared to what the United Nations (UN) is responsible for due to their own promotion of abortion worldwide. But when it comes to euthanasia, even the UN is shocked at what Canada has been up to, in looking to expand it to the mentally ill too.

Trump goes 0 for 3 on trade knowledge

The Fraser Institute with one way Trump's tariff rhetoric contradicts itself, and a couple ways that his tariffs will hurt not just Canada, but the US too.

The government is handing out more money to the media

...but why aren't we hearing about it? Maybe it's because we know that typically he who pays the piper calls the tune – this is media being bought and paid for. That's why The Hub is donating the $22,000 they've received so far to charity.

(And no, Reformed Perspective wasn't sent any of this cash.)

Defending the unborn as Christians (10 min)

What does it look like to defend the unborn as an unabashed, God-glorifying Christian? It means starting with God, and then stacking the science, the logic, the biological reality, all atop that firm foundation of our Lord.

Jeff Durbin shows us how it is done.

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Saturday Selections – Mar. 1, 2025

Why we can't focus (12 min) This fellow is worried that moving from a text-based culture to a video-based one is leaving us all stupider – "we are amusing ourselves to death." He's not trying to make a Christian point, but as "people of the Word," we know there is a pressing need for us to not only be able to read, but be able to concentrate on a passage long enough to understand it. Tariffs – an entrepreneur’s perspective What should you do when your neighbor gives you lemons? Christian businessman (and CHPer) Dave Bylsma encourages us to start thinking lemonade – explore the opportunities, rather than fixate on a problem that we really can't do anything about. The biblical basis for such an opportunity-mindset is the assurance "that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). We didn't seek this hardship, but God is acting on us, and could be acting through us if we rise to this challenge. "The harm is staggering..." Jonathan Haidt on how smartphones and social media are fuelling the youth mental health crisis. He shares their four harms. Could this be the year’s most ridiculous idea about how life originated? Life may have started in space? They found some amino acids on the Bennu asteroid (at a cost of nearly $1 billion) so, the speculation has begun. Count the could haves and other fudge words in the paragraph below and ask yourself, if the prospect is so unlikely, why is this even getting covered? Well, because this level of rampant speculation is among the best prospects they have... "If a vast swarm of briny little worlds produced biological precursors, it could have mixed them together as they crashed into one another. The heat of the impacts could have fueled more chemistry, giving rise to even more complex molecules in their interiors, and perhaps even living cells. 'Could life have started there?' Dr. Rennó asked. 'I’m open to it. I like crazy ideas.'” Resisting gender ideology indoctrination in Canada’s public schools "Imagine that a religious cult had mysteriously swayed Canada’s schools to teach children that they are spirit-beings trapped in their physical bodies as some kind of curse. Imagine further that special staff were dedicated to ensuring schools were 'safe spaces' for kids to discover their true spirit-selves. Imagine special 'student clubs' to guide students in this self-discovery, with help from zealous adult believers from outside the school. Imagine students adopting new cultic names for themselves at school, which everyone else was required to use. And imagine at last schools keeping their kids’ new cultic identities secret from parents because 'children don’t need parents’ permission to be who they are,' to paraphrase Justin Trudeau. "I think Canadians would be appalled at this. And many would intuit that there was something legally suspect about it. But swap in 'gender identity' and this is what’s happening in Canada. A quasi-religious gender ideology is permeating our public schools, and most Canadian families have no opt-out..." Voddie Baucham's thoughts on voting as a Christian He's speaking in the context of the US, but there is crossover... ...

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Tariffs as a dressing down: if it is about drugs we should listen

With a lot of bluster and bravado, President Trump has made good on campaign promises to impose trade tariffs limiting other countries’ access to the prized American market, especially if these trading partners are reluctant to go along with concessions and demands from the new U.S. administration. Canada has experienced the uncertainty of these tariff threats, causing unsettlement for businesses on both sides of the border, and raising ill feelings among Canadians towards their southern neighbor. Economists almost unanimously agree that tariffs are ultimately harmful for the overall market: certain domestic industries can benefit from these financial penalties on their international competition, but the resulting prices will hurt domestic companies that use these imports to make their goods. And eventually the consumers who pay for finished goods will see these new increased costs included in the price they pay. Christian economist David Bahnsen recently wrote that Trump’s key economic officials agree that tariffs are harmful: “I believe Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is essentially a free trader who knows in his heart and mind that tariffs are a cost on the U.S. economy paid by U.S. importers, and ultimately, consumers. I believe NEC chair Kevin Hassett knows this. I believe CEA chair Stephen Miran knows this.” If tariffs cause economic harm all around, why is the U.S. President insisting that he will impose them? It all seems to be based on extracting action, not promises, from trading partners that the U.S. has deemed to not be living up to their commitments. U.S. officials allege that Canada is too lax on border security, allowing aliens to enter the U.S. from Canada: “ is not confined to the southern border – encounters at the northern border with Canada are rising as well.” Trump’s team has stated that Canada is not doing enough to capture smugglers bringing fentanyl into the U.S. “There is… a growing presence of Mexican cartels operating fentanyl and nitazene synthesis labs in Canada,” stated a White House fact sheet. I spoke recently off the record with several U.S. border patrol employees in Washington State who indicated that fentanyl coming into the U.S. from Canada is indeed becoming a bigger problem. The Trudeau government responded to the tariff threats by promising to beef up border security and appointing a fentanyl czar, resulting in a delay, but not cancellation of the tariffs. At the time of this writing, the tariffs are still scheduled to come into effect in the beginning of March. Canadians as a whole have been offended by this aggressive talk from our normally friendly neighbor to the south: the U.S. anthem was booed at sporting events, and some consumers have threatened boycotts of American-made products. How should Christians view these developments? It is good to recognize that every government has the duty to protect its citizens and defend its borders: while Canadians may not agree with President Trump’s assessment of dangers coming from “up north,” we should recognize that as chief executive of his country, he has the right to ask for increased cooperation in fulfilling this essential task of protecting his country’s citizens. In Luke 14, the Lord Jesus illustrates negotiation between sovereigns in this way: “…What king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand. And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.” While citizens might not appreciate the heavy-handedness of demands brought by a nation we consider our friend and ally, our government should respond positively to reasonable requests, especially if they are intended to increase law and order, and stop criminal behavior that is harmful on both sides of the 49th parallel....

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Saturday Selections – Feb. 22, 2025

My pretty pink tractor Tim Hawkins on a problem that I'm sure has happened to many a farmer. Mark Carney - the man who would be prime minister REAL Women of Canada have put together this thorough backgrounder on the candidate who seems most likely to win the Liberal Party leadership race. While this lobby group isn't offering an explicitly Christian perspective, that's their general, implicit worldview. You are more than your brain Materialists – those who say all we are is what we are made of – would say who you are is housed in your brain. All you are, is found somewhere in there. Except it isn't. Neurosurgeon Wilder "Penfield could find no part of the brain that, when stimulated, caused patients to think abstractly — to reason, think logically, do mathematics or philosophy or exercise free will." This isn't an article about the soul, but it sort of is. 10 questions to ask when evaluating a Christian college While you could direct these at the admissions department, it'd be even better to ask them to a recent alumni. As the author notes, college publications really put a spin on things, such that you can almost read in the worldview you are looking for. But when they are having a speaker tackle the topic of gender, is it really clear from the materials what he'll be saying, or are you making some generous assumptions? You really may need to ask someone who was there. (Not all the questions are gold, but I found 8 out of 10 really useful.) Greenland used to be green land President Trump's aspirations for this frozen, mostly unpopulated island have kept it much in the news as of late. But its real news value comes from recently reported findings that could calm climate hysteria. Turns out that Greenland was once green, which means the Earth must have been a lot warmer in the past – 14 degrees warmer, according to these guys. That said, the dates for this latest discovery are way outside of the timescale the Bible reveals – this is supposed to be a look back at between 250,000 and a million years ago – so that's messed up. But for secularists who abide with millions of years, they have some explaining to do as to why 3 degrees warmer would end the Earth today, but 14 degrees warmer didn't do so back whenever. And for Christians, we can stand on God's promise in Gen. 8:22 that the end the climate cataclysmists are predicting simply will not come: "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” 70 million people have seen The Butterfly Circus In this short 20-minute film, a limbless man (played by Christian apologist Nick Vujicic) is forced to get by as a circus sideshow. But that changes when he is recognized as beautiful by a rival circus owner, and welcomed to stay with this "Butterfly Circus." This is a PG film, in part because the backstory of one character involves prostitution (nothing sexual is shown – we just see her pregnant and being shown the brothel door). The other reason parents are needed is because of how the film could be misinterpreted by children. Young viewers (and old ones too) need to remember that the Butterfly Circus owner recognized the limbless man as beautiful at the start of the film. To say it another way, it wasn't anything the limbless man did, or potentially could do, that made him beautiful. We are all called to develop whatever talents God has given us, but it's not our abilities that give us value or make us beautiful. Our beauty and our worth come from God's valuation of us – what He esteems is valuable indeed! ...

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Saturday Selections – Feb. 15, 2025

Charles Darwin's birthday was Feb. 12, so for this edition we are marking that event by featuring a collection of very different rebuttals. Click on the titles for the linked articles. Your cells are constantly being recycled and repaired... even as they keep running Every day your DNA experiences 10,000 lost letters of code in every single cell of your body. Your body is like a library of information... that's constantly on fire. As fast as the environment burns down your DNA, a host of DNA "librarians" in your cells builds back what was being burnt down. That means that, right from the beginning, our DNA needed these repair mechanisms. But these mechanisms need all sorts of DNA to be formed. It's a chicken and egg dilemma – which came first? Both need to have been in place from the beginning, and couldn't have evolved one at a time. Better science without Darwin When you presume that all the life around us came about by random mutation, acting without design or purpose, then you're not liable to look to Nature for brilliant design. And devotion to Darwin might have you falling for all sorts of mistakes, like believing that much of our DNA is just junk left over from our previous evolutionary incarnations. Or you'd be liable to look for and try to point out flaws in our design. But you'd be wrong. What if, instead of looking to Nature for bad design, scientists starting looking to it for Inspired design? That's what the field of biometrics is all about – looking to Nature for inspiration, because of the brilliant engineering on display. Evolution can't explain why we blush Does blushing make you fitter? Nope. In fact, an argument could be made that this honest unconscious reaction might put someone at a disadvantage. That's why Darwin was perturbed by it, because even blushing exposes the insufficiency of his evolutionary theory. The astonishing self-organizing human embryo You start as a single cell that then subdivides into all sorts of other different types of cells. But how does the one decide to become all the others? "...how exactly does an organism without any central control self-organize?" The more we learn, the more apparent it is, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. The Darwin devotion detector Some years back author and scientist William A. Dembski crafted a test that paired statements – one devoted to Darwin, the other not – that could be used by a person to gauge how devoted or not they might be to Darwin. I think this 40-question test could be used by Christians in university to confront classmates willing to listen (interested opposition, not fingers-in-their-ears fools) to expose to them their blind devotion to Darwin, and how it isn't anything to do with science. Here's one pairing, as an example, with the first showing Darwin devotion, and the second lining up better with reality. Darwin’s theory of evolution is as well supported scientifically as Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Putting Darwin’s theory of evolution in the same league as Einstein’s theory of general relativity is an affront to the exact sciences. The age of the arches As the article above notes, Arches National Park has about 2,000 natural rock arches, with roughly one collapsing each year and none forming. So, unless there were  millions of arches to start, that makes it seem that these are not the millions of years old they are purported to be. And the article below highlights how they were not formed as they were purported to be either. ...

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Saturday Selections – Feb. 8, 2025

Monarch butterflies are freaky cool  (7 min) We know that caterpillars become butterflies – two creatures in one! – but did you know that Monarch butterflies themselves have two entirely different life spans? One generation lives just weeks, and the next will live months, long enough for them to make the journey from Canada to Mexico, a route they have never traveled before. That's three creatures in one! Who will you believe about spanking? Big-name psychological groups say spanking is harmful. But that says more about them than about spanking. Sooner or later, babies will be too precious to abort More people die from abortion than all other causes of death combined – abortion may have accounted for 52 percent of all deaths in 2021. Michael Cook thinks the consequences of this slaughter will be such that shrinking nations will have to turn their backs on abortion... or disappear. "Devil with a bluegrass, bluegrass, bluegrass, devil with a bluegrass thumb" Being able to laugh at yourself is grace indeed! Origin-of-life challenge: $10 million, just lying around (10-minute read) Since 2019, a $10 million prize has been available for anyone who can produce “a purely chemical process that will generate, transmit and receive a simple code.” This is a key tenet of evolution – that unguided processes can create and transmit information – and evolutionists have not been able to put up... so we should rightly regard them as having been shut up. Tariffs: why Canada shouldn't hit back  Free trade – free of barriers and restrictions – has, traditionally, been pretty exclusive to the Right side of the political spectrum. But now, with President Trump threatening tariffs on Canada and Mexico, we're even hearing the Left talk about the harms that tariffs could cause. And not just to Canada and Mexico, but to American consumers too. As the far-left stalwart Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (aka AOC) noted on X, "Remember: *WE* pay the tariffs....Trump is all about making inflation WORSE for working class Americans, not better." But what is she talking about when she says Americans pay the tariffs it charges? Think of it this way. Imagine two towns located right next to each other – Town A and Town B – and each has a car mechanic. These mechanics are full-service: they go right to your house to do the repairs. The only difference between the two is that the car mechanic in Town A – let's call him Arnold – is way cheaper, so not only do all the folks in Town A use Arnold, so do most of the folks in Town B. That, understandably, makes the mechanic in town B – we'll him Bill – quite unhappy, as it really hurts his business. So Bill demands that his town put in a tariff of sorts. He wants a 25% surcharge on any "out of town" car mechanics. He argues that this surcharge will be incredibly beneficial – applying it to Arnold for the work he does in Town B will help fund Town B's government. It will also help protect Town B's homegrown car repair businesses - Bill's – by making his prices seem more competitive. And, Bill notes, if he gets more business, the government will benefit from the taxes he'll pay. Bill pitches his tariff/surcharge as a win/win all the way around. But Bill is forgetting someone – several someones, in fact. The surcharge will make Arnold's prices higher. Any Town B clients who do continue to use him will now be paying 25% more. And any clients he loses to Bill will be impacted too, having to pay Bill's higher prices for their car repairs, taking a bigger chunk out of their household budget than ever before. In other words, Bill is staying in business at the expense of the car repair consumers in his own town. That's not win/win at all – that's a win for Bill, at the cost of everyone else in town. This is what AOC meant when she said that Americans will pay the tariffs they charge. Canada rightly fears American tariffs on the energy and goods they produce. Those tariffs could hurt our producers badly. But hitting back at American tariffs with our own tariffs on US goods is only going to compound the pain. It might benefit some of our producers – whoever makes the goods that compete with imported American goods – but that benefit will come at the expense of Canadian consumers overall by making them pay more. Just like Town B's car repair "tariff" hurt Town B's citizens. Is there an explicitly biblical perspective to be brought here? Well, what about Leviticus 19:15? “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly." God equates justice and impartiality, which prompts a question: should a government take actions that benefit some of its citizens – some producers – at the expense of other citizens, the consumers and producers who use those goods? Isn't that partiality? God also speaks to this in his Golden Rule (Matt. 7:12). "Do unto others as you would like done unto you," applied to the economic realm would mean that car mechanic Bill wouldn't argue for his surcharge because he wouldn't want that same surcharge applied to everything he buys. If Town A has cheap car parts, or groceries, or gasoline, he'd love to be able to benefit. That fact is, tariffs always hurt consumers, so no matter what the US does, let's not let tariffs beget more tariffs. Instead of putting up trade barriers, there are interprovincial barriers we could greatly benefit from taking down, as Pierre Poilievre explains below. ...

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Canadian economy stank it up under Trudeau

With the Justin Trudeau era (almost) over, it’s time to assess his record. In a January 9 article posted to The Hub, Lakehead University’s Professor of Economics Livio Di Matteo compared current Canadian economic conditions with 2015, when Trudeau was elected as Prime Minister with a majority government. Di Matteo’s conclusion? The Canadian economy is in much worse shape now than a decade ago, especially in six key areas: GDP, job growth, interest and inflation rates, and the federal deficit and debt. Canadian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person grew more slowly than other capitalist countries. For comparison purposes the figures that follow are in US dollars. In 2015, Canadians produced about $43,600 per person, compared to $57,000 for the Americans. We were producing approximately 76% of what they were producing, by this economic measure. As of 2023, the World Bank Group has Canada at just above $53,400, or almost $10,000 more than eight years ago. But over those same eight years the US per person GDP has grown to $82,800, an increase for them of about $25,000. So instead of producing 76% of what Americans do, we’re now at about 65% of our largest trading partner’s productivity. On the jobs front, an almost identical percentage of Canadians were unemployed in 2015 and as of November 2024 – just under 7%. However, this statistic conceals that a larger slice of the population is working in the public sector than ever before: 21.1% as of 2023, versus 19.7% in 2015. Interest rates in Canada have increased from very low in 2015, when the Bank of Canada rate hovered just below 1%, to around 3.5% at the end of 2024. Higher interest rates contribute to slow business growth, and an increased cost of living especially for people looking to buy a home. Inflation rates have recently eased from a high of nearly 7% in 2022, to just under 2% in 2024. However, Di Matteo points out that “from 2015 to 2024, the All-Items Consumer Price Index grew by 26 percent.” This Index is another inflation measure based on the rising cost month by month, year by year, of a basket of goods and services. That 26 percent is a far cry from the slow growth of the economy overall. According to the Trudeau government’s own account, they spent $63.1 billion more than they collected in revenue in the fiscal year ending March 31 of 2024. As Professor Di Matteo shares, “over the terms of the Trudeau government, the net federal debt has nearly doubled rising from $701 billion to $1.35 trillion.” Di Matteo reminds readers that when you borrow, you must also repay: the cost of servicing Canada’s national debt is increasing at an alarming rate. “Debt charges are expected to reach $53.7 billion in 2024-2025, or about 10 per cent of federal spending.” Solomon alerts us in Proverbs 14:23 that “in all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” We pray that future Canadian leaders will be better stewards of the great resources that God has given us. Picture credit: paparazzza / Shutterstock.com...

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Blind guides can’t suppress Dutch MP sharing truth about the unborn

Early this year, a Dutch politician managed to vividly illustrate the horrors of abortion, despite the efforts of the opposition to shut him down. Presenting at a January 15 meeting to fellow members of a committee on medical ethics, Member of Parliament Gideon van Meijeren brought along a model of a 22-week-old baby to show the reality of who a doctor is killing, and how children of that age can feel pain as they are brutally murdered. As Jonathon Van Maren reported in his piece on TheBridgehead.ca “Dutch MP silenced for exposing reality of abortion releases powerful pro-life video,” when Van Meijeren brought the model out to accompany his remarks, committee chair Mohammed Mohandis immediately objected. The chair would not allow the doll to be shown, even instructing that the live feed of the meeting be turned off. A neighboring committee member actually grabbed the plastic model in an attempt to put it out of sight as the meeting continued. Van Meijeren objected to the decision of the chairman, reminding his colleagues that illustrations and objects have often been used in Parliament, and that his freedom of expression was being curtailed, but Mohandis would not change his mind. Rather than continue without visual aids, Van Meijeren left the meeting. But that wasn’t the end of it. A little later, he released a powerful video, and in a wonderful twist it has been seen by almost 100,000 so far, which is many more than would have seen the committee meeting. There he further explained how terrible it is that the Netherlands allows abortions all the way up till 24 weeks gestation, well past the time frame that children are perfectly formed, and can feel pain. Speaking in Dutch, he said: “It is not new to me that other members of Parliament would like to close their eyes to reality, but that there is such a panicky reaction to the showing of an anatomical model of a 22-week-old fetus, yes, that is quite telling, because the model itself is, of course, not shocking at all. No, what is shocking is that these babies are killed on a daily basis in the Netherlands. That is why this may not be seen.” The young politician went on to describe the horrific manner in which older babies like these are killed through the indiscriminate ripping off of limbs and body parts inside the womb. By nature, we want to deny the realities of our sinfulness: Adam and Eve hid from the Lord in the Garden after their rebellion; David was blind to his own murder of Uriah until the prophet Nathan confronted him. When our political leaders deny citizens access to the truth by suppressing free speech and covering up atrocities, they have become like the “blind guides” that Jesus condemned in Matthew 15: “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone, they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit” (Matt. 15:13-14). Picture credit is a screenshot from the MP’s viral video. If you know Dutch, check out his video below. ...

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Trudeau resigned and Parliament prorogued – now what?

“I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister… This country deserves a real choice in the next election and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election.” – Justin Trudeau, Jan. 6, 2025 With those words, Trudeau announced that his time as prime minister will soon come to a close. But his resignation, his announcement that Parliament is prorogued, and uncertainty around upcoming confidence votes in Parliament have sparked all sorts of changes. Some are good. Some are bad. And some are simply opportunities for Reformed Christians to take action. Historical moment Justin Trudeau’s resignation is the eleventh time in 158 years of Canadian history that a prime minister has resigned in office. John Abbott (1892), Robert Borden (1920), and William Lyon Mackenzie King (1948) all resigned because of poor personal health. John A. Macdonald (1873), Mackenzie Bowell (1896), William Lyon Mackenzie King (1926), Lester Pearson (1968), Pierre Trudeau (1984), Brian Mulroney (1993), and Jean Chrétien (2003) all resigned mid-term in the face of political turmoil or scandal. So, a prime minister resigning instead of losing an election is hardly unprecedented. Because of the Prime Minister’s resignation, the Liberal party will select a new leader who will then become Canada’s 24th prime minister. When Parliament reconvenes on March 24, the new prime minister will outline his or her priorities, subject to a confidence motion. What is unprecedented is how short Trudeau’s successor’s time in office could be. To date, Sir Charles Tupper was Canada’s shortest-tenured prime minister, serving only 68 days. Justin Trudeau’s replacement will be selected on March 9 and Parliament returns on March 24. If the Liberal government loses a confidence vote soon after Parliament reconvenes, the new prime minister might also be the prime minister with the shortest term in office. Trudeau’s resignation so close to a potential election is not too dissimilar from Joe Biden’s recent decision to drop out of the presidential race so close to the American presidential election. Effects of prorogation If the Prime Minister had chosen to dissolve Parliament, parliamentary business would have been terminated and a general election would ensue. Prorogation, on the other hand, gives no indication regarding the timeline of the next election. However, the minority Liberal government will need the support of at least one other party following prorogation to be able to govern. The main effect of prorogation is to end the current session of Parliament – there can, at least in theory, be multiple sessions for each elected Parliament, but to this point there had just been one session going on since the 2021 election. But the effect of this prorogation is that bills that have not yet become law are now terminated, committees cannot proceed, and members of parliament are released from their parliamentary duties until the new session. The final effect is that, instead of reconvening on January 27 as planned (and likely facing a non-confidence vote that could force an election), Parliament won’t meet again until March 24. Prorogation of Parliament is a little more common than prime ministerial resignations. I was somewhat surprised that Parliament has been prorogued nine times in my lifetime (versus only one other prime ministerial resignation). But what makes this occasion more unique is its connection to the Prime Minister’s upcoming resignation. Government bills All government bills that have not received Royal Assent are terminated by prorogation, and in some cases, this is excellent news. For example, Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, was filled with bad policy ideas, particularly around hate speech and hate crime. Such hate speech provisions would be potentially problematic for Christians who seek to speak truth about various controversial issues in our society. Free speech has already been under attack through conversion therapy laws that ban talking about biblical truths on gender and sexuality in some settings, or bubble zone laws that prevent pro-life expression in designated areas. The Online Harms Act would have made Canada’s free speech climate worse. But because Parliament is prorogued, Bill C-63 is now dead. If the government, in a new session, wishes to move forward with this legislation, they will need to start the law-making process all over again and re-introduce it for another first, second, and third reading, all of which take time. Late in 2024, the government also said it would introduce legislation to require pregnancy care centres to publicly disclose that they do not provide or assist with abortions. These organizations could also risk losing charitable status. The House of Commons Finance Committee also recommended that the government strip religious organizations of their charitable status broadly. The government had not yet introduced any bills regarding charitable status, and prorogation means it will be delayed in doing so. In a Parliamentary session that passed laws including conversion therapy bans, increased regulation of what people say online, and universal child care, we can be thankful that laws around hate speech and charitable status have been (at least temporarily) stopped before advancing further. Private members’ bills Unlike government bills, private members’ bills introduced in the House of Commons are not automatically terminated by prorogation. Instead, when Parliament resumes, they are automatically deemed to have passed all stages previously completed. Four bills in particular stand out as ones we would love to see proceed when Parliament resumes. These bills deal with issues of protecting minors from pornography, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking, and protecting political expression. Each of these bills could be reinstated immediately following prorogation. For example, Bill C-270, the Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation Act, is focused on combatting illegal pornography and would require pornography companies to verify the age and consent of those depicted. The bill has already completed consideration in committee and might be reinstated past that stage. On the flip side, other private members’ bills, focused on allowing advance requests for euthanasia and on banning corporal discipline in Canada, might also be reinstated. Private members’ bills introduced by Senators, however, cannot be automatically carried over into the new session. Only through a special process can these bills be reinstated at their previous stage. Bill S-210, for example, would have required pornography companies to verify the age of potential viewers on their sites. However, the bill had one stage left before receiving Royal Assent and will be terminated in a new session. The bill was introduced over three years ago, and it is difficult to see such an important bill terminated so close to the end of the legislative process. Political uncertainty Of course, if Canada does go to an election shortly after Parliament resumes, none of these bills will advance anyways. It seems unlikely that the government will be able to pass any bills, given the stated intentions of other parties to defeat the government in a non-confidence vote. The Conservatives, Bloc Québécois, and NDP have all said they will vote for a motion of non-confidence against the government at the next possible opportunity and force an election. So, unless the new prime minister can convince one of these political parties to prop up the Liberal minority government, we will likely have a federal election sometime this spring. Looking ahead While political change includes uncertainty about the future, it also allows for new opportunities – opportunities to influence a new prime minister, to communicate with candidates prior to the next election, and to elect MPs who are committed to good policies. A new government also means new priorities and new agendas. Political change creates new avenues to witness to God’s truth and show how that truth also applies in the political arena. Groen van Prinsterer, the 19th-century Dutch historian and statesman, wrote prior to a period of political revival that: “Even in unfavorable circumstances, however, one can witness to the truth; and this continuous witness itself is already a real application and a powerful practice.” And we know that, in whatever political circumstances we find ourselves, Christ is on His throne, sovereign over all that is happening in our nation right now. And as Canadian Christians advocate for biblical principles in public policy, we pray with the Psalmist Moses: “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” (Ps. 90:17)...

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Charitable status of churches and religious charities threatened

While the country’s attention was focused on the conflict within the Liberal Party and the threat of new tariffs from south of the border, the Finance Committee tabled a report in the House of Commons with their recommendations for the next budget. Among 462 recommendations, one called on the government to drop “advancement of religion” as a basis for charitable status. If adopted in the next federal budget, this would threaten over 30,000 charities, making up over 40 percent of all Canadian charities. This includes an estimated 23,000 congregations, as well as many Christian non-profits. Losing charitable status would mean that churches and religious charities wouldn't be able to give charitable tax receipts for donations, or accept donations from foundations and other charities. In a call to action for its members, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) noted that this is also significant because “it indicates that members of the committee, from all the major political parties, supported the idea.” They explained that although the Conservative Party wrote a dissenting opinion on the report, they didn’t specifically mention opposition to this recommendation. In their own letter to the Minister of Finance, the EFC made a passionate case for retaining charitable status based on the advancement of religion. “Religious charities foster vibrant social networks, mobilize outreach, spark local volunteerism, and foster community resiliency,” they explained. “More and more Canadians are grappling with loneliness and social isolation. Polarization and lack of social cohesion are increasing concerns. This is a time to encourage the presence and participation of religious charities, which foster hope, mutual support and belonging, rather than taking steps to destabilize them.” ARPA Canada noted that: “In some ways, the favorable tax treatment of religious organizations is also a recognition of sphere sovereignty. It represents respect and appreciation by the civil government for the mission and work of the church and other institutions, to disciple people in the way of God and to minister to the poor and needy.” The EFC explained that “committee recommendations can function as a trial balloon. If a recommendation seems widely supported, or at least not opposed, it may encourage the government to move ahead with it.” While it looks likely we’re heading for an election, Christians still need to contact their MPs on this now, in case the Liberal government should survive long enough to present a budget this spring. And regardless of whether this recommendation is adopted this spring, it should serve as a wake-up call to Christians that we live in a political climate that has shifted from supportive towards faith-based organizations, to lukewarm, and now even hostile at times. This underscores the importance of churches taking the time to build a relationship of mutual trust and respect with their government officials, regardless of which party they are from....

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 11, 2025

Music as the fingerprints of God (6 min) George Steiner here is lecturing on the wonder of music and is not trying to argue that music points us to God. But he does believe it points us beyond materialism – our response to music shows that we are more than what we are made of. " speaks to us that there is something else which, paradoxically, belongs to us profoundly but somehow touches on a universal meaning and possibility that we are not only an electrochemical and neuro-physiological assemblage; that there is more in consciousness than electronic wiring." Evolution can't explain eggs This is a bit of a technical one, but even if you get only the gist, you'll understand just how amazing the seemingly simplest things around us really are. It's only because we take God's engineering for granted that we can overlook the wonder that is an egg shell. Evolution has to explain how they could come to be in some step-by-step evolutionary process? As if. Trudeau is gone, so who is going to replace him? The Liberals are about to run a leadership campaign, but have this worry: "One of the key concerns that is out there is that the party could be prone to something approaching a takeover, or could be prone to a lot of people who don't give a hoot about the Liberal party who might be termed single-interest activists signing up and having a very real impact on the selection of our next leader." Is anyone plotting a pro-life takeover? Should we be? Abortion was the leading cause of death worldwide in 2024. And it wasn't even close. 45 million unborn babies were aborted last year – so relayed Jonathon Van Maren. That number is more than the population of all of Canada. In the US abortion accounts for 60% of all African American deaths. To put this number in a different context, COVID killed approximately 7 million in total over 4 years and in response we shut down the world. Six times more die each year from abortion and no notice is paid. Who will stand up for the unborn? Will you? Will any politician? Will you vote for a politician who won't? The danger of being a sermon critic As Tim Challies explains, if you focus on what you think should have been there, you run the risk of missing the fruit that is there. Amazing information packed inside you (12 min) This video makes the point your DNA coding is more incredible than even the most complicated computer code, but it also kind of reduces us to just that information.... as if we could make a human if we only managed this same level of programming. So, as you watch, recall that we are more than our matter, being both body and an immaterial, eternal soul.  ...

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 4, 2025

"Are you Christian?" (3 min) In this "sermon jam" Paul Washer challenges his listeners to really examine their lives. Why Christians should be the most pessimistic and least pessimistic people on Earth One thing that sets Christianity apart from Islam and every other religion on earth is that it is entirely pessimistic about Man's ability to please God. But Christians shouldn't be pessimistic about the state of the world. Yes, there are troubles, but God hasn't let us fall into utter depravity and He also continues to shower blessings on an undeserving world such that here in the West we are richer than people 100 years ago could have ever imagined. So why then, does it always seem to us why this past year was a doozy, and this upcoming election is always the one that matters most? Turns out there are "7 laws of pessimism" – this is an entirely secular take, but one that Christians can read to take warning of how the temptation of ingratitude can so easily and sneakily come our way. The myth of sexual experience The world says it's important for dating couples to test their “sexual compatibility" before they consider marrying. But the data says God's ways are best – couples who were sexually inexperienced before marrying are more than twice as likely to be "very satisfied" compared with couples who were highly experienced. Courage: the virtue that enables all others If you were tempted, like me, to nitpick this title, then consider this question: is Love, without the courage to speak needed truth to a loved one who doesn't want to hear it, really love? Or is it courage, that enables true love? In this article and accompanying podcast, Jonathon Van Maren speaks to a particularly courageous woman, and new Christian, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Two collections of Bible reading plans It's a new year, and, like many of you, that means I'm renewing my resolution to read through the Bible. And I'm looking to some good advice to: Pick a partner to read it with, to build up the positive peer pressure Don't sweat it if I miss a day... or a week – just continue on with that day's reading rather than trying to catch up. Engage with what I read – the point is to know God better, not mark ticks down. Nancy Pearcey on biblical masculinity and the Cultural Mandate Nancey Pearcey, author of The Toxic War on Masculinity, points to some pop culture ideas of what a man should be like – self-sufficient, isolationist, independent – and contrasts that with what the Bible says. ...

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